SLIFR DON'T LOOK A DAY OVER THREE

Well, here we are, three years to the day since I first pressed "publish post" and began the adventure known as Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, which, by the way, was not the original name of this here blog. For the first couple of posts, this space was (barely) known as The Good, the Bad and the Dodgers. Thank heavens for minor miracles of wisdom and the willingness to change.

I will have plenty more to say about all the fine people who have come into my life because of this blog next week, when tradition insists that we take special time out to give thanks. For right now, I just have to offer my gratitude again to those of you who have stuck with me during a time when outside forces are making it difficult to post much more than once or twice a week. Those forces should ease up considerably in about eight or nine days, at which time I have lots of stuff planned to unleash on those of you who have come to expect it, as well as those of you who remain unsuspecting. All I can hope is that time will be kinder to the quality and productivity of what you read here on SLIFR than it has to the poor crum-bum pictured above, who looked presentable at age three but has, alas, fallen victim to his own form of Dorian Gray Syndrome. But enough morbidity. May there be at least three more years we can spend together that will be as much fun for me, and hopefully for you, as the last three have been. Skoal!


UPDATE: November 15, 3:59 p.m.: Girish made mention of it in the coments section below, but it's worth repeating that, by purest coincidence, Jim Emerson launched a new series over at Scanners yesterday which will document his readers' various experiences as extras in big Hollywood movies. And the inaugural subject in Jim's "Are You An Extra In Your Own Life?" series is none other than Yours Truly. Hop on over to Scanners for a screen shot of myself alongside Stephen Furst and Tom Hulce as we're initiated into the hallowed ranks of Delta Tau Chi membership. Jim has invited me to send along some further screen shots of other places my pudgy 17-year-old mug is visible in the movie, and if I can get a screen-grab program to work for me, I will do just that. Needless to say, finding Jim's post late last night while I was up burning the pre-dawn oil was the sweet cherry on top of an otherwise Brown 25 kind of day for me. I hope you'll get a kick out of it too!