Seinfeld Breaktime

The grinning visage you see on the left is none other than Kenny Kramer, a.k.a. "The Real Kramer". He was apparently the real-life next-door neighbor of Larry David (creator of Seinfeld) for six years and the man upon whom the character of Cosmo Kramer is based. There is an excellent biography of Kenny Kramer, who made his fortune even before Seinfled became popular by manufacturing a piece of electronic jewelry in the 70s, on his self-maintained "Real Kramer" homepage. You can also sign up for the Kramer Reality Tour (which was parodied on a Seinfeld episode in which Kramer takes unsuspecting New York tourists on the "Real Peterman" Tour after selling all his stories to the head of the J. Peterman catalogue company) on his homepage.

In a bit of unrelated news, Pat Morita (who played Mr. Miyagi in "The Karate Kid" movies) unfortunately passed away recently. There is an excellent article remembering these classic tales on The Sports Guy's column this week.