My personal encounter with Joan Rivers
While I sometimes thought that Joan Rivers' humor could be cruel, it's impossible to deny the enormous impact she had on opportunities for female comedians. She was a trailblazer and a force unto herself.
She was also physically TINY! When I first started working in Manhattan around 1998, our office was at 1440 Broadway, right in the middle of Times Square. Joan's office was in the same building. One winter day, I was rounding the (blind) corner coming out of the elevator just as she was approaching from the other direction. We avoided a direct collision by stopping short. It was comical in its speed and abruptness, and we were barely two inches apart. She was wearing a full-length mink and dripping in gold. Now, I'm a reasonably tall woman at 5'8", but she barely reached my chest-level. She looked up at me (a good foot) and growled. Growled. It was clear that if we had collided, I'd have knocked her on her ass. She probably would have sued.