J.R. wrote:James Gandolfini -- who famously played Tony Soprano on "The Sopranos" -- died earlier today in Italy .

Gandolfini is believed to have suffered a heart attack. He was 51.

Gandolfini was in Italy to attend the 59th Taormina Film Festival in Sicily -- and he was scheduled to participate in a festival event this weekend with Italian director Gabriele Muccino.

Gandolfini shot to fame playing a hitman in the 1993 hit "True Romance" ... and quickly became a Hollywood legend when he was cast as Tony Soprano in 1999. He won 3 Emmy awards for the role during the show's 6 season run.

Gandolfini also appeared in a ton of huge movies including "Get Shorty," "The Mexican" and "Zero Dark Thirty."

I am sorry for his loss. He was on my radar screen and I knew of the accolades, but I have missed "The Sopranos" in my viewing. I am sure from all that I have read over the years that it was an engaging and quality show to watch.

I saw news reports today of his death, and criminy the poor deceased guy was WAY out of shape and carrying too much weight for his apparent conditioning motivation.

I'll suggest a possible legacy might be a motivation for others to grab the bars, monitor the diet, and stay healthy.

Now, I never watched "The Sopranos," but the 2nd season of Magic City has landed on my radar screen. I've found the first season episodes on Comcast On Demand. It's set in Miami in the late 1950's, as casinos in Havana were at risk due to the rise of Fidel Castro. With the requisite players on that turf in that era.

"Magic City" is much like "Mad Men" on AMC, but on the original airing network "Magic City" has nudity and full curse words.

Oh my.

Climate change has to be challenged. Glad Obama's willing to confront the issue.

Last year, here in northern Illinois alone, we were under red alert as far as drought was concerned. The sycamore trees lost their leaves by fall. Some of our rivers dried up and others were at their lowest levels in the 40+ years I've lived here.

This year, it's more rain than we can handle. We've had severe thunderstorms daily since Saturday. Most of those days, we saw two or three in one day. Last night, we had flash flooding due to significant rainfall, up to 5 and 6 inches in the Schaumburg/Barrington areas. South Chicago suburbs have been hit weekly for a couple of months now. The sycamore trees leaves are falling already. They a still green. The rivers have been far above average since spring.

Last year the farmers were worried about no rain. This year they are worried about too much rain.

We're expecting more rain tonight and it will continue on for the next few days at least. I've forgotten what the sun looks and feels like.

This is getting ridiculous.

On another note, a small plane crashed into the parking lot where my son lives. The pilot did a nice job of avoiding the condos. I haven't heard yet whether or not he was taking off or landing. The airstrip borders the condo complex.

Yay, we won. It's still a long way to go, and I would still make it a must to offload the Swisher contract.

On happier notes, I dragged others to witness a Christopher Titus live performance on Marco Island last weekend. My wife and I are Christopher Titus groupies, I guess.

I've met Christopher after show multiple times over the past several years when he played at the comedy club in my prior CA town to work his material. Shortly after his Dad died he pulled me aside and told me that his Dad never liked being the butt of his early comedy stories, and confessed that he wished he had not done all those often made up stories about his Dad.
Above is my youngest kid I have raised since the Age of 8. Full scholarship at Auburn still in effect. He keeps getting scholarship awards during his studies, though his tuition is 100% paid from his prior scholarships

Above here is my youngest daughter of three. This one graced my life when I married her mother when she was Age of 10 and I raised this girl as mine as her biological Dad had exited in those years.

My wife is to the left, in that pic. Of course. My wife was horrified to see this pic of her, and would be pissed off to learn that I shared here. She told me she wanted to have pointers on my new personally developed EBETSA plan.

"Eating Barely Enough To Stay Alive"

I eat well, very well, and work out often. I'm pushing 60 and insistent upon keeping a semblance of studliness.

All that said, I'm still pretty dismal on my thoughts of Cleveland Indians present and future as the chips are now played

I hooked that earlier mentioned daughter up with The University of Florida for her education and she's more than bummed about that New England Patriot now charged with murder playing for former Cleveland Browns "run out of Browns Town" coach Bill Belichick.

When I was in grade school, I never foresaw a day when I might be jousting with my kids over "who is getting the check?"

Very cool. It is a great feeling when your kids do well, especially when you & yours are the main influences.

eocmcdoc wrote:Very cool. It is a great feeling when your kids do well, especially when you & yours are the main influences.

Thanks for the note, McDoc. Full credit though to my current and former wife who did the heavy lifting in my 4 kid's rearings.

All I had to do was show up and be there.

Being there, and unconditional love, open arms, and making certain they knew I/we had high expectations for them from the very beginning with the talents we told them from early on that we knew they had.

and a lot of drinking.

I went searching for a likely dead body today, if reports from observers were correct. I was at the beach as emergency vehicles and rescue personnel raced to the pass to the North.

A woman on the beach swore she saw a body in the surf as we had riptide conditions at that particular pass. Two people in turbens (not often seen in Southwest Florida) corroborated her story.

As I approached the happening on the beach and trying to ascertain what was going on I spied a guy in a Georgia Bulldog shirt. Being mostly Southern at this point of my life I approached him for a report on the "inside scoop" and what help might be needed.


On the way to the "Georgia Guy" I encountered others who told me they had been told that a jet skier had hit a manatee.

When I encountered "Georgia Guy" and announced my Southern preferences he let his guard down and said, "all these people kept asking me what was happening, so I told them a jet skier had hit a manatee just to satisfy them.....I have no idea what's going on."

OK.

I had seen manatee in The Gulf and pass all morning and early afternoon.

The woman telling her siting of "the body" to law enforcement was queried as to whether "the body" might have been a manatee.

She announced she was a "naturalist" and told all she certainly knew the difference between a human body and a manatee.

No one checked her "naturalist" papers, and I am not certain where one gets such a certification.

I went to the back Bay of the pass and tossed a kayak in. I've never searched for a dead body previously, though I have cleaned up after two I was not required to search for.

My search for the possible body was thorough, and produced no results in that particular Bay today.

A friend of mine suggested sharks might have nailed a whale in the rough surf, and the remnants might have been what that woman saw.

I've jousted with Comcast the past couple weeks, threatening to pull the plug on their services and go other routes to get the same stuff from other sources.

They lowered our bill by over 40% this week. And they threw in HBO, which I didn't think I really wanted, other than to watch fights or comedy specials.

With a nod to Ron White......"I was wrong."


Not sure how it worked out, but HBO picked up the Showtime event of "Behind the Candalabra." The Liberace related work. Tonight was the last night it was apparently available on their "On Demand" so I checked in to watch.

My wife went to bed halfway through, but she was already tired of me saying "can you frickin' believe this is Michael frickin' Douglas and Matt frickin' Damon??

Truth be told the first time I tried to energize her for viewing I told her that "Johnny Damon" was a lead actor.

She, as was her right said, "who the frick is Johnny Damon??"

As was my right, I mentioned that one Mark Shapiro should have done more research on Johnny Damon, but added that I had incorrectly announced the first name of the actor.

I had read that "Behind the Candalabra" had superb acting performances. And it did.

Michael "frickin'" Douglas and Matt "frickin'" Damon, and Rob "frickin" Lowe, and Dan "frickin" Akroyd, and Debbie "frickin" Reynolds.

Just for Rusty, you were right, the costuming was absolutely fabulous.

Just for Rusty, you were right, the costuming was absolutely fabulous.

I guess this is Chipmunk Cheeks attempt to be the Alec Baldwin of the forum.

Cali SC - contact me

flatwater2@msn.com

Some of you may may remember JACK THE DAD. He's still on the membership list here, but hasn't posted in a long time. Edit 7/9: Just learned that Jack passed away yesterday

J.R. wrote:Some of you may may remember JACK THE DAD. He's still on the membership list here, but hasn't posted in a long time. Edit 7/9: Just learned that Jack passed away yesterday

Rest in Peace Jack!

Long story short, I have some local friends who had acquired two rescue pit bulls within the past year. The friends were scheduled for a 2,500 mile trip starting today and were dependent upon the two dogs keeping each other company while daily feeders and walkers came to their home to tend to them.

The eldest pit bull unexpectedly died a few days ago from some stomach twist or wrench or slip that is common to those pit bulls who have fought in their earlier lives.

My friends were concerned about the well being and demeanor of the remaining dog soon after losing her companion. And were concerned about her reaction to unknown caretakers coming in while she was in her newly "alone" state.

One of them apparently said, "call Tribe Fan in SC/Cali," he'll apparently do anything.

I agreed to take in "Layla," an 85 pound rescue pit bull, for a few days. I walked her on a short leash this evening, not knowing how she will react in her new encounters on walks in an unfamiliar neighborhood with other dogs and new strangers around.

Right now she is stretched out beside me in my office while Leno is airing.

Afterwards, I'm going to find some Michael Vick NFL highlights for mutual dog whispering discussion.

I promised the owners I would have interesting activities for "Layla."

Cue Clapton.

Unbelievable!

TV Anchor Duped into Airing Obviously Fake Pilot Names is a Teachable Moment

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/07/tv ... le-moment/