There’s this Facebook meme of posting images of three fictional characters that define me, apparently without describing them. I find the exercise oddly unsatisfying. Whereas when Dustbury and Chuck Miller cheated and EXPLAINED why they picked their folks, THAT was interesting to me.
For instance, of the three roles here: one you probably know, one you know the actor but likely not the character, and the third is played by a guy I knew, not very well, back in college, and most of you won’t get at all. So what that give you, the reader?
Or maybe I’m wrong. Any guesses as to the CHARACTERS I’ll take for a day or two before approving the comments.
I suppose I could have picked three other characters that you should all recognize:
Now, I suppose I ought to tackle that other meme, that of coming up with my “life quote.” Except, of course, I’m stymied.
I could steal from Kenneth Rogers who sang:
You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
I was taken for a time with a line in the 1991 movie Grand Canyon, when the Steve Martin character says, “That’s part of your problem: you haven’t seen enough movies. All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.”
On my more serious days, I could try, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
But ultimately, I’ll stick with my first hero, who said “I yam what I yam,” and that wouldn’t be wrong.
It seems we have a popular culture gap going on here. I tracked down the names of Michael Badalucco and Gavin Macleod using TinEye, but not who they are. No joy with the third as I guess you clipped the image of the third from a video. I wait to be enlightened!
Speaking of enlightenment, I managed to get hold of a used copy of The Republican Brain from the US and am making my way through it. I see now why it made you think of Phyllis Schlafly.
Mike Badalucvo (sic?) Was one of our New Paltz classmates y’know!
And you ate spinach as a kid because of your hero…?
Holy cow, I don’t recognize any of the first three.
Hi, Roger
The first fellow is actor Michael Badalucco, a native of New York, who has played, among many roles, Jimmy Berluti, one of the attorneys on “The Practice” where he was an earnest, working-class guy who worked hard to become a good lawyer. (He subsequently played the serial killer, David Berkowitz, but let us not dwell.) I notice that he went to SUNY New Paltz (What would we do without IMDb?), but I do not know if that means you might know him personally.
Your next alter ego is actor Gavin MacLeod, another New York-born actor, clearly pictured here as Murray Slaughter on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” where he was a wisecracking TV writer who skewered the dumbest people around (the very dumbest, Ted Baxter, in particular) with his rapier wit. (MacLeod is also famous in some circles as Captain Stubing of “The Love Boat.”)
The third guy, has me stumped. He looks something like a young Sam Waterston (a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts), but I can’t be sure who he might be portraying. Was Waterston ever that young on “Law & Order” where he portrayed crusading ADA Jack McCoy? If this is the character, could you have picked a more obscure picture?
Hope you and yours are well and happy.