Two jolts whilst I was busy doing nothing

Time catches up with us all, of course, albeit that most of the time – despite our jokes at the dinner table about bits falling off, hair (either receding in anticipated parts of the body and/or growing in others you didn’t know you had), expanding waistlines and going somewhere in one’s abode and upon arrival not being able to recall why you set off – we either fail to notice or acknowledge it happening.

And then again, occasionally we find ourselves being pulled up short by something we see or hear that induces simultaneous inner disbelief, horror or even resignation.

Two such occurred to me yesterday as I sat in my living room ostensibly reading the newspapers but basically half dozing my way through another lazy Saturday afternoon.

The first was a reference in a newspaper to the fact that actor Clint Eastwood had turned 90 on 31st May.

Clint Eastwood.

Turned 90!

I can vaguely remember first coming across him in black and white episodes of Rawhide on television – tall, lean, lithe and with those chiseled facial features already nailed in place.

Then in the mid-1960s he graduated to movies via A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and the ‘spaghetti western’ genre was born.

In those days Clint did a neat turn in understated acting – specialising in slow movement, pauses, occasional eye-acting and saying as little as possible – and had soon cornered the market as the “go to” guy for tough, brooding, sinister cowpokes who either arrived on camera with a grudge  – or else didn’t, but acquired one soon afterwards.

Yes, he subsequently had a long and distinguished Hollywood career … but Clint Eastwood aged 90 – come on …. !!!!

The second was an incident on ITV  that occurred during a commercial break.

Suddenly, amidst the dross, up came an advertisement featuring Sir Ian Botham extolling the virtues of a device called a Revitive Circulation Booster.

Yes, yeoman legendary Somerset cricketer – 102 Test caps for England, scorer of 14 Test centuries, taker of 383 Test wickets at an average of 28.40, hero of the 1981 Ashes Test at Headingley in which he took 6 for 95 in Australia’s first innings and then – after a first innings collapse to 174 and then after following on, another in the second to 135 for 7 – Botham scored his amazing 149 not out, giving England a lead of 130 after which Bob Willis blasted Australia out, taking 8 for 43, to win the match – Ian “Beefy” Botham  … now reduced to being the face of a ‘foot massager’ marketing campaign …

I cannot disguise that this was a sobering moment. He seems to have put on a bit of timber, too, since his glory days (where, in my head, I still reside).

See here for a version of his advertisement – courtesy of YOUTUBE