Left to my own devices

Our latest of Pic of the Week (I know, I know, it's more the Pic of the Month), is actor Peter Scanavino, of Law & Order: SVU . He had a really good episode last night, and is a handsome, thirty-something man. Enjoy.

It was years ago, probably a decade or more, that I first saw Andy Bendel. Sitting in the audience of the darkened Station Theatre, I was enjoying the production of Deathtrap , and especially the performance of one of the leads. This would have been Andy. Having watched the Christopher Reeve/Michael Caine movie, I was pretty familiar with the plot of the play, but it still managed to mesmerize. A lot of that was down to Andy. Then there was the classic farce Charley's Aunt , also produced at the Station Theatre. There, Andy played a butler, and nearly stole the show. He did so much just by standing there, raising his eyebrow. Everyone else on stage was great. It was a wonderful production, full of energy, and yet through it all my focus kept coming back to Andy's performance of the staid butler, very much the (extra) comic relief.

Nancy Reagan was the third First Lady of the United States during my lifetime, but the first one I remember. Through the prism of youth, I developed a great fondness for her. In adulthood, as I learned more details about her husband's presidency and her proclivities (astrology, anyone?), my opinion really wasn't too diminished. The strength of childhood appreciation is difficult to put asunder. And I do appreciate Nancy Reagan, even now that she is no longer with us, having passed away today at the age of 94.

Nearly all of us have had a celebrity crush (or two) in our day. For some it was James Dean, for others it was Farrah Fawcett. For yours truly it was Leonardo DiCaprio. Living alone during the early-to-mid-nineties, I would pine over the (many) photo shoots Leo had done as an up & coming young actor. So, yeah, I thought he was cute. Then again, a lot of actors are cute. Leo has always had something more. Indeed, pre- Titanic DiCaprio has always been my favorite version of Leo. Before that supremely popular ship set sail (see what I did there?), Leo's resume was full of quirky, quality films. The likes of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, This Boy's Life, Basketball Diaries, The Quick and the Dead, Romeo + Juliet and Total Eclipse are enough for any actor to be proud of. His post- Titanic career is almost icing on the cake.

Our pic of the week is Australian actor Brenton Thwaites, who is starring in the movie Gods of Egypt , which opens this weekend. Enjoy.

I'm bad with knowing the generations. Baby boomers seem to have a two-decade span of categorization. A cursory Internet search tells me that I am part of Generation X, which would appear to inhabit another twenty year chunk of time, from 1965 to 1984. I also appear to belong to Generation Y, and Millenials encroach on the end of X's time span. It's all very confusing. One thing I do know for certain: I am 40-years-old. And, from what I can tell from many of the cues of commerce and pop culture surrounding me at every turn, this is my time. More specifically, it is a time of notice for people in my approximate age-range. Allow me to explain.

Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court died over the weekend at the age of 79. His death was sudden. Reactions have been swift. Many people I know were not fans, and have made their dislike of the deceased perfectly clear. I have refrained from writing about it until now, though I did express some thoughts while in the car with Ashley that I now regret. Finally, I began to read some positive thoughts about the man from a smattering of social media friends and even uber-liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Honestly, such reading provided some comfort. Politics -- and make no mistake, the U.S. Supreme Court is a political body -- has been depressing of late. Whether it's Donald Trump or Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton or Debbie Wasserman Schultz, or a bevy of Republican or Democratic in-fighting, tensions are high and manners have gone out the window. Justice Scalia, himself, often added to the fire with his blustery espousal of o...