Checking Out
by Allen Swift

"Why is it that a man can live a happy life and ruin it all by dying?" So says Morris Applebaum who wants to get it over with fast, not slowly.

He's a vigorous octogenarian, former star of the Yiddish stage and a devil with the ladies.

Summoning his three middle aged children to his New York apartment, he's planning a real going away party.

His distraught and confused children include an unstrung West Coast psychiatrist, a blubbery accountant and a three time divorce ready for a fourth go round.

Add a hippie shrink, a fey black male nurse who would like to be Jewish and an enfeebled old pal to Morris' decision and you have the participants at this unique "party".

Jokes and gags abound on subjects often hard to make funny.