Tuesday, March 02, 2010

National Roger Ebert Day

Roger's been in the news a lot lately, for various reasons. Today, it's because he's making his post-surgery TV debut (I think) on Oprah. A big Esquire article recently thrust him front and centre in the public eye, not the least of which because of the big, uncompromising photo that showed his shrunken jaw in a way that couldn't help but force a double-take by the reader. He no longer has the use of his voice, as a result of one of the surgeries, and so he's relied upon writing - mostly - to be heard lately. He's an unbelievably prolific Twitter user, as I've discovered in the week since clicking on his Follow button. On Oprah, however, he'll be showing off his brand new voice machine, which may very well be Stephen Hawking-like, for all I know right now.

In the grand game of "Seven Degrees of Separation", I'm only twice-removed from Roger. My daughter Tammy had the pleasure of meeting him during the Toronto International Film Festival a few years back, and I've no doubt that was a memorable moment for her (maybe for him, too, as she is a lovely girl!).

Today I read this article by Will Leitch (probably no relation to Brian), which is a wonderful true story about Roger and the impact he's had through his reviews and writing in general.

I think today should just be named National Roger Ebert Day and be done with it. He deserves at least that much.

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