" . . . . and now, a man who's ready to deal on the last of the 07s . . . . . David Letterman!"

ACT 1:
Dave billboards Tom Brokaw's new book, "Boom! Voices of the Sixties." Instead, he calls it, "Boom! The Story of Fireworks." I laughed.

After suffering a bitter defeat in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, Mitt Romney addressed his supporters. That is the reason for this next segment, "Mitt Romney Cliche Count ."
We see Mr. Romney addressing his supporters. You can imagine the list, such as: -"Washington is broken"
-". . . get the job done."
-" . . . send somebody to the Washington who will actually get the job done"
-". . . an America that remains strong."
-"Americans believe in hard work."
-"Americans love opportunity"
-"Americans are patriotic"
-". . . strengthen this great country by strengthening our families."
-". . . strengthen our economy."
-". . . strengthen America."

I'm proud of Mitt Romney's committing to recycling.
Following the piece, Dave remark about the big banner we saw behind Romney: "What are they going to do with the giant 'Mitt' sign?"

General Motors says it's working on a new driverless car that should be ready in the next ten years, and their latest commercial makes it look live a very exciting innovation.
Announce:

"For nearly a century, General Motors has led the way in automotive technology and now its engineers are working on a revolutionary vehicle that drives itself, steers itself, even parks itself, functioning with complete independence from the driver. Finally, after billions of dollars in research and development, we are proud to reveal the prototype of this astonishing innovation."
Shot of a horse.
"General Motors: Leading the way into the 19th Century!"

As a public service, we thought we'd give voters a more intimate look at the 2008 Presidential candidates. Tonight, we featured the winner of Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, Senator John McCain . We find Senator McCain sitting at a desk in an office, an American flag on each side. McCain: "A buddy of mine once dared me to drink a quart of motor oil. I drank two and made 40 bucks." Announce: "This has been "Late Show Candidate Spotlight."

We taped that last February. We may have some more like that.

GREAT MOMENTS IN PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHES
Bush: "I was in Cincinnati the other day. Stopped off and got some ribs."
Bush is like a comedian who is on the college circuit. On his drive in to the college, he makes a note of the local favorite diner or restaurant or bar. In his speech later that day, he'll refer to that place and get a big reaction from the crowd. The crowd loves it. "Hey, he's one of us." And it works. As silly as it may be, it works.

ACT 2:
It's a favorite segment of ours . . . it's "What's Rupert's Soup of the Day? "
We find Rupert in his Hello Deli.
DAVE: "What's the soup of the day, Rupert?"
RUPERT: "It's Dennis Kucinich Chowder."
DAVE: "What's in it?"
RUPERT: "I don't know, but nobody's buying it."
Fanfare from Paul and the band. When the music dies down . . .
RUPERT: "I just want to say thanks to my interim agreement with the Writers Guild of America. I'm thrilled to have my Hello Deli writing staff back." Enter Joe and Shecky. "Thanks, guys. You're the best."

TOP TEN Things Goose Gossage Can Say Now That He's Been Elected To The Baseball Hall of Fame .
And here to present tonight's top ten list, the newest member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Rich "Goose" Gossage.
-22-year major league career (23 if you count one year in Japan)
-A 9-time All-Star
-Recorded 310 saves
-The Hall of Fame induction ceremony is July 27th in Cooperstown, New York.
#9. "I traded my 1978 'Rolaids Reliever of the Year' award for a banjo.
#6. "I'm retired, but I still wear a cup."
#3. "To psych myself up for a game, I'd listen to the soundtrack to 'My Fair Lady.'"

Great guy, the Goose. He was very happy to be here and of course, we were very happy to have him. I still remember sitting high up at Yankee Stadium . . . way high up in the upper deck . . . and being able to hear the pounding of the catcher's mitt while Goose Gossage warmed up in the bullpen. The guy blazed.

ACT 3:
MORGAN FREEMAN : From the new film, "The Bucket List."
Dave compliments Morgan, saying he is one of "a few guys who automatically make the movie better." Dave diminished the compliment when he said Tom Arnold was another.
Dave asked what actors did he watch growing up, who influenced him? Morgan says Humphrey Bogart was one; Gary Cooper was another. "Anybody who was working" says Morgan. Mr. Freeman says he is a student of the acting craft. "I watch to learn how to do it."
Morgan has a 128-acre horse farm in Mississippi. He corrects Dave by calling it "128 acres with horses on it." Is Mr. Freeman a good rider? Morgan says with pride, "I think I'm an excellent rider." Ever get tossed? This delights Morgan; "Oh, heavens, yes!" I guess in order to become an excellent rider you have to be tossed a few times. Dave and Morgan then enjoyed telling stories about horse riding. Once upon his favorite horse, Sable, Morgan came upon a bush that turned into a stump. Morgan knew Sable would try to jump the stump at full gallop. Unfortunately, Sable changed her mind without telling Morgan. Morgan made the jump first. . . and Sable came soon after. Ouch.
"The Bucket List" " starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, opens nationwide on Friday.

ACT 4:
TOM BROKAW : He has a new book, entitled "Boom! Voices of the Sixties " Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today."
After Dave's comment about Tom's turtleneck and jacket, Tom returns fire by saying, "Well, I didn't get a tie from the Green Bay Packers." We look at Dave's green and gold striped tie. Oooh, good dig by Mr. Brokaw.
And speaking of turtlenecks . . . Tom and turtlenecks struck a familiar cord. I checked my files.
Yup. December 11, 1998 was turtleneck night and our guest that night was Tom Brokaw. Ta da!
Tom talks about the campaign, Iowa, New Hampshire, and how the polling got it all wrong. Actually, they only got Hillary and Barack wrong. They were right on all the rest.
Tom's new book, "Boom! Voices of the Sixties" is in stores now. He already has two follow ups, entitled, "Thwack!" and "Kapow!"
I was born too late to really experience the turbulent 60s. But I was the right age to take advantage of the fallout without the responsibilities.

ACT 5:
It's Alan Kalter taking a drag off a cigarette at this perch. And if Bloomberg becomes President, that'll be a felony.

ACT 7:
CHUCK PROPHET : From his new CD, "Soap and Water," Chuck Prophet performed "Doubter of Jesus."

And that was our show for Wednesday, January 9, 2008.



You know, if it weren't for the Late Show, you would never see a Writers Guild picket sign on TV.

Hmmmm. So last week in Iowa, Hillary was old, tired, and out of step. It was said by some that she should consider retiring. And then in New Hampshire she has risen to the top in triumph and has become re-energized. How did this happen? I think I know . . . . steroids.

From Tuesday's New York Times

Corrections: For The Record
-The TV Watch column in Weekend on Friday, about the return of some late-night talk shows that had been in reruns because of the writers' strike, misstated part of the title of a segment on David Letterman's show. It was 'Hal Gurnee 's Network Time Killers," not 'Time Wasters.' Because of an editing error, the column also misstated the position Mr. Gurnee held on Mr. Letterman's show in 1988, when the segment was introduced during the writers' strike that year. He was the director, not the producer."

After the polls getting the Clinton/Barack results so wrong in New Hampshire, I had to laugh this morning when the news shows were touting the most recent polling in South Carolina. These cable news shows are like the Wahoo Gazette. They'll use anything to take up space, whether its truthful or not.

The Goose . In his prime he could send a fastball 102 mph past a batter. I always thought that the Goose should have started a rumor at the end of his career that he was a raving alcoholic. He'd come on the mound unshaven, sloppy, disheveled . . . and then throw 95 mph wild fastballs during his warmups. The batters would be so darn afraid to step in that Gossage could have lasted another 5 years. That's what I would have suggested.
And this is the most impressive statistics in Goose's repertoire. Of his 310 saves, 52 of those were of 7 outs or more. Back in his day, a closer didn't just come in for the 9th inning for 3 easy outs. Nope. They would come in with two men on, no outs, in the 7th. That's when closers were closers.
How many 7-out saves does Mariano Rivera have in his career, the game's greatest reliever of today? One.
When it was announced who was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame, the fans weren't chanting "Goooooooooose!" They were booing the fact that Jim Rice wasn't elected, too.

College football has got to do something about their BCS Championship game. It's barely a blip on the sports screen. It's turned into a one-day deal without much lead-up, without much post-game chatter New Years Eve and New Years Day used to be THE day for college football, but then they went out and tried to maximize their exposure and as a result, minimized it.

I found the following in the book, "A Collection of E-Mails ."

"Fi yuo can raed this, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid, too. Cna yuo raed tihs? I cdnuolt blveiie taht I cluod aulacity uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the human mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteras in a wrod are, the olny ipromtnt thing is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt."

CAMEO MENTION OF A WAHOO READER
From Toronto, Canada, it's Frank Cassano
This concludes another episode of CAMEO MENTION OF A WAHOO READER