1/11/02 UPDATE
Hellooooooooo everybody.
Greetings from C-Town. I'm typing this from the spot
Tom brings us those
wonderful anagrams and the game Net Mind Benders.
Plane ride was smooth. Tom
picked me up at the airport (nevermind our signals
got mixed thanks to my
blank mind... OK, so I slept for about half the duration
of flight time... sue
me!) and we went over to the car dealership he works at.
That's where I picked up
<TGoJS> a brand new car!!!! </TGoJS> The '02 Chrysler
Sebring. And to think, I
didn't have to win five straight games of (insert
B&E game show here)
to get it -- though I am shelling out $30/day for the
rental.
:)
Tonight, Tom, Mike, Wayne
and I meet up at BW3, a local watering hole for some
wings and NTN trivia.
Having not set foot in C-Town in... oh... about umpteen
years, I've found it's
easy to get lost! So, Tom's playing taxi service after
he gets off of work.
BTW, Emily, the little girl
who's completed the roster for the Hornikels'
"Family Feud" team, is precious. Kim, Tim and Eva
have been great hosts.
That's all for now. Tell ya
more in the next update -- and hopefully share
some images from the
trip.
Live in Cleveland,
Doug Morris
www.dougmorris.net
www.hubcitycommerce.com/rocktrax
rocktrax@rock104fm.com
================================
"RockTrax",
Sundays 10am-6pm on
104.5FM, Rock 104.
Wayne Rhine
follow-up: "The girl we asked to take the picture was
clearly
'window dressing'. She had her friend take the photo. Girl #2 was
so into
the technology of my camera I thought the photo would never be
taken.
That
said, you can see what 4 bored minions look like.
The boredom
didn't last too long, we quickly started into the puns and moron
bashing. And of course the
wings and beer, coke, mellow yellow etc.
1/12
UPDATE
(takes sip from cup) Mmmmm.... tasty water. :)
Hellooooooooo everybody and
welcome back to RockTrax in Cleveland. Thanks to
Wayne for continuing our
story from BW3 in the photos section and for
documenting our endless rounds of puns. Real delight to
see all the C-town
minions after corresponding with them over these
many months.
Today, as Tom played Mr. Mom
to the kids and Kim went to work, <Bill O'Reilly>
your humble
correspondent </Bill O'Reilly> took in a few sites and
sounds of
the city. Prime
destination: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Located literally a
walk from Cleveland
Browns Stadium... and... what's this?... Doug has plastic
bottle of soda in
hand??? Coincidence? Judge for yourself.
Anyway, the rock hall was a
blast. Presently, there's a John Lennon exhibit
on display with several
images and rare artifacts -- including the church pews
and mattress John and
Yoko made into a bed for their NY apartment. Saw a few
movies and checked out
their interactive touch-screen exhibits.
One of those touch-screen
programs includes all the inductees and their works.
Even non-performers who
didn't record even a single -- yet still influenced
rock & roll.
Wouldn't you know, the first inductee I look up was... well...
here's a hint...
"For $10,000, here is your first subject... GO!"
On the way home, I got smart
and bought a map of this city. Should come in
handy for tomorrow's
adventure (more on that in a sec).
After a day of seeing C-town
and being subjected to another round of
Construction Moneymaze, I return to the home away from home
for dinner. On
tonight's menu for dinner: chicken marsala, noodles
and aspargus along with
a fine chardonnay. My compliments to Tom for cooking up
a great meal. But,
I wondered, why do I feel like this is the dinner before
we're asked questions
about the mole?
Now, for tomorrow's
adventure. I meet up with Klaussie as we head to Pittsburgh
to help celebrate Rob
McMonigal's birthday.
Highlights to come in the
next update -- which will probably be Sunday since
we head to PA Saturday
afternoon and likely won't be back 'til early the next
morning.
Live in Cleveland,
Doug Morris
www.dougmorris.net
www.hubcitycommerce.com/rocktrax
rocktrax@rock104fm.com
================================
"RockTrax",
Sundays 10am-6pm on
104.5FM, Rock 104
(though this
Sunday, it's without
me!).
1/13 UPDATE
I'm literally half-asleep.
The Hornikels are getting ready for church as I type
this. They invited me to
join them -- but, since I got home about 3:30am Sunday
and there was potential
I would sleep through the sermon and my snoring would
grab half of Cleveland's
attention, I respectfully declined.
Based on that, sorry if this
update's short and/or if I leave out major details
(Klaussie, feel free to
chime in!).
Mike picked me up at the
fabulous Hotel Hornikel around 4:00pm Saturday. As
we traveled eastward, we
talked about <Gene Wood> the Klauss family </Gene
Wood>
-- the immediately kin
(Mom, who continues to improve; Dad, who looks like Kenny
Rogers; and Robin, who
by Klaussie's story was *much* more of a game show fan
than I thought) and
relatives that he has in Mississippi (some in Starkville,
good number in Meridian
which is a 90-minute drive northward for me from home).
We arrive in Pittsburgh,
Mike's following the directions from Yahoo! Maps and
thinks something's
amiss. Erring on the side of caution, we stop at a gas
station and call for directions from the zoo (which we
passed by at least 3 times).
We finally reach Rob
McMonigal's place for his birthday party and it was packed!
Lots of laughs and fun
had by all.
One card game we played was
Guillotine. The basic idea was we'd collect victims
that, by the end of each
turn, would <Inquizitor> surrender to the executioner's
melody
</Inquizitor>.
Ummm.... Klaussie, might
want to fill in further details ASAP. My eyes are
slamming shut. Tom and
company have left for church and that bed's calling
out my name.
Live in... where am I again?
Doug Morris
www.dougmorris.net
www.hubcitycommerce.com/rocktrax
rocktrax@rock104fm.com
================================
"RockTrax",
Sundays 10am-6pm on
104.5FM, Rock 104.
1/14 UPDATE
<Rod Roddy> If you'd
like to come visit Doug Morris in Cleveland.... FORGET
IT! </Rod Roddy>
Hellooooooooooooooooooo
everybody and welcome back to Cleveland. Quick recap
of Sunday. I finally
awoke to my senses about noonish, the time Tom
and company estimated
they'd be at Kim's parents' home. Get there around 1:30
-- just in time to enjoy
some of the world's largest sub sandwich and then Kim's
birthday cake. Over the
weekend, she turned 29 (see, Dave, that rule of FNC
anchorwomen and their
ages also applies to wives of minions).
Later that night, we enjoy
an evening of dinner at Bob Evans Restaurant. Never
been to one in a *long*
time. And it was an enjoyable time.
After the kids and Kim went
to bed, Tom and I dipped into his game show
collection. Among the highlights of our viewings...
\"The Joker's
Wild" (TJW). Hal Shear's lucky suit is put to the test. The
champ's
down 500-200 and the only way he can win is to spin a trio
of wild cards and
then correctly answer a question. After a few rubs of the
lucky suit...
"Jokerrrr... JokeRRRRR.... JOKER!!!!!"
You know the story by now, Hal picks a
question about News '78,
gets clues about the
pending closure of Radio City
Music Hall and wins.
\The pilot for TJW -- which
I've never seen save for snappies on game
show fan
sites. You know the deal, five celebrities
representing the categories on the
wheels and a scoring system where the
contestants <Jack Barry> play for points,
not dollars. </Jack Barry> Allen Ludden
hosted the pilot and was better than I
thought. Real neat thing about the
slot machine was when the player declared a
substitution of category for the
joker, they went on ahead and flipped to another
slide of the chosen category. Think
of it as a forerunner to the TJW'90 bonus
game. (ducking)
\"Tic Tac Dough (TTD)
from the '50s. We pretty much sped through the show since
it was rrrrrrRRRRRRIIIIIIIGGGGGGEDDDDD!!!!!!
\TTD's final episode from
the Martindale/Caldwell era. They finish up the game
from the last episode,
one last attempt to slay the dragon, Caldwell mentions
Lt. Thom McKee again,
throw to clip of Thom losing to Eric Kraepelien (as Tom H.
notes, you can't spell his last name without KRAP!),
come back to Caldwell who
acts like, eh, OK, so I screwed it up, but thanks
for watching these many years,
BYE! Nice heartfelt farewell, Jimbo. (Tom
and I agree he felt much more at home
at "Top Card").
\"Break the Bank"
-- the one with Gene Rayburn and the winning couple running
around in the prize
vault. We fast forward to the bonus game where the couple
accumulates four bank
cards, tries to win another prize with Charles Nelson
Reilly dressed as a
swami and next thing you know, all 240 earned seconds are
gone. CNR's response,
"Swami not come back." According to our mad anagrammer,
not much later, Gene not
come back either. Gene replaced with Joe Farago.
Proof positive friends
shouldn't let friends watch Kline & Friends.
\"Blank Check" The
pilot episode with "Chump Change" as its theme. They
don't
play with anagrams here
(same for the actual series). Art reads two "common
bond" clues leading
to one answer (such as guitarist... stripper... common bond is
G-string... it's a wonder I only remember *that*
question from last night) and the
first one to buzz in tries to guess what
number the check writer selected for a
number -- out of five randomly generated
digits.
\"Bullseye" The
pilot episode with the $1,000,000 bonus game. Trust me, it's
a good thing the $1M
concept didn't last beyond the pilot. The idea of risking
$500,000+ to go for all
the marbles only to get struck by lightning? OW!
FWIW, the player stopped
at $33,600 after building from $1050.
As for today, a trip to the
science museum and then the beginning of the end
of RockTrax in
Cleveland. My flight for home begins at 6:30am Tuesday.
So, with this probably being
the last update from C-Town, if I don't get to
say this later, I'd
better say this now. Major thanks to the Hornikel family
for letting me stay with
them these last few days and for Klaussie and Wayne
and the get-togethers at
the bar and later Rob's place in Pittsburgh.
When there was a post on the
Anime Match Game mailing list Greg couldn't make
it, I literally
considered not coming. This note was posted several hours after
Randy died. And then, I
got to thinking, Randy wouldn't want me to pass up
the chance to see fellow
minions. There was no way I could get back the money
I plunked down for
airfare (only $100 and change...not a brutal setback) --
so why not? *Real* glad
I came.
This will likely be the last
update from Cleveland. Again, the journey home
begins at 6:30am
Tuesday. So, we'll be leaving for the airport quite early
(extra security checks,
ya know -- still, smooth flying Thursday). I know I
owe you the chance to
see pictures from Rob's party. Probably will come later
this week.
All the best and thanks to all for making this a great trip.
Live in Cleveland,
Doug Morris
www.dougmorris.net
www.hubcitycommerce.com/rocktrax
rocktrax@rock104fm.com
================================
"RockTrax",
Sundays 10am-6pm on
104.5FM, Rock 104.
