Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 1:00 a.m. in "The City", on this, the first day of my 67th year. My thanks to all of my friends and family for making my birthday one I will long remember. 

I went to the Flashback Cinema™ yesterday at the Grand Haven 9 theater and saw one of my all-time favorites, Airplane! This movie starring Leslie Nielsen, Robert Hayes, and Julie Hagerty and a host of old-time TV actors like Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, and Peter Graves is a send-up of all of the disaster movies of the 1970s and 1980s and is based on the "straight" movie. Zero Hour. Plus, Kareem Abdul Jabbar gets a cameo in this Airplane!. All of the old TV actors in Airplane! were asked to play their roles as though the movie was not a comedy. 

The role in Airplane! was a departure for Leslie Neilsen who had played straight dramatic roles in earlier movies. This movie cost him more of those roles but launched him on a new career trajectory as Lt. Frank Drebin in the TV series, Police Squad, and a host of movies based on this character.

In addition, I learned that several other movies on my list of favorites will be showing soon, including a John Wayne western Rio Bravo. While perhaps not a great movie in the traditional sense of great westerns like John Ford's The Searchers, I still watch it every chance I get. 

In the pantheon of westerns made by Wayne, Rio Bravo, which also starred Dean Martin, Walter Brennan, Angie Dickinson, Rick Nelson, and Ward Bond, this film directed by Howard Hawkes, was a chance to see John Wayne at his swaggering best as he cleaned up a town beset by problems caused in part by a rich cattle baron and his no-good brother. 

Dean Martin plays a sheriff's deputy with a drinking problem that began over his lost love of a woman two years before Wayne's character Sheriff, John T. Chance, comes to town. Angie Dickinson plays a lady gambler with a shady past who cleans up her image and becomes the love of Chance's life. Walter Brennan plays a cripple who minds the jail and Rick Nelson is a young gunslinger who assists Wayne in the cleanup of the town and of Martin's character, Dude. Maybe you have to be a fan of John Wayne westerns, but this movie is a must see for me. 

My only wish is that the Flashback Cinema series brings The Quiet Man, another Wayne film but not a western or war picture, in for a showing on the big screen. The Quiet Man shot entirely in Ireland, is a great chance to see John Wayne play, well, John Wayne, as a former professional boxer who emigrates to Ireland and vanquishes his personal demons and wins the heart of an Irish lassie played by Maureen O'Hara. I'd watch that movie over and over again if I could.

But I am way off on a digression, so I'll be quick

The Cubs drubbed the Pirates, 17 - 3, in an NL Central game, to move to a season high 12 games over .500 with a record of 72 - 60 and keep them 3.5 games ahead of the 2nd place Brewers and six games ahead of the 3rd place Cardinals. The Cubs were led by rookie Ian Happ who got his 20th home run and four RBIs along with some great catches by John Jay and some terrific base running by Javier Baez. Happ joins fellow Cubs, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras and Javier Baez in the 20 or more home run club this year. The Cubs entertain the Braves tonight @ 8:05 p.m.

My beloved Red Sox stayed on a roll as they defeated the Bluejays, 7 - 1 to move to a 1st place record of 76 - 57, 5.5 games ahead of the Yankees whom they face tonight @ 7:05 p.m.

The Tigers pulled another rabbit out of their collective hats yesterday as they defeated the Rockies, 6 - 2 to remain solidly in 4th place in the AL Central with a record of 58 - 74, 5.5 games ahead of that other team from Chicago. The Tigers are home today to face the Indians @ 1:10 p.m.

The Caps look like they got their groove on again as they defeated the South Bend Cubs in South Bend, 2 - 0 in an MWL East game. The Caps have a record of 43 - 21 in the 2nd half of their season and face the same South Bend Cubs tonight @ 7:05 p.m.

I think it's time to wrap up this long winded blog and tell you that the current temperature is 68° under mostly cloudy skies as we head for today's high-temperature of 73° under partly cloudy skies.

I plan to assist Mary with the indexing today after I get back from an early P/T appointment @ 8:00 a.m. I anticipate that I'll be giving the fur-children an early breakfast and then I'll be off. Mary has an appointment at the chiropractor this afternoon. '

The sun will rise @ 7:08 a.m. and set tonight @ 8:20 p.m. Ciao./