Houston icon, Marvin Zindler, died today after his battle with cancer. I've lived in Houston for 21 years and for this time have enjoyed Zindler's classic "Slime in the Ice Machine" line not to mention his equally distinctive sign off.

(For you non-Houstonians, one of Zindler's duties at the local ABC affiliate was to do a restaurant report and he would specifically point out those establishments which had slime in well, their ice machines.)

He is also noted for speaking up for those with little or no voice in the community. For example, the elderly who wouldn't receive their allotted social security checks and the like. These were my favorite Marvin moments, when he helped out people frustrated and affected by bureaucratic entities (the light, telephone, or cable company).

One hopes (for Marvin's sake) that his efforts for the underprivileged and unrepresented were not merely shining examples of civil virtue.