Crikey! What a character

The news of Steve Irwin's death hit our household hard too. We had guests over the weekend, and last night's dinner was spent remembering our favorite Steve Irwin moments. It seemed fitting that a guy of Irwin's larger-than-life persona would have a death that not only shocks, but is, in a weird way, a fitting tribute to his sang-froid behavior with lethal animals.

Irwin's one of those guys who was a character, a real character. No one would have the courage to create a guy like that for fiction because he seemed almost make believe, a guy who happily wrestled crocodiles and plunged into manky swamps with glee. My daughter had a Crocodile Hunter board game and it was big on crashing jeeps and chomping crocs.

So last night while we were eating pizza and wings, we were also tossing around our favorite Irwin-isms. They all went something like: "Crikey, ain't she a beaut? Look at her razor-sharp teeth--she'd take a bite outtah you're hand quicker'n a wallaby on the lam. Let's get close-ah."

He shall be missed.