Even so wakes General Clive Wynne-Candy

Stuart Freeborn, R.I.P.

I had no idea the same person who brought Roger Livesey through forty years in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1942) had designed Yoda. Or that when I was comparing myself to Guinness' Fagin, this was the man who'd created his nose. Or that he was part of both Dr. Strangelove (1964) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981). Or that he was still alive or that he'd died.

Dammit.

Oh, Ripper. You're scaring me

I suppose this sort of scattershot posting is what Facebook or Twitter is for.

Nah.

1. Who the hell is the fellow on the left in this photo?



To the right, we have Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville in the foreground; I believe that is Gaetano Ventimiglia behind the camera and the internet indicates that Michael Balcon is next to him. I can't find any version of this picture online that tells me who the man in the technician's coat is, except that his face is familiar to me, his body language, it feels like it should be obvious and I can't make it click. I can't tell if I'm mistaking him for some character actor or if it's just that I've never seen him as early as 1926, but it's driving me crazy. Any ideas?

2. Robin Sachs has also died. I only ever saw about half a dozen episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Ethan Rayne was very possibly my favorite thing about it (even if I did once rewrite his Latin. I don't blame the character). Otherwise I remember him in various makeup from Babylon 5 and Galaxy Quest, but I liked him best as a chaotic sorcerer of unfailing untrustworthiness and downright pathetic hand-to-hand skills. (Seriously, if there is not already a Tumblr of Ethan Rayne getting his ass stomped by Giles, I feel like fandom has failed somehow. I can practically find a Tumblr for Gravity Falls' rainbow-puking gnome.) I wouldn't have seen him in that role again, but I'm sorry I'll never have the chance to run across him elsewhere in something unexpected and new.

3. The first time I went out to shovel the steps and the front walk, there were four or five inches on the ground. The second time, more like seven or eight. The last time, we didn't have steps: just a smooth, sidewinder-whisking diagonal of snow which my mother estimated, as I cleared my way down the street, at a generous ten inches and a foot in the drifts. That was a little after midnight. Tomorrow should be fun.

They ride along beside a frozen lake

I'd have posted this much earlier in the day if I were the sort of person who has internet on my phone, but I was shoveling out the ice shelf that used to be my mother's car at the time and then I came inside and made grilled cheese and fell over slightly for a couple of hours:

A pair of strangers just skied down my street.

THAT IS NOT NORMAL.

(I hope tomorrow does not involve the same quantity of shoveling as today.)