In the clouds....

[Tom Roche]

I've been thinking about the state of John's health towards the end. We know he was a strict vegetarian, but he was also diabetic. And diabetes significantly raises heart disease risks, as does excess weight. We know, or I know, that he had a tennis court and pool constructed at Peel acres (w/the toilet tissue commercial money.) But Shiela said he rarely used the court and never went in the pool.

A friend related to me today that he vacationed in Cuzco Peru a few years ago. He said it was the most high-altitude place he'd ever been to. He's originally from London. He said that when they got there he and his girlfriend, (in their late 20's) needed a full day of downtime just to get their strength back, strength sapped by the thin air.

A check of the encyclopedia says that Cuzco is 11,024 feet above sea level (3400 meters.) Ipswitch, by comparison, is 250 feet above sea level.

In the late 90's, I was working on a Cartoon Network show called Space Ghost. This was a talk show with a cartoon host and celebrity guests. As I had a London vacation coming up, they arranged to have me meet John at the CNN bureau off Tottenham Ct Rd to tape a one camera interview I would conduct. (He got paid $450, scale, and the interview has so far never been used.) The studio we used was four flights up, and the elevator was out. I was surprised how winded he was after just two flights. On the third landing he said in that genial half-joking tone of his," Tom if there is more than one flight to go the interview's off." We made it to the studio and once the red light came on he was just fine.

I hadn't really though about that till this week.



tom