Back in April, I blogged about the fact that I'm loosely connected to three people who have been, or are, regulars on "Saturday Night Live": Jimmy Fallon, because he grew up in nearby Saugerties; current cast member Kristin Wiig, who went to the same high school as me (albeit 10 years later); and Eddie Murphy, who, as a teenager participating in New York City's Fresh Air Fund program, stayed at the home of a high school classmate of mine.

Now we can add Denny Dillon to the list.

Who?

I know, she's not exactly a household name. Dillon was an SNL cast member for just one year - the utterly forgettable 1980-81 season that also featured Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Ann Risley and Charles Rocket (the only cast member ever fired for swearing on the air) - but her face has always stuck with me (that's her at left), and yesterday, Dec. 9, I had the chance to deal with her personally in a way that has nothing to do with her acting and comedy careers.

Shortly after I got to work, Managing Editor Tony Adamis mentioned to me that a photo of a pickup truck on fire on U.S. Route 209 in Stone Ridge had been e-mailed to us for possible use in the paper. I opened the e-mail and noticed it had been sent to us by a person named Denny Dillon, who wrote that she owned a Stone Ridge studio called The Drawing Room, across the street from where the truck burned.

I asked Life Editor Ivan Lajara if this was the same Denny Dillon who briefly appeared on "Saturday Night Live," and he said it was.

I had a question about the photo, so I looked up Dillon in the Ulster County phone book (sure enough, she's listed) and gave her a call.

We had a brief and pleasant conversation - no, I didn't bring up her SNL stint or any of her other acting roles, including that of a doomed passenger in the 2006 film "United 93" - and the photo (not a bad shot for an amateur) ultimately appeared on page C6 of this morning's Freeman.

So add Denny Dillon - who's living a quiet, non-celebrity life in Stone Ridge, N.Y. - to my list of SNL connections, and if anyone runs into Eddie Murphy, tell him to be patient ... he'll be a big star one of these days.