Safe travels, Harold Ramis

Just about every movie I think worth rewatching these days came via the genius of Harold Ramis.

His movies “Groundhog Day,” “Ghostbusters,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and “Caddyshack” have resided in my home from VHS to DVD. All of them contain the language that, in our family, have become conversation completers. We’ve used these phrases over and over again in one context or another. For example:

Dr. Peter Venkman: Alice, I’m going to ask you a couple of standard questions, okay? Have you or any of your family been diagnosed schizophrenic? Mentally incompetent?

Librarian Alice: My uncle thought he was Saint Jerome.

Dr. Peter Venkman: I’d call that a big yes.

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Carl Spackler: [preparing to dynamite the gopher tunnel] In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, ‘Au revoir, gopher.’

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Richard Richards: Better come in till this blows over.

Bishop: What do you think, fella?

Carl Spackler: I’d keep playing. I don’t think the heavy stuff’s gonna come down for quite awhile.

Bishop: You’re right. Anyway, the Good Lord would never disrupt the best game of my life.

[THUNDER]

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Carl Spackler: This crowd has gone deadly silent, a Cinderella story outta nowhere. Former greenskeeper and now about to become the Masters champion.

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Rita: What should we drink to?

Phil: I’d like to say a prayer and drink to world peace.

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Ellen Griswold: I honestly don’t think you’re going to find the Grand Canyon on this road.

Clark Griswold: Jesus, it’s only the biggest damn hole in the world.

Aunt Edna: Clark, watch your language!

Clark: Make that the second biggest.

Harold Ramis passed to the next life today at the age of 69. I’ll bet he had a few more classics in him, but time doesn’t always allow what you want.

In the meanwhile, I’ll watch “Groundhog Day” again tonight (which I consider his most theological piece). When people ask will we ever see Harold Ramis in the next life, I’ll say “I’d call that a big yes.”

And then, I’ll add, we will greet each other like old friends:

Phil?

Ned?

Safe travels, Harold Ramis.