The most-read thing I've ever put on the Internet was my Christmasy Mel Tormé anecdote. The recent Larry Hagman tale may eventually top it but the Tormé piece is much-linked…and also stolen. I've seen at least a dozen websites just copy the whole thing and post it with no credit or link to me. A couple of sites — including a blog run by someone who claims to be an intellectual property lawyer — did that with the Hagman essay, too.
Anyway, here is a link to the Mel Tormé story. It's also brought me a lot of mail including separate messages from two of his five children, one of whom remembered him telling them about the incident. I liked those messages a lot.
Oh — in case you haven't figured it out, the above photo is a recent one I took at the scene where the story took place — Farmers Market. The table in the foreground is roughly in the position where I recall the one at which Mr. Tormé was seated.