“Dentists are generally pretty smart and they have the highest suicide rate of any profession. In stark contrast, dogs are goofy and they always look happy. You almost never hear about a dog trying to shoot himself. I know you want me to make a joke along the lines of “Dentists would be happy too if they could lick themselves.” But this is a serious discussion and I won’t have it. Plus that’s why dentists have office assistants.”
— Scott Adams
Marketing genius is getting Napoleon Dynamite (and Pedro) to be spokesmen for the Utah State Fair. You can check out Napoleon’s Sweet Ads here and I’ve saved one here (AUDIO) for posterity. Don’t you just know the out-takes on these were sweet!
George Carlin’s latest comedy special on HBO (Life Is Worth Losing) had some really strong moments and others where I thought he was reaching. The open was Carlin at his best. A pissed-off poet for the 21st century. The all-suicide cable channel didn’t work for me, but he was at his rage-fueled best explaining why our education system will never get any better (3 min video). Recorded live at the Beacon Theater in New York City, this is why you want to have HBO.
Seeing Wayne Newton perform at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas at the height of his career…depressing. Seeing Wayne Newton perform at his theater in Branson, Missouri in the twilight of his career…real depressing. Going backstage with your grandmother to stand in line to meet Wayne Newton after the show…a Brush with Near Greatness for little 12-year-old Lane.
Long-time farm broadcaster Jerry Passer was working at WMT-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the mid-70’s, when a young Mary Hart came over from South Dakota to do feature segments for the midday news-farm show. Jerry recalls those million dollar gams looked great in the mini-skirts that were popular at the time.
This week’s BWNG is a…melange of brushes with near greatness. As a long-time radio guy, Jeff has met, interviewed or passed on the street…a lot of famous (or once-famous) people. He sat down in the BWNG studios armed with a long list of brushes and we didn’t get to them all.
AUDIO: BWNG #002
We’ve all experienced brushes with near greatness. These pulse-pounding moments can range from a drunken limo ride with Courtney Love to an elevator ride with someone you’re pretty sure plays for the Cubs. A brush with near greatness does not require that you actually speak to or with the great one, or that they even know you’re in the room.
Today we debut what we hope will be a sustaining feature at smays.com. David –a friend and co-worker– has had not one, but two brushes with near greatness and he was kind enough to share them here. You can download the MP3 file for now and we’ll podcast as soon as I can figure out how to do that.
I would say this is one of those bogus Internet things that make the rounds but my buddy Bob says his brother-in-law knows the minister featured in this recording.
I’m hanging out in our new sports operations center and hear the haunting sounds of someone playing the mouth trumpet. I was surprised and delighted to discover our own Ryan Kormann riffing away. About this time, Rick Kennedy steps out of his studio to join in with Musical Hands. He insisted that he wasn’t warmed up and was a little nervous, but his musical gift was obvious. [watch on YouTube]
Like Dilbert, I routinely delete any email that has a subject of: Urgent, Hey!, Yo! Stuff. If you don’t care enough to provide a useful subject line, I don’t care enough to open your email.