"Says You," Part 2

I spent a part of the afternoon bemoaning my misspent youth...but I'll get to that in a minute.

First, we went out to Denny's for breakfast with Steve and Michael and found out what grown men do when they go out to breakfast on a Sunday morning.

(It's a good thing that most of us drink our coffee black!)

By the time Steve had dismissed us all and was ready to get the hell out of there, it was too late to "do" anything and really too early to head to Skirball, but we did it anyway. Not surprisingly, we were the first in line! Another guy wasn't far behind us, though. But he wasn't interested in socializing. He had come prepared for the wait, with a chair, dark glasses, big earphones, and his iPod. As the crowd began to grow and chit chat with one another, this guy sat resolutely in his chair, keeping the rest of us out of his little private world.

More people began to gather. The next couple behind us was, oddly enough, from Citrus Heights (where my cousin Kathy lives) and had driven all the way down for the show. We chatted with them a lot. This was their first time, but probably won't be their last.

Also, I hope someone can help me with this. Can you identify this logo? A woman in line had a bag with this logo and it looked like exactly the kind of bag I'm looking for to replace my 15+ year old bag. Let me know if you know what it is! (Isn't a zoom lens a wonderful thing?)

They finally opened the doors so we could pick up tickets and pass into the next waiting area. I hope this doesn't sound terrible, but it seems strange that in a Jewish Center, people would be herded into a small, cramped, hot room, packed like sardines, with no place to sit and have to wait for an undetermined amount of time. (I will admit that you could buy food in there, but still...)

This time we were prepared and in front when the doors opened, so we had much better seats and it made the show much more enjoyable, being able to see the entire stage rather than just half of it.

During mic check. Tony Kahn referred to yesterday's blog entry and my comment about the ceiling decoration reminding me of a giant shuttlecock. (It was fun being acknowledged, but thanks, Tony, for not pointing me out in the audience!)

As the show progressed, we were reminded of why it's so much fun to go to an actual taping since there is so much that doesn't make it to air. This year seemed to be particularly flub-heavy and while that was great fun for those of us in the audience, the flubs and offhand political comments will be edited out of the final broadcast. They were also able to re-do bits that hadn't gone right the night before. All seven of those guys (6 panelists and host Richard Sher) are such quick wits that the humor flies back and forth like a ping pong ball over a net and it's such fun to listen to.

And you always learn something. Where else can you find out that mpeg actually stands for "Motion Picture Expert Group" or that an "Elephant" is a sheet of paper measuring 23x28? And it was nice to learn that "Yabbers" was not the name of Fred Flintstone's backup singers.

We also would have missed the fact that one of the young scorekeepers had to be replaced mid-way through the second taping because he apparently didn't appreciate all the humor and banter that was being tossed about and was having a hard time staying awake.

But then we came to my lament over my misspent youth. The guest singers, who open the show and fill in during bluffing rounds, were the Scattered Tones (I think that was their name), an a capella group from UCLA. They were used in one game round to sing bits of songs that were the answer to the question. The task to the panel was to name the very first track on six well known albums. There was a lot of tittering about how little the panellists actually remembered during the period when these albums were popular, how some songs went best with brownies, etc., etc.

It made me sad because I only recognized the title of ONE of the albums, don't own any of them, and didn't know any of the songs they were naming. While many on the panel were enjoying the likes of Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and the Beatles and smoking up a lot of funny smelling stuff, I was listening to crooners (Crosby, perhaps, but Bing) and belters (like Judy Garland) and girl band singers (like Doris Day). And even though Walt and I didn't marry young by the standards of 1965 (he was 25, I was 22), I was rockin' babies instead of rockin' and rollin'. So there is a huge group of people who are slightly younger than I who had a completely different experience of the 60s than I do!

All things considered, I am probably the better for it (given my addictive personality), but it was sad that I was sitting in a house full of people nodding appreciatively at not only the music, but the memories, and Walt and I were sitting there just listening. It had not been our experience.

When you add up the cost of tickets for two tapings, the cost of air fare, car rental, motel, and eating out for five meals, this ain't a cheap date, but boy was it worth every single penny. I can't wait for them to come back again.

New and Improved

As you drive down Burbank Blvd., here in Burbank, there are signs on every lamp post which tell you that this is the "new and improved Burbank Blvd." It's been a year since we were last here and, I hate to tell you, but I am not sure what's new and/or improved about it!

We left just shortly after the crack of dawn this morning for the Sacramento airport.

I wandered around the airport while Walt got our boarding passes printed. I have always loved this innovative column of luggage that holds up the baggage claim area. I think there are three of them in all. Very clever on someone's part!

I was thrilled to discover that Sacramento has now gone all free wifi and has installed tables and benches for you to use with your computer, though I didn't. I had brought along a book on my iPod and just sat and listened to that until time to board the plane. (But I did send updates to Facebook via my cell phone and Twitter...love modern technology!)

The thing I like about Southwest is that they are more "colorful" than other airlines. One of the flight attendants had a pot belly and handlebar moustache (yes, it was a man!). The head attendant announced that her son had just become a film director and his first movie Scout Camp had just been released and we should all go see it -- or at least watch clips on YouTube. I felt duty bound to share that news with everyone else.

I did watch the film clip and probably won't see the film, but check it out for yourself, to make my flight attendant happy! His name is apparently Garrett Batty (I put that in in case he's googling himself).

We stopped for lunch at a Baja Fresh, then drove the long way out Burbank Blvd to our motel, where we stayed last year. Walt, who had read in an airplane magazine that naps are good for you, so he decided to take the article at its word.

We had a quick dinner at Denny's (where I decided that all foods come crispy, smothered, deep fried, or swimming in butter. Now they have a new thing called "pancake puppies," which are pancakes rolled in cinnamon and sugar with a maple dipping sauce. I ordered tilapia with mixed vegetables, and the tilapia came in a pool of butter (not that I minded, of course!) The choice of "sides" was corn, mashed potatoes, hash browns, French fries, onion rings, cinnamon apples (warm apple pie filling), corn and mixed vegetables. Very hard to eat healthy (not that I usually do!)

Then we drove up Sepulveda Blvd to the top, where the Skirball Center is located. This is our fourth year coming to see tapings of Says You (despite the fact that it's listed as the third year) and we know the drill now. We lined up at about 6:30 for the 7:30 show and we were among the first 25, but by the time we actually got into the theatre (after standing for half an hour butt to butt with everyone else), the seats were almost all taken. We had to sit in the next to last row behind a guy who had moved his seat out into the aisle, effectively blocking everyone behind him. I got to see half of the panel, and hear the other half!

While waiting for the show to start, we admired the ceiling, which reminded me of a badminton shuttlecock!

The show was, of course, lots of fun and I'm going to have to try to work up a song to "the lickpot's connected to the purlique..."

We talked a bit to Tony Kahn after the show and then came back here to the hotel. I spoke with Steve earlier this afternoon and made plans to meet him and Michael for breakfast tomorrow before we head back to Skirball for the second taping.

A nice way to spend a weekend!

A Brief Post-Mortem

I just want to add just a few more words about Says You before going on with the rest of my life. I've had messages from people who say they checked it out and it doesn't seem to be playing in their area.

Best thing to do is to go to the Says You web site where you can find a list of all the stations in the country which carry the show, and when it is on. If none of those stations is within your radio-listening area, many of those stations stream the show, so you can listen on the internet, if you have a way to do that. The wonderful thing about the Internet is that you don't need to be near a radio station's signal to listen to a radio show. You can be in Maine and pick up the streaming audio from San Francisco (in fact, before we started getting the show from Audible.com, our radio signal was often very weak and we would listen to the San Francisco station on my computer instead).

If you love word play, bad puns, and just general intelligent (and sometimes downright stupid) humor, I encourage you to check the show out. The thing that we have enjoyed, these past three years of flying to LA to catch tapings, is finding out how many other people are as nutty as we are, as addicted to this show about "words and wimsey; bluff and bluster." I know so many people who love "Wait, Wait, Don't tell Me" (and I do too), but that show is more topical. Unless it's an "evergreen" episode, it kind of loses its impact three years later, whereas the Says You 11 year old recordings are as fresh as they were at the time they were recorded.

The interesting thing I discovered in an extremely short poll, based on the fact that I seem to "know" Tony Kahn in so many different venues, is that there are Says You people and there are Morning Stories people and the two don't seem to have met. It was a surprise that none of the Morning Stories transcribers had heard of Says You and it was another surprise to discover that none of the people we spoke with in line at Says You ever listened to Morning Stories. It just seemed, to me, at least, that a crossover was inevitable.

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One nice thing about the trip, about any trip, actually, was the time spent in the airplane, which allowed me to finish reading the book I had been readiong ("The Surgeon," by Tess Gerritsen) and start reading a new one ("Dead and Doggone" by Susan Conant).

(yes, Jeri, I can turn off the TV any time and read, but somehow I just don't.)

I bought the Conant book after I finished her first one, "A New Leash on Death." I really, really like reading books which are part of a series in order, so I couldn't read any other Conant books until I'd read book 2 of the series.

I didn't like book 2 as well as I did book 1. It might have been partly because I was distracted by airports, and airplanes and just all the stuff we were doing. But one thing that Conant does--and I've seen this in two books now--is to slip in an awful lot of instruction about dogs within the format of a plot line.

I've learned a lot about obedience training, for example, as well as characteristics of various breeds. I think it was the last book that gave a recipe for making your own liver treats to use in training.

But this book did something else. It shed light on animal testing and what you might find in a laboratory that is testing products on animals, specifically dogs. She describes dogs stolen from their families, sold to laboratories who ask no questions, the living conditions in cramped cages, debarking to prevent them from making noise when they are hurt, and a host of other things that happen to research animals.

I'm sure that any animal lover (a) would also be appalled at what I read in Conant's book, and (b) probably also turns a blind eye because we don't really want to know. It's easy to get indignant on a case by case basis. The recent expose on puppy mills got me, for one, to write a diatribe against pet shops and puppy mills, and YouTube had lots of videos about the living conditions of the "breeder bitches" in puppy mills.

I've recently been watching Escape to Chimp Eden, which documents a man's fight to save chimpanzees who have been through horrible traumas -- held captive for decades without access to trees or anything but concrete under their feet, or infants torn from their mothers to become someone's housepet, until that person finds out that a chimpanzee is not as "cute" a pet as they once thought. The stories go on and on.

And then there is the David Sheldrake Wildlife Trust, about which I've written before, which rescues orphaned baby elephants who have watched their mothers often slaughtered before their eyes and who have lost the love of the herd to which they belonged. (I am still haunted by the photo of Daphne Sheldrake comforting an infant who watched the slaughter of its mother and cried out in its sleep.)

The other day I watched an expose of dolphin farming, first learning about the nature of dolphin societies, the closeness among family members, and then watching as hundreds of dolphins were killed on Japanese beaches, watching them in the death throes, hearing their cries. It was heartbreaking.

But we human beings are terribly cruel to animals. We spend fortunes on cute little outfits for chihuahuas or bull dogs, but we buy products that torture animals in the process of making a face cream safe for a middle-aged woman's wrinkles.

I don't have a place where I am taking this entry. I am appalled at what we do to animals and I don't know what to do with my anger, because I still eat meat and I probably use products which were developed by testing on animals. I understand that some testing maybe necessary and that we probably do far too much of it. I also understand that animal societies are far more complex than we ever realized and that it diminishes us as human beings to devalue the life of other animals.

I have this burning need within me to DO SOMETHING, but the problem is so huge I don't yet know what that "something" is. I guess the first step is just awareness and then education...and reading labels more carefully to familiarize myself with the products and brands which test on animals, trying to find similar products which do not.

I haven't reached the "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more" stage, but I sure have reached the "I'm seriously concerned that I have unwittingly contributed to the torture of some poor animal" stage. It seems to me that once we know the facts and see for ourselves the horror that some animals go through, we really are duty bound to make some change in our lives, whether that be becoming active in animal rights causes, or simply changing the way we choose the products that we use.

It seems like a small thing, but every good change begins with a small step, doesn't it?

Check this website if you really care...

Not a Multi-Media Event

Anyone who has read this journal for any length of time at all knows that I am obsessed with recording the special events, as well as the mundane events, in my life with photos and now with video. But, you know? Sometimes it's just nice to sit back and watch it all happen, without hiding behind the camera.

We are now home from our whirlwind trip to Southern California for the taping of four Says You radio shows and I have only a handful of photos to show for the trip, and none of those is particularly good. But I sure have a wealth of memories of the lovely time that it was.

This morning started with a Grand Slam breakfast at the Dennys attached to the motel. We thought we might take in the Bob Dylan exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center, where the Says You tapings were taking place, but there really wasn't time. By the time we got to Skirball, "the faithful" were already lining up to pick up their pre-ordered tickets (the show was sold out). By the time the doors opened, they filled the 300 seat hall.

One woman, who definitely qualified as a hard core groupie, let us know in no uncertain terms that she was first in line. She had been to see the group in Raleigh No. Carolina and now in Los Angeles, but she missed the taping in her home town of Seattle. But she was an expert in All Things Says You and wanted to make sure we all knew it.

Walt and I sat with a lovely couple from San Francisco, who had also been to the previous years' tapings. So we were not the only ones to have come such a long distance.

While we were waiting, Tony Kahn passed by on his way from the Bob Dylan exhibit to the green room, and we all chatted for awhile again. One topic was Tony's six part show, Blacklisted, originally produced in 1996, which is available to hear or download from the WGBH web site.

Tony's father was screen writer Gordon Kahn, whom J. Edgar Hoover, called "one of the three most dangerous Communists in Hollywood," and put him on his "security index," a secret list of people to be placed in armed detention camps in the event of a national security emergency. Gordon Kahn spent Tony's growing up years shuttling his family back and forth between Mexico and the United States, always under the watchful eye of J. Edgar Hoover, trying to feed his family by writing under various nom de plumes. The experience of growing up in such an environment related by Kahn and a host of top notch actors (Carol O'Connor is Hoover, for example) is both riveting and an amazing piece of theatre. I highly recommend checking it out, if you remember living through that period, and even more strongly if you are too young to remember. Hear what it was like for the families of the victims of the witchhunt which was conducted in this country for fifteen years and find out the secret Kahn kept during all those years.

...but back to Says You...

The other panelists: Carolyn Faye Fox,
Arnie Riesman and Paula Lyons

As it was yesterday, the show was just so much fun. And of course we came away with a bunch of esoteric facts, like learning about the Pando aspen grove in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah, determined to be part of a single living organism by identical genetic markers and one massive underground root system. The plant is estimated to weigh collectively 6,615 tons, making it the heaviest known organism. The root system of Pando is claimed by some to be among the oldest known living organisms in existence at 80,000 years of age.

I also want to commit to memory the term "clem" which is the state of being very hungry!

Once again, first grader Benjamin Shur, son of moderator Richard Shur, was one of the scorekeepers and again I was reminded of how much he looked like a very young John Denver.

The neat thing about Says You is that it is really a comprehensive word game. If you can't do all that well on astronomy or other science questions, or aren't too clear on your sports trivia, just wait and they'll eventually hit your category.

Today it was identifying Broadway musicals from a list of songs in the show, from lest known to best known. If you identified the musical with the first song, it was for 10 points, if you needed two songs it was 8 points, etc. I got every single question with the first song (except The Producers which I needed two songs to identify), while all the panelists struggled with each set of songs.

Ok--so I don't know anything about the Van Allen belt, but I know that "Little House of Uncle Thomas" is from The King and I!

Tony and I talked a bit about bringing the show to San Francisco and what is involved in that. I offered some suggestions of possible venues that would work and be the right size for the show and hope to follow through with that in the coming weeks.

After we left Skirball, we drove through town looking for a place to eat, and ended up at a Mexican restaurant, where we filled up on burritos and tamales and really good chips. Then off to the airport, onto the plane, and home again.

We'd been gone only 36 hours but sure filled those hours. We also came home to only three dogs. Scrappy and Scooby are gone. I have to admit that though they were real cuties, it sure is more peaceful around here tonight!

This is the "Photo of the Day" over on Funny the World.
I just love it--it's panelist Paula Lyons in conversation with young Benjamin.

Two Pairs of Pants

It's so late as I write this that it is actually April 26th (so let's all take a moment to wish Jeri a happy birthday, OK?).

It seems a very long time since I put on two pairs of black long pants and headed to the Sacramento airport yesterday morning.

Perhaps I should explain.

I slept with all the dogs last night, three puppies in my lap in the recliner. I woke up around 5 or so and started to prepare to leave on our whirlwind trip to So. California. We were going to two days' worth of tapings (i.e., 4 shows) of "Says You," flying down in the morning of Friday and returning the evening of Saturday.

Since all I really own in the way of pants is sweats and my "good" black velveteen pants, I chose the latter and got dressed (a whole 'nothing story--try keeping 3 puppies downstairs while you shower upstairs!). We still had an hour or so before we were taking off for the airport so I worked some (of course) at the computer and the puppies would. not. leave. me. alone. They were desperate for affection and kept pawing at my legs so vigorously that I was afraid they would tear a hole in my only good pants, so I decided to put on a pair of sweats over the velveteen. This worked quite well.

Until, of course, we were backing out of the driveway and I realized I was still wearing two pairs of pants. But I decided to keep them on, in case I spilled something on myself (a definite probability!).

I knew the second we stepped off the plane in LA that I was waaay overdressed. It was probably mid-80s, and not only was I wearing two pairs of pants (one of which were sweat pants), but also a lovely wintery top which has long sleeves, and was way too hot.

Thank god for air conditioning in our rental Kia (which is very red!)

We found a restaurant ("Tom's Family Restaurant #7", which promised "Tom's Better than Mom's") and had a not-better-than-mom's burger, then checked into our motel. Walt took a nap, I took off my sweat pants, checked e-mail (love that wi fi!) and finished my book.

We decided neither of us was hungry, so we headed up to the Skirball Cultural Center, arriving shortly before 7 to join the people already lined up to get their entree into the hall where the evening's "Says You" episodes were being taped.

The hardest part is the waiting. Not too long to get tickets, but it seemed like forever before we were allowed into the hall. Since we had made arrangements to meet panelist Tony Kahn, host of WGBH's "Morning Stories," as well as "Says You" panelist, at the break between the two shows, we sat in the second row directly in front of where Tony would sit with fellow team members Francine Achbar and Barry Nolan.

Tom Bergeron, host of "Dancing with the Stars," a fan of "Says You" and friend to several on the panel sat directly behind us and, we learned later, in the row in front of us was the producer of "Desperate Housewives."

There was one seat empty in our row and a woman asked if it was taken. I told her it was not and we started chatting. I had the sneaking feeling it was Tony Kahn's wife, producer Harriet Reisen, with whom I had had some communication. She began asking questions about where we had come from and if we'd been to a taping before. Almost at the same time we said "Are you Harriet? / Are you Bev?" So it was delightful to watch the show with her.

It was an even bigger surprise when the mic checks began and each panelist was to introduce him or herself and make a few wisecracks and the first thing Tony said to the crowd was "Is Beverly Sykes here?" I think he intended that to be a jumping off point to talk about the transcription we've all done for Morning Stories, but he got sidetracked when he noted that I was sitting next to his "lovely wife Harriet Reisen."

As always the show was fun--hilarious in spots. Look up Rhinotillexomania, if you want to increase your vocabulary. And while you're at it, toss a few nobbins at the busker on the corner. We learned a lot about interplanetary trivia, I know what a "white dwarf" is, and I'll bet you don't know that Dan Rice was the model for Uncle Sam (and that he was also a professional clown who once ran for president...so, you see, GW wasn't the first after all.)

It will be fun to relive this all when the recording comes out through Audible.com in a couple of weeks. (Though I'm betting that the 5 minutes that the host (Richard Sher) was missing during the middle of the show will have been edited out, though it was very funny, as he explained that the elevator didn't want to work and so he was unable to return from his bathroom break!)

At the break between shows, I finally met Tony Khan up close and personal.

I've "known" him via the internet, "Morning Stories," and the interview he did with each of the transcribers for "Morning Stories," so it was like meeting an old friend you had never seen in the flesh before.

The taping ran so late that we left without saying goodbye, came back to the motel and went to Denny's to get a very late dinner.

Tomorrow we head back to Skirball for the taping of another two shows, then back to Davis before nightfall. As I said, this is a whirlwind trip, but lemme tell you--it sure is worth it!

But I have to figure out what to do with my sweatpants, which won't fit in the suitcase. I sure don't want to wear two pairs of pants around Burbank all day!