Betty Comden, lyricist of my favorite movie, has died at the age of 89. Mark Steyn has a lovely tribute on his website.

I put to [producer George] Abbott the points I made above [about the Comden-Green musical On the Town] – ordinary situation, ostensibly regular boy-meets-girl love song but dramatically enlarged by the great geopolitical conflict in which they were caught up, their romance now freighted with uncertainty, etc. Mister Abbott, at the age of 106, brushed this aside.

“We didn’t think about that,” he said. “We thought, ‘What’s funny?’”

When so much of entertainment has been corrupted and degraded, to leave a legacy of moments that are simply funny -- and sweet and romantic and sometimes just plain beautiful -- seems to me no bad thing. R.I.P.