AUDIENCE SHOW AND TELL
AS&T #1: Aimee Davis of Homewood, Illinois:
“Homewood, is that a suburb of Chicago?” Aimee says it is and Dave surmises most every town in Illinois can be described as a suburb of Chicago. Aimee is a school teacher.

What does Aimee have to show or tell? She was an audience member at the Oprah Winfrey show for her “Oprah’s Favorite Things” for school teachers episode. As a school teacher and being a member of the audience that day, she received over $25,000 worth of free stuff! Aimee has a clip. We see Oprah bellow something about the school teachers in the audience getting free stuff. The audience erupts with glee! During one of the crowd shots, we can see Aimee jumping for joy way in the background.

Dave wonders about the clip we saw of Oprah. “She seems a bit unstable, don’t you think?” He quickly adds, “Oprah looks fantastic, but just a bit nuts.”

Here’s my short list of “Favorite Things for School Teachers.” 1. Summers.

Uhhhh, are school teachers allowed to accept such gifts? I know a New York City Police Officer could not. . . . . although if it came from Oprah, I’m sure it would be OK.

AS&T #2: Mark Vickers of Cromwell, Connecticut.
Ahhh, Connecticut, a beautiful state. And what is the nickname for Connecticut? There are two of them. Mark thinks and says, “The Nutmeg State and the Constitution State.” DING! This excites Dave. It’s nice to meet someone who knows their state. I missed the next minute of chat as I received a phone call from our Research Department. I’m told Connecticut is also known as “The Provisions State” and “The Land of Steady Habits.” I never heard of this, but sure enough, check out this website and you will see it is true.

http://www.roadescape.com/nutmeg.html

Connecticut: The Provisions State
Connecticut played a major part in the American fight for independence from England. During the American Revolution, a large number of soldiers who volunteered to fight in the Revolutionary army came from Connecticut. It may be even more important, though, that people from Connecticut took on the hard job of supplying the Continental Army with food and clothing—provisions.

Connecticut: The Land of Steady Habits
When you think of Yankee thrift, resourcefulness, and moral character, you're thinking of a land of steady habits. Many people from Connecticut felt those characteristics all applied to them, so this is one of the nicknames they called their state. It gives the same idea as "Nutmegger," with a strong dose of good morals thrown in.

What does Mark Vickers have for us? He can place and hold 6 pencils under his bottom lip. Shoving the eraser-end of 6 pencils under his lip, Mark achieves what he claimed he could do. I tried it later in my office. I was able to do two.

AS&T #3. Jason Henry of New York City.
He works at Gold’s Gym right around the corner. What can he do for us, or show us? Jason says he can do 10 pushups on his thumbs. He has never met anyone else who could do this. Wow! Jason gets down and begins. OUCH! He does his ten, much to most everyone’s amazement. And what made this all the harder was that he was facing downhill a bit, putting more pressure down on his thumbs. Nice job, Jason. I picture Jason every night lying awake in his bed, wondering why he wasn’t born into a world where thumb wrestling is a major sport.

And that was Audience Show and Tell.

JIGSAW, THE FOOTBALL PLAYING DOG
Out on 53rd Street we have a guy named Matthew Perry and his dog, Jigsaw. Dave tells Matthew that he loved him on the Friends show. Matt’s reaction was that of a guy who’s heard that a few thousand times before. Jigsaw is a border collie and can catch a football when thrown to him! Matthew and Jigsaw are from Austin, Texas. Out on 53rd Street tonight we’ve laid out a long green carpet pretending it’s astro turf. Matthew calls out a pass pattern and Jigsaw runs it. Matthew fades back and lets it fly. Jigsaw is right on it to complete the completion. Nice job, both Matt and Jigsaw.

ELTON JOHN: He has a new CD, Peachtree Road. Elton has sold over 200 million albums and is a Rock and Roll legend.

Elton’s outfit consisted of a very long shirt under a suit jacket. Dave asked about it, and Elton simply explained it’s a 21st century shirt. Oh. I’m still dressing like it’s 1969 without the bell bottoms.

Dave asks Elton some questions that Paul had been wondering. Can Elton read music? He can, sort of, kind of. He used to be able to read music well, but hasn’t really had to recently. You sort of lose it when you don’t use it. He can read a chord sheet and that’s more than meets Elton’s needs. Like Dave, this is all a foreign language to me. Elton does most of his playing by ear, and my memory.

Paul says he heard Elton perform last year at the Radio City Music Hall with a 100-piece orchestra. It was a fantastic sound. Elton said it was a great experience. Elton now has a recurring gig in Vegas at Caesar’s at the same theater that showcases Celine Dion. Elton loves it and is signed on for another 3 years.

What’s the deal with Madonna? Elton said a few things about the lady that created a stir some time back. He was at some irreverent music award show and was to present the award for Best Live Show. Madonna had been nominated. Elton pointed out the absurdity of Madonna being nominated for such an award when she lip-synchs so much of her show. Elton says young artists break the back night after night putting on a real LIVE show and they are the ones who should be recognized. Elton says that he was told in Madonna’s defense, “Well, she can’t sing when she’s in the crab position.” I found that very funny.

Elton also has very high words for Jamie Foxx in his portrayal of Ray Charles in the film, Ray. He hopes Jamie wins an Academy Award for the performance. Elton John recorded a duet with Ray Charles, the last recording session Ray ever did. Their corroboration, “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word” appears on the Ray Charles CD, Genius Loves Company. The CD is on my player right now at home.

EVA MENDES: She’s in the new film, Hitch. It opens February 11th. She is very excited to be here, wanting to be a guest for years. Watching Jigsaw out on 53rd Street and with the Super Bowl this weekend, Dave wonders if Eva is interested in sports or was ever a cheerleader? She’s not much the sports fan, but was a cheerleader in high school. Unfortunately, she was kicked off the squad for not showing enough team spirit. What happened? The squad was required to wear their cheerleading outfit every Friday during school. She didn’t go for that. So they held an intervention. She was told, “Eva, we’re very worried about you and your lack of team spirit.” Eva called them all crazy and that was that. She got the boot off the team.

How was it working with Will Smith in Hitch? She says he is great to work with and had a kissing scene in the film. She was a bit nervous so she relaxed with some comfort food. Comfort food for Eva is a tuna sandwich with onions and crushed Doritos on top. She didn’t consider the consequences. Will Smith looked at her and said, “What are you doing?” She quickly grabbed a fistful of Altoids to cover it up.

ACT 5: Jigsaw attempts a down and out. Unfortunately, the passes were incomplete. But hold on! Don’t blame Jigsaw. I knew what the problem was immediately. By now it was nightfall. We had lights on 53rd to illuminate the street. When Jigsaw ran down field and cut to the left, the poor dog was looking right into the lights. Check out the shadow of QB Matthew. His shadow falls in direct line to where Jigsaw was to catch the ball. The ball was coming right out of the light. As soon as Jigsaw turned, he froze. He had no chance.

ELTON JOHN: From his CD, Peachtree Road, Elton performed “All That I’m Allowed.”

To close the show, Dave tries his hand at quarterbacking for Jigsaw. The combination is gold. For those keeping score at home, mark it “complete” for 10 yards, Letterman to Jigsaw.

And that was our show for Thursday February 3, 2005. Wahoo EXTRA!

I asked Jigsaw after the show who he likes in the big game on Sunday. He said he’s going with the dog.

Ooops. Tuesday night, the Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensembles performed “One Night in Tunisia.” That was the alternate song to “Never Never Land.” I guess they made the change during rehearsal.

February 3, 2005; or 2-3-05. Today’s show number is 2311, or 2-3-11. It was almost a perfect match, missing only by 6 shows . . . . . or by 6 years; 2305=2305. Hmmm. Next February we’ll be in the Show # 2500’s. Will February 5, 2006 be show #2506? Nope. Because February 5 is a Sunday. Dang it! We’ll have to wait for February 7, 2007 to see if it’s show #2707. Somebody please remind me when the time comes around.

Oh, one more thing about my Super Bowl Weekend idea. During the Sunday Night Super Bowl Weekend Variety Show following Saturday’s game, the NFL can announce the winner of the year’s Most Valuable Player. Heck, they can do all that kind of stuff, like announcing Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year, Best Catch of the Year, Best Run of the Year, Best Play of the Year, etc. etc. etc. Lots of clips, lots of face time for the players. It would be a chance to get the fans to get to know the players. It’s something the league is always striving for. It’s a way to get more NFL merchandise moving. So far we have this: the game on Saturday night. Sunday night will be the Variety Show with music, comedians, announcing of the NFL Awards, the winning team with the Super Bowl trophy, and a look at the Super Bowl commercials and the Super Bowl halftime show. Dang! That’s 3 hours of prime time network television! Are you reading this, Mr. Moonves? CBS had the game last year. Fox has it this year. ABC and NBC will have it in 2006 and 2007, not sure which network with which year. So I think CBS would have it again in 2008. Things tend to move at a snail’s pace so I think 2008 could be our target date. C’mon, there’s money to be made here. Lots of it.

Next on my agenda: what to do for the Friday Night of the Super Bowl Weekend. Maybe the network can highlight the city, like what they had to do to get the game, what they’ve done since getting the game, and what other exciting things the city has to offer besides the Super Bowl. Not too exciting yet, but I’m working on it. How about making the Friday a state celebration with their greatest entertainers putting on a show?