The Importance of Being Ernest

"Sooner or later, there comes a point in a man's life when he's gotta face some facts...And one fact I gotta face is that, whatever it is that women like, I ain't got it. I chased after enough girls in my life. I-I went to enough dances. I got hurt enough. I don't wanna get hurt no more." - 1955


"I masturbate a lot." - 2008


Patton Oswalt once posited that if you reached 100 years old, you should be allowed to commit murder with your bare hands as reward for the milestone.

Ernest Borgnine, had he made it another 5 years, would have been capable of actually doing that. Of course, he was such an affable man that he never would do so, but you would know it was possible all the same. Kind of like when the US and Russia had the SALT talks and understood the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction.

He was the everyman that could embody our loneliness, our laughter, our rage, our strength.

He had some screw-ups in public, then he straightened out his act.

He won an award for playing a lump. A lump that got molded into something beautiful.

Putting on a smile and working hard each day, waiting to see if tomorrow would be a little bit better.

Not always special, but special because he understood it wouldn't always be special.

Borgnine was our lives.