Riddle Me This

The first fella that I can remember having a crush on has died.

As a wee, little lad, whenever Frank Gorshin appeared as the Riddler on Batman, I felt a little tingle of extra interest. I didn't know what it was then, and I'm not all that I'm sure what it was now. He wasn't dreamy in the traditional Hollywood manner, but he had a quality about him: a sly, crafty, highly-energetic, dynamic, give-it-til-it-hurts-and-then-some charisma. I couldn't take my eyes off him. I was just talking about how hot he was just the other day.

Maybe I just have a thing for criminals in skin-tight green body suits with maniacal laughs. And I'd always harbored a fantasy of hooking up with some guy dressed as the Riddler, but now the thought of that just creeps me out.

And after reading that his wife of 48 years was with him when he died yesterday, I feel like a covetous creep.

Speaking of that, it's funny how stars can creep into your consciousness. I bawled the day Lucille Ball died. I threw a fit when Bette Davis flipped us the final bird. Gregory Peck's death bummed me out for weeks.

I'm off to bed now to contemplate a time when men were a riddle that I wanted to investigate rather than a riddle I'd rather forget. I'm going to be mulling that one for a while, too.

Rest in Peace, Frank Gorshin.

His other TV credits included roles on "General Hospital, "The Edge of Night" and "The Munsters" as well as guest appearances on "Donny & Marie," "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," "Murder, She Wrote," "The Fall Guy," "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," "Wonder Woman," "Charlie's Angels" and "Police Woman."