It's just that kind of day.

(It would help if you could read the following post while imaging mellow, jangly piano music playing in the background. Thanks.)

I don’t know – maybe it’s the rain. Maybe it’s the melancholy or the fact that I’m thinking of having cheese for lunch. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m wearing synthetic fibers. Whatever the reason, today is the kind of day when I’m thinkin’ ‘bout Shatner.

I’m thinkin’ there’s a lot to love about this particular Canadian…and no, that’s not a fat joke. Those will come later. Be patient. I’m thinkin’ here’s a man who loves himself a lot and if he loves himself a lot, then who are we to question that wisdom? After all, William Shatner knows William Shatner better than anyone and maybe we should all settle down and not fight the Shatner love anymore. I’m cool with that.

And speaking of cool, I’m thinkin’ he’s pretty cool to pimp himself for Priceline, too. Because not only is he entertaining me with his kung fu moves every night on TV, he’s probably also getting a sweet deal on rooms and rental cars. It makes good career sense and best of all, it makes good financial sense. He’s a smart Canadian.

I’m thinkin’ no one else could have played Captain Kirk – and ultimately come to believe he was Captain Kirk – quite the way Shatner did. If you haven’t read his autobiography, you really should. Immediately. I’ll wait….

Are you done? Did you enjoy it? Was your favorite part the part where he believed he could fight some guy because he was pretty sure that he, William Shatner, had Kirk’s smooth moves and would win, just like Kirk? But then he didn’t because he’s not a fictional character and wasn’t carrying a stunt coordinator with him that day. Yeah, that was a good chapter.

I’m thinkin’, too, of the time he tried to humiliate a teenage Wil Wheaton which Wheaton describes beautifully here. I’m thinkin’ I don’t like Shatner so much when he does that but I do like laughing at the story, in which he tells the young, newly minted Star Trek:TNG cast member that “he would never let a child on the bridge of his ship.” Again with the reality not being such a good friend of The Shat Man.

And I’m thinkin’ that as much as I mock Shatner and point at his girdle when I watch Generations and shake my head at his singing (“Mr. Tambourine Maaaan!!!!”) and cry a little at his spoken word poetry and maybe laugh some more when he auctions off his kidney stones, the world really wouldn’t be as much fun without him. That’s not just the cheese and melancholy talking either....