Sometimes there's an explanation. Sometime's it's "The Towering Inferno."

For a long while there, I was a Sudoku fiend. And I got really good at. Not "do the puzzle in pen" good at it, which is how I handle most crossword puzzles. But pretty darned good.

I'd print puzzles off the web. I'd buy books full of challenging puzzles.

And if I was sitting in front of the TV - especially if there was a ballgame on - I was working some Sudoku.

After quite a hiatus, I picked up one of the old books and puzzles and found that I still enjoy doing it.

Admittedly, I'm not quite as sharp as I was, but I think I'll build my math brain muscles back up over time.

To mark the occasion of my return to Sudoku, I even ordered a new pencil sharpener, as the cheesy little ones I had took forever to get a Number 2 Ticonderoga into fighting shape.

I had only completed about one-third of the 270 puzzles in the book I found, so this one will be with me for a while. (Once baseball season starts - I guess that should be if baseball season starts - I should be able to breeze through the remainder.)

What puzzles me is the list I found on a blank back page of the book.

Now, I find all sorts of stray notes I've made to myself. They're on stray pieces of paper, PostIt notes, the cover of a magazine, the back of an envelope. They're phone numbers with no name attached. (Should I call to see who answers? Nah. The moment has passed.) Names with no context. (Who is Ginny H, and why was it important for me to write her name down?)

Some of the notes I recognize as book titles. Others are movies. Or a series that someone recommends I start binging on. 

Sometimes the note is a few shopping list items. (Is this how I ended up with five different bottles of stainless steel appliance cleaner? Which doesn't include the container of stainless steel appliance wipes.)

Sometimes there's blog post idea. Sometimes I can't read my writing.

But the list I found on the back blank page of the Sudoku puzzle book was a true puzzler: a set of the names of entertainers - many long dead - alongside the names of two TV shows, one of which I rarely watched and couldn't stand.

So what do these folks have in common?

Fred Astaire
Robert Wagner
O.J. Simpson
Paul Newman
William Holden
Faye Dunaway
Jennifer Jones
Richard Chamberlain
Steve McQueen
Robert Vaughn
Eva Marie Saint
Dabney Coleman|
Maureen McGovern
Gregory Sierra - at least I think it says Gregory Sierra; he's the name that came up when I googled "Gregory Se", which is all I could make out of my scrawl)
Olan Soule
Michael Moriarty
Olan Soule (yes, he's there twice)

The two TV shows are The Brady Bunch (rarely watched/couldn't stand) and Barney Miller, which I liked and watched regularly. Gregory Sierra, who acted in the show, would explain Barney Miller. But The Brady Bunch? I mean, it would make some sort of internal sense, in a nonsense sort of way, if Maureen McCormick's name had been on my list. She played Marcia Brady. (And while I think of it, what was up with Carol Brady's first husband? Dead? Divorced? Deadbeat? Why did the girls all start using he last name Brady? And did the kids ever talk about their MIA bio parents? Weird, huh?)

As for the list...

Whatever triggered Fred Astaire in my brain way back when, following him up with Robert Wagner fits, as Fred played Bob's father on the series It Take a Thief. But what put O.J. next on the list? And why would O.J. lead me to Paul Newman, an actor I was very fond of. And an actor who, the older he got, just grew more handsome and sexier. 

Next up was William Holden, who I always rather liked. Stalag 17. Sunset Boulevard. Sabrina. He also appeared in a one of the all-time clunker-great disaster movies, Towering Inferno, which also featured Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, who appears a few names down on my list.

He starred in Network with Faye Dunaway, which couples them. And earlier he'd starred with Jennifer Jones in Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, one of the all-time tear-jerking romantic films. So there's that. 

But how did Richard Chamberlain make the list? I could understand if it had been a list of actors I had a crush on, as I was mad about him. Dr. James Kildare, my first serious actor boyfriend. (I was 11 when Dr. Kildare first aired.)

Steve McQueen comes next. Oh, why not?

But why Robert Vaughn? Sure, I watched Man from U.N.C.L.E., but I watched to see David McCallum, who played Illya Kuryakin to Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo.

Eva Marie Saint I only know from On the Waterfront. So why aren't Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger, and Lee J. Cobb keeping her company on my list? Why, oh why?

And what brought Dabney Coleman to my mind? Just looked him up to prompt me about how and why he made the list. Found a probable answer. Dabney Coleman, it turns out, was in the Towering Inferno. Clicking through on the link to that film: treasure trove!

In addition to McQueen and Newman, the cast includes William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory Sierra, Dabney Coleman and in her final role, Jennifer Jones. (Source: Wikipedia)

Bing, bing, bing, and bing! Other than the Susans, Blakely and Flannery - people I've never heard of - all of those actors are on my list.

Still doesn't explain Eva Marie Saint. Or Clarence Williams III of Mod Squad fame. 

It does explain the presence of singer Maureen McGovern. Best known for "There's Got to Be A Morning After," from The Poseidon Adventure, another all-time clunker-great disaster movie, Moe - if I may be so bold - also sang The Towering Inferno theme. 

This brings us to Olan Soule - who made it onto my list not once, but twice! 

Olan Soule is best remembered by me for his role as Captain Midnight's sidekick. (Captain Midnight: stupid kids' show of the 1950's). As it turned out, he also had a role in - you guessed it - The Towering Inferno. He doesn't make the list on TTI's page on Wikipedia, but the movie does get a mention in Olan Soule's wiki bio. 

I am now breathing a sigh of relief about my list, and what I suspect might be its origins. 

I'm guessing that my husband and I were watching The Towering Inferno, and I was sitting there with my Sudoku book in my lap, only half paying attention to the movie. While we were watching, Jim was probably keeping up a running commentary on the number of well known actors who appeared in the film, and for some reason, I started jotting them down. Jim had excellent face recognition, but maybe he thought someone was Eva Marie Saint who wasn't Eva Marie Saint. Maybe one of the Susans?

Ditto for Clarence Williams III. Maybe there was a young Black actor that Jim mistook for Clarence Williams III.

This leaves Michael Moriarty as the odd actor out.

Sure, he could have been another misrecognition. But, on my list, he's actually in a column by himself, with nothing else in it but - a couple of inches below his name - the words Brady Bunch, and Barney Miller. 

I always found Michael Moriarty a bit weird and creepy, which explains why he occupies a spot by himself.

How he got there, I'll never know.

Anyway, dropping down to the bottom of the page, I have Olan Soule's name in there for the second time. Because he's on their twice, he gets the picture.

(And, yes, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.)

Sometime's, as it turns out, there is an explanation. And this time it's The Towering Inferno.  

What a relief!