We sort of know him — he was nominated for an Oscar in 2011 for his turn as the outlaw Teardrop in "Winter's Bone" — and he has often turned up as the slight, hangdog guy in fringe roles, playing characters crackling with violence.
It is still one of the most singular stories in American history: how a slight black guy from Chicago with an odd African name and no resume except a single shining speech and a fine, introspective literary memoir became the dominant political figure of an American empire still at the height of its power.
There's no one reason he found himself high and hiking up Topanga Canyon, no one reason why he agreed when a slight, shirtless guy with a guitar said, "Won't you stay and make music with us?" I believe this, yet I do look for my father in the artefacts of the Manson Family, a violent, misogynistic, drug-hazed milieu often and aptly described as "random" and "senseless".
Really tall, deathly thin guys who look like they're dying, deaf guys, guys who seem like they might have a slight mental retardation – basically anyone who looks like they were bullied at school.
Luckily for Mr. Krieger, a slight, dark-haired guy in a black Donna Karan suit, he didn't try either overly familiar phrase when he pushed off from his stool.
"I got good pitches to hit and took good swings, but when you foul it back and you just miss a ball, that's the sign of that slight hesitation because a guy can do so much," Konerko said.
Never say, "I made a great shot there" when there is even a slight possibility the other guy might have downed the bird.
Getting even a slight apology from a guy who wouldn't back down to armed federal agents probably should have made me feel pretty good.
It was still there when he reunited with his friend Burt Lancaster, in the slight but elegiac "Tough Guys" (1986).
