Facebook just blew up and alerted me to the fact that Patrick Swayze just died from pancreatic cancer. He was 57. I don’t particularly give a damn about Hollywood or about pop culture in general (other than to know the answers for Jeopardy, whenever they call), but every once in a good while I run into someone I genuinely admire. Patrick Swayze was one of those guys. Great actor, by all accounts a good human being, and he took on, nay personified some of the most memorable roles in my lifetime.

First of all, he’s Dalton. FREAKING DALTON from “Roadhouse,” the movie that made every little boy want to become a bouncer. And he was Johnny from “Dirty Dancing,” which made being a male dance instructor seem less gay (and he was a pimp – that helped). “Ghost” was the penultimate 2nd base movie for high schoolers in the 90s, and he rocked that. Bodhi from “Point Break” made both surfing and bank robbing chic (helps that he played opposite uber-goober Keanu Reeves). And many other movies that I will stop channel surfing to watch: “Uncommon Valor“, “The Outsiders“, “North and South”, “To Wong Foo” (yeah, I said it), “Black Dog“, “Next of Kin”, and the list does go on. Pretty much anything except “Father Hood,” because that was a blatant sell out. And the ultimate movie for an 8-year-old-war-is-the-coolest-and-I-am-invincible-me: “Red Dawn.” The movie has tons of pop culture references (“GTA: San Andreas” comes immediately to mind). And this is part of the show where the heartfelt “R.I.P.” ends and the “W.T.F.” begins. read this entry »