Don LaFontaine R.I.P.

Don LaFontaine, the voiceover king whose "In a world ..." phrase on movie trailers was much copied -- and much parodied -- has died, according to media reports. He was 68.

LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, according to ETOnline, "Entertainment Tonight's" Web site. He died from complications from pneumothorax, a collapsed lung that causes air to build in the pleural cavity, his agent, Vanessa Gilbert, told "ET."

LaFontaine, who was born in Duluth, Minnesota, began as a voice actor in the mid-1960s while working as a recording engineer, according to his Web site. His strong, slightly gravelly voice was featured on trailers for thousands of films, including "The Godfather," "Fatal Attraction" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." For a time in the late '70s, LaFontaine was the official voice of Paramount Pictures.

Here is a sample of his work...

Hurricane Gustav II - The Evacuation Trip

Here is part 1 of my Hurricane Gustav story.

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Carlos and I left New Orleans at 2 am Saturday (going into Sunday), hoping to beat all the evacuation traffic (or, as we informally call it around my office, "evacucation" - an evacuation vacation - because we got a week off of work).

We arrived in Atlanta, where my younger sister lives, at 10 pm Sunday night - 19 hours later. The drive from New Orleans to Atlanta normally takes about 9 hours. Since neither of us wanted to leave our cars behind, we both drove that amount of time - and with only three short breaks for food and gas.

Ugh!

We spent from Sunday night until this morning (Saturday) with my sister, her husband, their two kids, and my parents. It was great seeing them.

The return trip was only 8.5 hours; We arrived about an hour ago. My house is fine. Our electricity was restored yesterday afternoon. My fence has some minor damage. We were very lucky.

Now, we have to wait and see what the next storm, Ike, brings.

Double ugh!