"You just keep thinkin' Butch, that's what you're good at"

Paul Newman.

I've been feeling pretty sad about Paul Newman; he made some great movies, and was also a genuinely good person. His smiling face was an ever-present part of my childhood, staring out of the salad dressing. Discovering that he was also a movie star was like realizing that my parents have really important jobs that have nothing to do with me.

The first Paul Newman movie I watched was The Color of Money. It was back when Tom Cruise was a hottie. I watched it with my grandmother, who just kept talking about Newman. He was getting up in years when that movie was filmed, but he still looked great.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of my all time favorite movies. It has everything you could ask for in a movie. Its just perfect.

Earlier this week I surprised myself my starting to cry while reading an obituary in the food section. It detailed Newman's contributions to organic connivence foods and to American farmers. (Newman's Own was the first microwave popcorn on the market to not contain trans fats.) The Newman's Own foundation has contributed over 250 millions dollars to charitable funds. The brand helped change the way out supermarket isles look, turning the clock back on overprocessed foods. He is like an Alice Waters whose audience doesn't live in Berkeley and already be environmentalist foodies.

This photo is part of the tribute in Entertainment Weekly. The first thing I thought was: "Look at Los Angeles. Look at those undeveloped mountains. Look at that clean beach." Earlier this summer I wrote about Robert Redford mourning environmental changes in Los Angeles and Austin. I thought about how sad it must have been to watch the negative changes at the beach and in the air. I'm sad that Paul Newman died, and I'm sad that Los Angeles, which was once so perfect, is approaching unlivable. I bet Robert Redford is, too.

Last week, I saw that Newman's Own now sells chardonnay. I might walk down to the store and pick some up to go with my organic popcorn and another screening of Butch.