The Dowager Bride

ABC.com internet services have an amazing set of "then and now" photos for most of the recognizable cast from "The Princess Bride", which is now 20 (!) years old.

See it HERE.

Amazing how much some people have changed, and others haven't. And it's not even the youngest who have "grown up" since then. Fred Savage still pretty much looks like Fred Savage. People like Wallace Shawn and Christopher Guest haven't changed at all. People like Cary Elwes, however... well, watch the slideshow.

I still remember when I first heard about "The Princess Bride". A friend was talking about it while we were jumping on his trampoline. We jumped around the yard and the basement talking about "dreaming of large women," even though we had no idea what we were talking about. Especially me, since I hadn't seen the movie. But it was the hot idea of the moment, so what could be done? Basically the only purpose of children is to imitate, and I could not deny my nature.

A thought occurs: funny how when it's a silly movie, no one pays any attention to shameless repetition. I probably called everyone I knew a warthog-faced buffoon in the subsequent months and years and staged massive sword fights over living room furniture. No one cared much, since it was just a silly movie.

But what if I'd gotten hooked on passages from the Bible? Would I be called a child preacher, destined for the pulpit, and saved at the age of 9? Or would I be just another boy who was imitating somebody I liked, without really knowing what I was saying?