This week saw the birthdays of two folks who were sort of
prominent in our youth. First, Uri Geller, the Israeli
‘psychic’, turned 71. He showed up on our tv constantly
in the 1970s and 80s, bending spoons with his mind. Was this guy on
the level? Can you read our mind and discern our opinion on that
score? A court once ordered Geller to refund an audience
member’s money and pay costs, finding that Geller’s
feats of telepathy … weren’t. Also this week, the
great film director George Roy Hill would have reached the ripe old
age of 96, had he not inconveniently passed away in 2002. We
remember Hill fondly for a pair of movies he directed that starred
Paul Newman and Robert Redford: Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).
The latter ruled the Academy Awards its year, receiving ten
nominations and winning seven, including Best Picture, as well as a
Best Director nod for Hill. Besides boasting a stellar cast (Robert
Shaw played the villain), The Sting
