PAYING RESPECTS TO THE MAN.

Happy Holidays folks and welcome to another John Candy season. That’s right, this time of year Candy is supreme ruler of the holidays around here as movies like Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Home Alone and Uncle Buck are in constant rotation. Candy brought the nonstop laughs, but beneath it a sincerity and seemingly effortless realness which is something I think few actors can pull off. Characters like Del Griffith, Gus Polinski and Buck Russell (among others) resonate so much with us I think because there’s a certain resemblance to dads, friend’s dads, uncles, neighbors, coaches and distant family members we’ve known in life.

His death at the young age of 44 was devastating. Though he left us with a hearty collection of timeless films, it’s still painful to know he’s really gone.

So TNUC wanted to do something special this season. Since John is buried at a cemetery in Los Angeles, we figured what better time to visit his final resting place and pay respects to THE MAN.

So light up a fat cigar. Pour a cold beer in one of those old glasses they serve at bowling alley bars and old Pizza Huts. Now join us in remembering the man of the season!

His remains are interred in a crypt, high up on a wall, inside a mausoleum at Holy Cross Cemetery. The marble gravestone is bathed with bright rays of sun coming through the stained glass windows. In the background from a nearby church a choir were singing religious hymns. The atmosphere in the mausoleum was peaceful and heavy, even though I wanted so badly for a polka tune to break out, or a John Hughes hand-picked ballad from the finale of one of his movies.

We couldn’t walk away without leaving something genuine.

THE. MAN.

† Thanks for all the laughs, pal! Rest In Power †