I’ve already been on the computer too long, need to get myself changed and on the treadmill and ready for Lost (wahoo!), but I just read this WHOLE article and it’s just fantastic. It’s a feature article about Roger Ebert in Esquire, and dammit, it made me cry in a few different places! The article (written by one Chris Jones) is here. The first place I cried was this quote from Ebert, on page 4:
When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be.
I remember my dad loved to watch Siskel and Ebert, so very many years ago.
Sometimes it’s hard to remember, because remembering can hurt. I’m sitting here now thinking of my dad laying sideways on the bed, watching TV, and me watching with him, and an ashtray never too far away, and I remember the blanket my parents used to have on their bed. I must be seven or eight years old. My dad loved that Siskel and Ebert were in a theater and had a balcony, and he liked how they’d tell it straight, what was good and what they hated. I can’t think of the two men together without then thinking of my dad. My Daddy.