Exploring Gatlinburg With Erin Rudd
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
There was a girl, a most enchanted girl, named Erin Rudd whose path I crossed many times as a child – but as far as either of us can recall, with whom I never spoke. The first time I saw Erin was when she, along with her brother Joel, attended Discovery House day care center in the Summer of 1979. Whether she went there for a day, a week, or a month I’m not sure. The only thing I know is that she and Joel started Fairbrook Elementary that Fall. She was entering third grade, I was entering second, Joel was entering first. I recognized both of them from Discovery House and this is as far as the proof goes that they ever attended. Read the rest of this entry »
Even after an exhausting day at 
It may be a disservice to Oscar-winning actor George Kennedy, but every time I picture him in my head, two images come to mind – and neither one of them flattering. The first is the scene from Naked Gun when he and Leslie Nielsen are shoveling red-dyed pistachio nuts into their mouth and emerge from the police car with bright red lips. The second involves Kennedy at the baseball game in the same film as he is seen shoveling various ballpark food (hot dogs, pizza, ice cream, etc.) into his mouth in cutaway shots. Hey, I can’t help it. Apparently I like to watch George Kennedy eat. 
While not a complete Star Wars junkie, I am a fan of the franchise, so when the opportunity presents itself, I generally snap up any autographs of members of the cast of both the original films and the later prequels. On Monday, December 8, 1997, I got the chance to meet two members of the Star Wars family at the Bookery Fantasy comic book store in my hometown of Fairborn, Ohio: Kenny Baker, the dwarf actor who was the performer inside the R2-D2 costume in all six of the films, and John Hollis, who played Lobot in The Empire Strikes Back. At the time, I had no idea that Hollis was Lando Calrissian’s cyborg aide - but that didn’t stop my from purchasing one of his photos. 
Phylicia Rashad will forever be remembered as being the wife of Bill Cosby…even though they were never married. I began watching Cosby’s groundbreaking series The Cosby Show when it first debuted in 1984, back in the day when she was still going by her maiden name Phylicia Ayers-Allen. Her named changed, naturally enough, when she was married to her third husband, NFL wide reciever and sportcaster Ahmad Rashad. Fresh from the stage, The Cosby Show was her first major screen work and she was called upon by Bill Cosby once again to be his screen wife when he began his new series Cosby in 1996, four years after the former series ended. And I might add that she starred in the pre-show of the Dinosaur ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.