The life of Bob Newhart, who died this week at the age of 94, may remind us to see some of the glitter that can be cloaked in places that may seem like mere background.

He was working as an accountant in Chicago in the mid-1950’s, where, he used to insist, his motto was, “that’s close enough!” To relieve the tedium of cubicles and calculators, he and a friend began to concoct routines of telephone calls between historical figures.

When his friend left to take a job in New York, Newhart kept doing the phone bits, with just one side of the call.

Like say, Abraham Lincoln’s PR man telling the president, “The next time they bug you about Grant’s drinking, tell ‘em you’re gonna find out what brand he drinks and send a case of it to all your other generals … Trust me, Abe,” the PR man reassures a skeptical Lincoln. “It’s funny. Do it!”

Or the head of a 16th century British shipping company taking a call from Sir Walter Raleigh in the New World.

“Toe-bacco?” he asks “… Let me get this straight, now, Walt, you bought 80 tons of leaves? … You can chew it? Or put it in a pipe? Or … put it on a piece of paper, and roll it up … ”

The shipping exec has to stifle his laughter. And of course, we might now regret that there wasn’t more 16th century skepticism about rolling up tobacco leaves and smoking them.

Tapes of Newhart’s routines eventually made their way to a record company. The result was the 1960 comedy album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. The former accountant won the 1961 Album of the Year Grammy over his fellow nominees Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte and Frank Sinatra.

Newhart went on to have two hit sitcoms, in which he portrayed mild-seeming men, the first a Chicago psychologist, the second a Vermont innkeeper, trying to maneuver in a world of colorful characters. And of course there’s the role that introduced him to a new generation: Papa Elf in Elf.

In 2002, Newhart won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. On the stage of the Kennedy Center that night, he told a crowd in silk and sequins, “Standing here is a long way from the accounting department at the Glidden company.”

At least two people have died and dozens more have been hospitalized in connection with a listeria outbreak linked to meat sold at U.S. deli counters, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Twenty-eight people have been hospitalized in 12 states, the CDC said Friday.

But the federal health agency warned that the real number of cases is likely higher than what’s been reported because some people may have contracted milder cases that didn’t require serious medical treatment.

The largest confirmed outbreaks were in New York state, with seven cases, and Maryland, with six. The two people who died lived in Illinois and New Jersey.

The outbreak is tied to deli meat sold at counters

The CDC said investigators were still collecting details about what products may be contaminated. While it hadn’t yet collected enough information to issue any recalls, the agency said there were no reports of people getting sick after eating prepackaged deli meat.

Many people linked to the outbreak reported getting sick after eating sliced meats bought from various supermarkets and deli counters. The CDC advised people to avoid eating deli meats bought at delis unless heated before eating.

What is listeria?

Listeria is a foodborne bacterial illness that affects around 1,600 people in the U.S. every year, with about 260 deaths. It can lead to serious and sometimes fatal infections, especially in people who are pregnant, 65 and older, children, and people with weakened immune systems. Typical symptoms include fever, muscle aches and drowsiness.

This latest outbreak is the second to hit the U.S. this summer. In June, a Maryland-based food manufacturer was forced to recall multiple brands of ice cream products sold nationwide after the Food and Drug Administration reported they may have been contaminated with listeria.