I love Martin Sheen. Okay, I especially love him as President Bartlett on The West Wing. So 

hklbry  and I went to the University of Akron last night to hear him give the John S. Knight lecture, which was entitled "Shining the Spotlight on Social Causes." And I got to know Martin the person and the activist as well as the actor. It was wonderful--he's a very warm, witty and comfortable speaker. I had no idea how funny he is. He had some prepared remarks, but he kept straying from that and throwing in anecdotes and family stories and really spoke from the heart. And it wasn't all about activism, although he focused on that, on giving back to the community, on bettering others, all that feel-good stuff. (In fact his honorarium fee was donated to his foundation, the San Carlos Foundation, which provides assistance to people in poverty areas, mostly Central America) He also talked about how he got into acting (as a child he went to the movies and realized, "I am one of those people up there! That's what I am!), and how he started being asked to give speeches only in the last few years, and it terrified him, until he was preparing for one and his brother said as they looked at the huge hall full of 3,000 seats where he was going to give the speech, "Oh that's just the room where they store the chairs." He talked about how he feels about Ireland, where he has family, and he even went to college for a semester there at age 65, just so he could know what college was like (many of his Irish stories he told in an adorable brogue, very funny)--and he even sang a couple of songs for us. So he's no Irish tenor but he was pretty good. (Apparently he made his singing debut on A Prairie Home Companion last fall with the same hymn he sang for us; I missed that show, gotta go look it up online, I'll bet he was funny.) I just had the best time, and apparently everyone else did too because it was going on 9pm and only a few folks were trickling out of the theater; he took questions after he finished his 45 minute speech, and he even acknowledged "I'm a windbag, so if you have to leave, go ahead, I won't mind, I'm an actor, I'm used to people walking out on me." The Q&A was almost as good as the speech because he'd take one question and tell 15 minutes of stories off of it! Very like Harlan Ellison, hklbry reminded me (another very very fun speaker to see in person if you ever can). It was also just weird listening to him because he really does remind one of JFK, the whole Bartlett thing is just burned in my brain now, I see him as a leader of our country and it's really cool. Oh, and his description of his wedding in 1961 was hilarious! The priest had to rush the ceremony, which already had been a last minute affair, because a funeral was about to happen there! So he's rushing them into his office, "Do you take? good, do you take? Say YES!" Snap goes the Brownie camera, "congratulations now leave by the back door...oh and by the way I've never had a divorce!" I was rolling with laughter as he pantomimed all of this. And his friends out front waiting to get inside the church, not knowing he was already married, saw a casket being brought into the church! 

I could go on, and I should jot more of it down while I remember it, but I have to go to work now. Sigh. But I'll have this good feeling with me all day. I saw the President! The "Acting President" as Martin says he was called during the run of the show--by staffers of the real West Wing. :-)