My buddies and I were just talking about Leslie Nielsen a couple of weeks ago, at the cinema where we were watching the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito fight. The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders had just come out in their pekpek shorts to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and I told my friends that the girls’ version was my second-favorite rendition of the song, next only to Lt. Frank Drebin’s classic performance at the game between the California Angels and the Seattle Mariners.



The Naked Gun films had been on constant repeat on HBO the past couple of weeks before the fight, so we ended up talking about the movies and getting a chuckle while waiting for the fighters to make their way to the ring. It seemed apt that I caught the movies on cable while working late, because I first saw the movies in full when I was a high school freshman. Our apartment had just finally gotten cable, and the Naked Gun films were on all the time. And so I ended up watching them all the time too.

Back at school, meanwhile, my basketball card-collecting friends and I were getting a kick out of the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers had just hired Lt. Frank Drebin to coach the team. In the midst of all the obituaries for Leslie Nielsen over the past 24 hours, ESPN found out that he and Del Harris actually knew each other – and it turns out that they were actually friends! Not only that, Nielsen even made a post-game speech in behalf of Harris back in the ‘80s when the latter was still head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks!

I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.