Charles Durning (1923-2012)

Very nice man. I was once in a play with him.

@Benedick: @Benedick: he seems like the sort of guy you could have a beer with … who would in fact drink it.

He did an excellent job as the president in “Twilight’s Last Gleaming.”

@blogenfreude: I was very young. It was at the Public. But he was very patient with my nonsense and yes, he was a lot of fun.

We would often go to McSorley’s in the East Village to eat cheese sandwiches for lunch: the best rye bread, unbuttered, a slab of real NY cheddar, and a thick slice of raw sweet onion, and very good beer. At that time they didn’t serve women, so it was just us guys. I was a particularly self-righteous kid, an aspect of a profound lack of self-confidence, and Charlie was unfailingly patient with me. I saw him some years back in a silly revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in which he was mis-cast as Big Daddy. Not only because he was the most unconvincing southerner but because physically he was fastidious and rather dainty for a man of his girth. He was also confronted with a blistering performance of Big Mama by one of America’s finest actresses, Polly Holiday.

A generous man with a healthy dose of skepticism about himself and his profession.

I absolutely loved his Pappy O’Daniel dancing onto the stage in “O Brother”. He could definitely make a character become bigger than life.

He was totally awesome in The Muppet Movie.

Dude was a WWII war hero.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: He certainly was. I had no idea. I never heard anyone in the business talk about any of this. So we add modesty to his other virtues.

Hmmm, seems like these things happen in threes

@SanFranLefty: Stormin’ Norman has gone to the great mess hall in the sky.

@SanFranLefty: Just saw the reference to him in your post. Oops.

The nice thing about not being the Blog of Record is that we’re free to ignore Stormin’ Norman, unless somebody is particularly compelled.

See also: Fiscal Cliff, David Gregory, and swilling Idaho senators.

@nojo: We haven’t bitched much about the fiscal cliff, have we? Inevitable, really.

@Tommmcatt Can’t Believe He Ate The Whole Thing: I’m late to that party, but one or two Fiscal Crises ago it was brought to my attention that nothing ever happens until the last minute, and everything else is posturing.

So, we’ll see what happens Monday night. And because everything doesn’t kick in immediately, and everything can be retroactively fixed, we’ll wait until February for a resolution.

And really, an Idaho senator nobody’s heard of? Not worth the bother.

Also, I don’t give a shit who packed heat at FreedomWorks.

Besides, I’ve almost reached the streaming Netflix episode where Bartlet curses God in Latin. I have my priorities.