June 29, 2011--My Favorite Peter Falk Story

Peter Falk, AKA Lieutenant Colombo, died last week at the age of 83.

Among other things, he was famous for having a glass eye. When he was 3, his eye became cancerous and it had to be removed. This in turn caused his classic quizzical squint.

But he also put his glass eye to good use in other ways.

He grew up in Ossining, N.Y. and in spite of missing an eye was a fine high school athlete. He excelled especially at baseball. In one story he liked to tell, after being called out in a close play at third base, he popped out his prosthetic eye and handed it to the umpire.

"You'll do better with this," he said.

That was Peter Falk.