Back when I was a stay at home mom, I got hooked on reruns of In The Heat Of The Night that were playing on one of the local cable stations. Part of the reason that I enjoyed the show so much is that it was such a different character for Carroll O’Connor. In the show, he played a Southern Sheriff in a small town. I had only seen him as Archie Bunker prior to that! I kept watching the show because I got a little crush on the actor who played Captain Bubba Skinner. His name is Alan Autry (he’s in the far right in the picture here, with the nice muscular arms) and he also appeared on Grace Under Fire as Grace’s boyfriend, Rick Bradshaw. I had the oddest dream 2 nights ago, in which Alan was a stand up comic on his way to Cincinnati, and I was trying to hook my sister up with him? We ended up flying to his show in Ohio to surprise him. Yeah, I’ll bet he was surprised when he realized he had stalkers in the audience!

Alan is currently NOT a comedian - he’s the Mayor of Fresno, California. I will not be flying there to surprise him.