Monday, April 07, 2008

Cheese

I always enjoyed the Monty Python skit entitled "The Cheese Shop." Basically, it consists of a customer (John Cleese) asking a cheese shop proprietor (Michael Palin) for cheese, but the proprietor does not have any cheese in stock. In fact, the customer asks the on-hand availability of over forty types of cheese (including Venezuelan beaver and cheddar), to all of which the proprietor responds, "No," except for a bit of confusion over "wensleydale," because that happens to be the proprietor's name, Mr. Wensleydale. (There is also a small group of business men in the front of the shop performing a traditional Greek dance while all this is occurring.)


My favorite exchange in the skit is when the customer claims that the cheese shop is not much of a cheese shop. The proprietor immediately protests that his cheese shop is the finest in the district. The customer asks what leads the proprietor "to that conclusion?" The proprietor says, "Well, it's so clean," and the customer replies, "Well, it's certainly uncontaminated by cheese."