Tuesday

Welcome to Fall!  Well, its not really Fall yet, but with the passing of Labor Day, the down hill slide to the shorter days is in full swing.  It was barely light at 0615 this AM, a full hour after the starting time for the early rides in June and July.  The forecast has the heat with us a couple more days, but the expected cool of September should be here by the end of the week.  I look forward to that.

The weekend with The Winniferous was uneventful on Maplecrest.  She adapts to my lifestyle pretty quickly, and makes no fuss at night (which was originally a concern).  Other than tweaking my schedule to make sure that she gets her necessary outside time, a few days with The W offers little hassle.

Speaking of one's fallibility, I see in the news that actor Michael Clarke Duncan passed away over the weekend.  Heart attack in July from which he never recovered.  Now, I never knew that this was the guy's name, but I certainly recalled several of his credits.  He was a big guy, and was always cast in roles that somehow put his physical appearance to good use.  They called him a "character" actor, which I think is a euphemism for someone who is a second-tier star.  This first pic has him in a scene with The Rock in the Summer-trash movie, The Scorpion King.

I think that the guy could always get work.  He must not have been too afraid to try things.  Again, I didn't realize who he was at the time, except for his voice, but he played a supporting role in the remake of The Planet of the Apes, another Summer-trash flick.  TBS plays these movies all the time, usually twice in the same evening.

He had a very distinguishable voice.  I'd call it a baritone.  I think that he did a lot of voice-over in animated movies for kids.

Then he had a recurring role on TV in the Charlie Sheen insulting comedy, Two and a Half Men.  I'm guessing that he really didn't have to extend any of his talent in that show, since talent really wasn't part of the need.  Everybody and everything was just a prop for bathroom humor and breast jokes.

The whole point of this recognition is that the guy was just 54 years old.  Can you say, "Live like you were dyin'?"  Tim McGraw, you pretty well nailed it with that one.

I've got some ideas to follow-up on this idea of livin' like you were dyin, but I'll save that for another post this week.

Speaking of this week, its the annual Hawks-Clones football match-up, this year in Iowa City.  The early line has Iowa giving 3.5 to 4.5 with the Over/Under at 45 to 46.  Hmmm.  I'd be inclined to take the Clones outright as of today, based solely on Iowa's inability to produce offense last weekend in C-town.  The points are a bonus.  But I think the Over may be the bet too.  I have a few days to make my Final Decision.

The Irish are giving 13+ to Purdue?  Take P-U and the points.

All for this AM.  Maybe more this evening.

Make it a good week.

BCOT