CLINT THE VIGILANT

Brazilians in Rio de Janeiro get Christ the Redeemer, but here in Glendale, California, there's another icon overseeing life as we live it every day from high atop the Verdugo Hills.

Reg Green, 83, a mountain biker tooling around last month on one of the trails above the city discovered a cut-out of Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name set up on the hillside, initially mistaking the distinctive figure for a time traveler from the world of movies past. “For a split-second, it did look as though there was a genuine, old-fashioned cowboy out there,” said Green.

According to a city spokesman, the cut-out bears a marker which reads "Glendale Public Art Project 2012," but it doesn't seem to be affiliated with any official city arts program and it's unknown just who is responsible for setting it up.

For citizens of Glendale, at least for the time being, the reassurance of just knowing that he's up there, watching over us, will have to be enough. And don't think that when I fire up For a Few Dollars More tonight that I won't gaze off to the northeast and tip my cap.

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