Word Nerds

The last time we attended a taping of our favorite radio show, Says You, ("a radio game show of bluff and bluster, words and whimsey") Richard Sher, who started the show in 1996, was the host.  Richard died in 2015 and actually, though I have been a devoted listener lo these many years, I had a difficult time listening to the show without Richard at the helm.

Richard was first replaced by Barry Nolan, who had been a panelist for all those years, but I found he was a much more enjoyable panelist than he was a host and so I just stopped listening altogether.  Walt still listens, but he no longer lets me know it's on, so I haven't heard it in a long time.

Barry has since been replaced by Gregg Porter of Seattle's KUOW.  I had never heard him before, though he has been hosting for some time now.

Says You broadcasts at various venues around the country.  Though they are based in Boston you may find them all over the place.  We have seen them in San Francisco, in So California, and somewhere near Stanford.  One weekend we flew to Burbank and attended tapings in two different venues on two different days. We began to recognize some of the other "regulars" as we stood in line waiting to get into the venue.  I even worked for panelist Tony Kahn for awhile, doing some transcription for him and his own PBS radio show.

I think the group must have come to San Francisco once before, since Richard's death, because the guy sitting in the box seat with us yesterday saw them at Herbst theater, and we did not.

Walt let me know a few months ago that the show would be recording in San Francisco on my birthday, which seemed to answer the question "what are you going to do on your birthday?"

We drove down to SF in the afternoon and got there in time to have dinner at Max's Opera Cafe.  They must have known I was coming.

 

It was delicious and though the cabbage didn't look that appetizing, it was almost (but not quite) better than the crab cakes, but it was sautéed with bacon and onions and huge chunks of shitaki mushrooms and was fabulous.

 

We were finished in plenty of time to walk the block to Herbst Hall and find our box seats.

Then the panelists came out and filled in the "stereo left, stereo right" seats.

 

We did wonder whatever happened to Barry Nolan, who said he had been out on SF Bay during the day, but didn't mention the color of his face!

 

They tape two shows each time and toward the end of the first show, the host made the announcement that I was in the audience and celebrating my birthday.  Tony (left above) said he didn't realize I was there.  I guess someone backstage had been checking the Says You Facebook page, where I mentioned looking forward to going to the show for my birthday.  It was a lovely surprise to be recognized.

All three of the kids (and grandkids) called during the day, which was lovely.

I got to sleep before midnight and slept almost 7 hours, so it was a win-win-win situation all around.  I am a lucky woman.

Pat the Bunny

Walt and I went to see the bunnies on display in the Civic Center park, right across from San Francisco City Hall.

Now these aren't those cute little bunnies you may see out in the fields somewhere.  These are Godzilla bunnies.  Five inflatable white nylon bunnies blown up, a couple of them, to 23' high.  That's some bunny!

It is an installation by Australian artist Amanda Parer who calls her work "intrude" and it is intended not only to delight the viewers, but also to call attention to Australia's rabbit overpopulation.  Rabbits are not native to Australia, but were introduced in 1788.  They have no natural predators, so being safe and well fed they have...well...bred like rabbits.  It's been an ecological disaster for the country. That is why the famous Akubra hat was created, to make use of rabbit pelts, but apparently they can't keep up with the exploding population.

However, they are fun to look at!  And there's not much we can do from a distance of over 900 miles to ease the pain of overpopulation.  The display will run through the end of the month, if nobody vandalizes them first.

We were in the city to go to a taping of two episodes of Says You.  Haven't seen the show taped in about 3 years, I think, and it was nice to be back again.  The taping was held in the  War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, where the UN Charter was signed in 1945.  It's a big theater, some 900 seats, and it was pretty darn full today.  Nice to see so many other Says You fans.

The taping was very good for me, to get accustomed to seeing Barry Nolan in the role of host and to realize that he is much better than he seems to be when you listen to the show on the radio because it has to be edited for time, so he always sounds rushed...and he's not. I think I put aside my grief over the death of former host, Richard Sher and will now accept Barry as the new host and go back to enjoying the show every week.

We got the "A" team this time, the long-time regulars (Carolyn Faye Fox. Arnie Reisman, Paula Lyons, Tony Kahn, and Francine Achbar), with new-time regular Murray Horwitz, replacing Barry Nolan on the panel.

They always tape two shows at a time and with all the extra stuff that gets cut out to fit the one hour time slot, the taping runs very long.  Tony Kahn (on the left in the photo below) invited me to come back stage after the show, when I heard from him a couple of days ago, but there was lots of activity around the stage after the taping and it was so late, we really felt we should not wait, but start home.

It was 10:30 before we were back in our car and midnight before we got home.  Since the dogs had not yet had dinner they were delirious to see us come in the door!

But what a delightful day we had (including lamb sliders at Max's Opera Cafe before the show!)

Family Time

Walt and I and the dogs don't do a lot as a family, unless you count the Sunday morning ritual of Walt's sharing sausage with both me and the dogs when he cooks his breakfast after Mass. I love that tradition -- so do the dogs.

But on Sunday evening, the four of us gather around the radio in the living room and listen to Says You.

Walt will come into my office and let me know that the show is about to start and I will go in and settle on the couch.  Pretty soon, Lizzie comes sauntering in and climbs up onto the couch with me.  Next thing you know Polly has come in too, demanding to be on the couch as well.

Today, Polly buried her nose in my armpit, like she used to do when we first got her, while Lizzie, at the other end of the couch, licked herself furiously throughout the entire hour of the program.

I'm just kind of getting back into Says You.  It's been my favorite show for many years, and we even have recordings to listen to in the car, but when Richard Sher died a year ago, a piece of me died.  Richard was the co-creator, co-writer and host of the show and he wasn't even my favorite of the seven regulars.  In fact, he often irritated me.  But he had a certain style and a certain tone that would now be gone forever.

The show must go on and the role of moderator of the show was taken over by one of my favorite panelists, cable radio personality Barry Nolan.  But he wasn't Richard and I found myself avoiding the program, even though all the other panelists, including my "friend" Tony Kahn, continued.  (I say "friend" because we have interacted a few times, I did some transcription for him, he interviewed me once, and I think of him as a friend, though really we are just friendly acquaintances).

The few times I actually sat down and listened to the show after Richard died, it just wasn't the same and more and more often, I didn't join Walt in listening, and, in fact, he finally stopped listening in the living room, but just turned on his radio upstairs so he could listen while he was working.

The last few weeks, I have been listening again and able to enjoy the "new" Says You.  Each week there is a flashback episode, a bit of one of the old shows where Richard is the host and each time I get a little teary.  It's really very silly, but I don't do "change" well!

But it's a nice "family thing" that Walt and I do with the dogs and the dogs love that we are immobile and can give them undivided attention.

Next week, Says You is returning to San Francisco for a live broadcast.  We have gone to many of these live tapings and enjoyed them tremendously.  I can't remember if they came to the city last year or not, but if they did, we didn't go -- I would still have been in my "grieving Richard" period.

But we have tickets this year, so we will once again be able to watch the show being taped.  They always have a local musical group to do incidental music at two points during the show and my very favorite taping was the year that the Lamplighters were the guest musicians.  Talk about two important parts of my world intersecting when I least expected it to!

Feelin' Crabby (again)

It was back to San Francisco again today for round 2 of Says You.   We heard yesterday that the Jewish Community Center was having a Gershwin exhibit on the upper floor and we decided to get there before the crowd and check it out.   The weather driving down was glorious, but when we got into the city, into the full sun downtown, we could see the thick fog on Twin Peaks.

The Jewish Community Center is about at the level of the middle of San Francisco, perhaps a bit closer to the ocean, so by the time we got that far out, we had completely lost the sun and were deep in fog and cold wind, which I figured was just great for my cold.  (If this is my last entry, know that I died in the night!)

We got to the JCC 2 hours before the show and had plenty of time to look at all the memorabilia, most of which were original covers of sheet music, but also delightful things like this list of things George liked and didn't like (perhaps his version of a meme!)

There were lots of awards -- Emmys, Congressional Medal, Grammys, etc.  But naturally the one that caught my eyes was this Academy Award nomination.

We left the exhibit and went to the cafeteria to get a gnosh before the show.  Tony Kahn saw us when he was walking in with the rest of the cast and stopped to talk.  Then we went into the show and during the mic check, Tony shared with the audience the e-mail I had sent to him last night (saying that when the 7 cast members walked through the lobby it was like the 7 dwarfs walking through Disneyland).

When the show was over, we chatted a bit more with Tony in the lobby and then came the highlight of the day.  We watch a TV show on the San Francisco public TV station.  It's called "Check Please, Bay Area."   I have heard there are similar "Check Please" shows in other parts of the country.  We occasionally think how nice it would be to try such and such a restaurant.  It's what led me to Betty's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, in fact.   Generally if the "average price per person without drinks" is expensive, we dismiss it.

But my ears perked up the night they reviewed Thanh Long in San Francisco.  I think you can run the video off the web site.   This is a crab restaurant.  Crab is their specialty.  Crab.   Dungeness crab.  Big Dungeness crabs!  I immediately put it into my cell phone in case we ever had the occasion to need a restaurant in San Francisco.

The place is waaaaay out in "the avenues."   In fact, if you go another block, you'll be swimming in the ocean.  The look of it is certainly nothing that is going to make you stop, if you are driving by, and decide to check it out.  In fact, you might wonder what exactly the building is.

But inside, it was an absolutely charming setting.

What is even better, it seemed like almost every table had a huge whole crab sitting on it, or bibbed people up to their elbows in crab meat.   I had come home.

We were seated at a table for two very close to two women at a table for two.  I couldn't help looking at what they had and asked them.  They had the whole roast crab, an seafood eggplant dish and garlic rice.  They were sucking meat out of a huge claw and making orgasmic sounds.  I naturally turned to the waiter and said "We'll have what they're having."

They tied big plastic bibs around our necks and brought the food and soon we, too, were sucking sweet warm crab meat out of huge claws and making orgasmic sounds ourselves.

The women had been right--it was fabulous.  And considering that we split the 3 dishes, though it was more than we usually spend for dinner, it wasn't THAT expensive.  I will go back again in a heartbeat!

Our "Says You Weekend" has been delightful from start to finish.  Any weekend that ends with a huge crab on my plate can't possibly be bad!

Ima Hogg Rides Again

Picnic Day is a big UCD party, held in April every year.  It's kind of like one giganic university open house, but with things like the "fistulated cow" (a real live cow with a window in its side so you can watch the digestive process in action) and daschund races.  And lots, lots, lots more.  The day starts with a parade that involves most of the town.

In truth, we have never done much with Picnic Day since the police made shaving cream fights illegal downtown and the kids lost interest.  When the kids were riding on floats (for the diving team or the children's theater) in the parade we would go down and watch them, but we never really did much other stuff--comes from not have a kid enrolled in school there.

But there is no ignoring that Picnic Day is happening.  We had big clumps of people passing by our house most of the morning.  But we were going to be leaving, so we were heading off in the other direction.  However, we were not spared the hijinx.  As we drove down Anderson Rd., I looked off to my right and there was this muscular kid running out into the street, arms waving in the air, and wearing not a stitch of clothing, his dangly bits waving in the air as readily as his arms.

It's nice to see young people enjoying themselves.

But that was the only part of Picnic Day that crossed our path.   We were headed to San Francisco for our yearly trip to attend a taping of the radio show, "Says You," held again this year, for the second time, at the Jewish Community Center.

They have recently added parking meters around the area, so we were not able to use on-street parking and so went into the JCC parking garage...interesting that before they let you in, they search your car and trunk.

Walt had two observations before the show started.  We were sitting in the cafeteria when the cast arrived, parting the crowd of people like Moses parted the red sea, walking one behind the other.  Walt decided it reminded him of the 7 dwarfs parading through Disneyland.

The second observation was that as he looked around Kanbar Hall (a 475 seat theater), he realized there was not one black person there.  The only black person in the house was Tammy Hall, the pianist with the day's musical group, "Wild Women of Song" (which oddly enough features Hall, singer Pamela Rose, and two men on drum and bass!)

I took a picture of the stage set up. 

I really don't know why I bring my camera each year because you can't take pictures during the show and the best I can do is a hastily taken blurry photo as the show ends.  It looks the same each year, but I keep bringing the camera.

And I'll bring the camera tomorrow when we catch the last day of their tapings in San Francisco.

As always it was great fun.  The fun thing about being at a taping is hearing all the things that won't make it to the air.  (And incidentally, the title of this entry refers to the first category where people were supposed to explain who various famous names were, like Ima Hogg and Diamond Jim Brady (the man who pioneered all these food eating challenges!), whom a lot of people have heard of, but don't really know anything about.

When the show was over, we cashed in a Groupon at Mel's Drive in and did our own eating challenge!

I decided to splurge and add a vanilla malt to my patty melt (well, NEXT to my patty melt!).  I never get milk shakes, for obvious reasons, but this one was so good.  Best of all, you could actually taste the malt.

We finished our audio book, "True Blue" and started "War Horse," which we should finish by the time we get home tomorrow, since it's a short book.

All in all, a very good day...and even the horrible cold I've been fighting for two days didn't present much of a problem.

Cartoonerisms

Oh you're going to feel so smart when you finish reading this. Walt and I went in to Sacramento this evening to see a show and, as usual when my colleague Jeff isn't with us, we listened to "Says You." "Says You" is great for that drive because it's just long enough to get us through the round trip. Sometimes we finish a little before our drive has ended, sometimes Walt has to do a little driving around Davis for a few blocks until the show ends (you can't park in the driveway and listen to it because Polly is barking her food head off).

The last segment of the show tonight was about the words used to describe the way that certain actions are indicated in comics. They gave the example of GRAWLIX. You all know what grawlix is, though you may hever have heard the word. This is an example of a grawlix.

It's that collection of symbols to represent bad words being spoken by the cartoon characters.

Here's another one:

BRIFFITS is what they call the cloud of dust that hangs in the spot recently vacated by a fleeing character (thinks Roadrunner!)

They call the flying sweat droplets around a character's head PLEWDS.

AGITRONS are wiggly lines around an object that is supposed to be shaking.

I couldn't find an example of STAGGERATION, but it is defined as the dotted lines tracing the path of an inebriated character. I became quite familiar with "staggeration" when I worked for the Physics Department at UC Berkeley. Only my boss didn't call it that. He called it the "random walk theory," which is the theory that each step a drunken man takes is totally random and there is no way to predict if he takes one step in one direction what direction his next step will be in. I typed so much about the drunk leaving a lamppost and trying to walk home that when the book ("Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics") was finally published, I gave my boss a little statue of a drunk leaning against a lamppost.

SOLRADS are those straight lines that emanate out from a light source like the sun or a light bulb or something like that.

INDOTHERMS are wavy rising lines used to indicate heat or steam squiggles.

Now just think how smart you're going to feel the next time you see a cartoon and can tell your children or grandchildren what all those special marks are called.

(Yeah, I know...they'll look at you like you're nuts.)

Four More Stars

No cameras allowed, so this was as close as I got to taking a picture to commemorate our last trip to the Says You taping in San Francisco. We had such a good time, though. After six shows taped, the cast all seemed to be a little giddy and that always adds a nice bit of shared camaraderie with the audience (and the "good stuff" that will never make it to air when the show is edited!).

The promise is that the show will return to San Francisco next year, so perhaps we won't be flying down to Los Angeles on our annual jaunt again, if we can see them with only a brief drive from Davis.

After the show, we went out to dinner. Walt had had a late breakfast, but I had a bowl of oatmeal at 8 a.m. and by 4:30 I was pretty hungry. Rather than try to decide where we wanted to eat, we decided to drive until we found parking and then check out the available restaurants around the parking space.

So, that's how we found ourselves at Mel's diner on Geary Street. It was just what the doctor ordered. I had an "avocado burger" with onion rings that were fantastic.

Usually when you order something like an "avocado burger," it comes with a couple of slices of avocado on it. Not this baby.

This had half of an avocado on it, along with bacon and cheese. This was the lo-cal option of course :). Walt opted for a hot roast beef sandwich because it came with "lumpy mashed potatoes."

We both decided to indulge in a chocolate malt, which was the nice old-fashioned kind that I remember from my childhood, full of a malty taste, and coming in its own container in which it had been mixed so that you ended up with not one, but actually three glasses full of the stuff.

It reminded me of when we used to take the kids to The Hippo restaurant. It was a hamburger restaurant, but a gourmet hamburger restaurant where you could have any one of a number of choices. Jeri always had the hamburger sundae, which was a hamburger patty withice cream and chocolate on it.

It's not that she was weird, it was that she figured out that if she got the hamburger sunday, she got dinner and dessert, because we never could afford to get the kids dinner and dessert. She would scrape the ice cream off the burger and eat it separately. No dummy she!

So we had a really nice afternoon, with another two Says You tapings and dinner and we were home in time to watch Amazing Race. Can't beat that!

Tomorrow I have planning to do because I have a 2-day Cousins Day coming up. Peach is eager to return to the town where my mother spent her first years and find the place where the old farmhouse used to be, so we will go to my mother's on Tuesday morning and have a regular Cousins Day but on Wednesday we will drive the 120 mile drive to Valley Springs, take a picture of a plot of land and then drive 120 miles back to my mother's again, to spend the night before we go home again.

I'm sure we'll have a good day, but I'm not looking forward to a 250 mile drive.

Says You: 2011

It was Richard Sher, the host on Says You who explained tonight that he had just walked out the door of his hotel when he saw a car with a sign on it that looked like a campaign sign for Donald Trump, until he looked closer and saw that it said "Trump: We shall overcomb." He explained that was when he knew he was really in San Francisco.

Yes, it was time for Says You and we left the house around 4 to make our way to San Francisco. We decided to drive down through Marin County, hoping for lighter traffic (good decision). As we came out the tunnel, we could see the city stretched out before us and the bridge up ahead. My favorite view ever. I love it in sun, in rain, in fog and in any other mix of weather you can imagine. But my very favorite is emerging from that dark tunnel and seeing this:

and then

I swear, I'm the biggest tourist ever when it comes to San Francisco. I just love looking at my city!

We were quite early, so we drove out California St. to find the Jewish Cultural Center, where the show was being taped, and found a great place to park, then went wandering around Laurel Village looking for someplace to eat. All the places that I had known from my Lamplighters days are long gone, but we did find an interesting restaurant, called Asqew, where you order from a menu of skewered things and sides. I had Thai Lime chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and a roasted pear salad. Everything was delicious, and we apparently just missed the dinner crowd, since the place was filling up quickly by the time we were leaving.

We arrived at the center about half an hour before they were letting people into the theatre so we had a dessert cookie from their snack bar and sat around to wait.

The Says You cast arrived en masse and we had a brief meeting with my friend, panelist Tony Kahn, who didn't make it out here last year, so I'd missed him. Good to see him looking relaxed and healthy following a week in Monterey with his wife, author Harriet Reisen.

We've had our tickets for about 6 months now, and I ordered them the week they went on sale, so we were disappointed to see that we were in row CC, which in most theatres would meant that the rows would be numbered from A to Z and then start all over again with AA and BB and so on. However, here the double lettered rows were the chairs that they placed in FRONT of the regular seats, so we were in the third row and I didn't even have a woman with a huge afro in front of me, as I did in So. California last year!

The show, of course, was very funny and something we wait for eagerly each year. We always learn something, and this year found out that Brianna is cincinate. Now I can't find that definition in my dictionary, nor can Google, but apparently "cincinate" means with curly ringlets.

We sat through the two tapings and got home around midnight, but it was really worth it and I'm glad we'll have a chance to do it all over again on Sunday.

A Perfect Day

Before I start here, I have to mention something I left out of yesterday's entry. We had gone to Pomona and actually drove too far and had to turn around and drive back several blocks. When we did that, we passed a strip mall that made me realize I was in So. California. In a row, one right after the other were: Ironman gym, a juice bar, a Pilates salon, and a tanning place. Now there's a mall I'm not going to feel comfortable walking through! I need one that has a Krispie Kreme, Ben & Jerry's, a fat lady store, an Internet Cafe, and a book store with plush chairs where you can sink in and read.

But I digress. Let me talk about today.

That it was Valentine's Day was just coincidental. It was really a perfect day. We lazed around the hotel room for several hours, since we had no place to be at any time. Walt watched all of his Sunday morning talking heads on TV and watched last week's 24 which he'd missed since the power went out. I read my book and when he wasn't on the computer, got caught up with e-mail and facebook.

We had breakfast at Denny's again and then since it was too late to "do" anything but too early for Says You we decided to drive on up to Skirball anyway and see if we could beat the antisocial guy. When we got there, there was only one waiting fan that we could see and it wasn't A.G. But then Walt walked out into the courtyard, and there he sat!

I'm going to have to stop calling him "antisocial guy," though because Walt met him at the vending machines between the two tapings and he smiled and acknowledged Walt and after the show he waved and said he'd see us next year. Maybe I'll just call him "early guy."

Anyway, we were quite early, which gave me a chance to read my book. When it was getting close to time to open the doors, we stood in line and pretty soon Tony and his wife Harriet Reisen (author of "Louisa May Alcott: the woman behind Little Women") came in and he stopped to chat briefly on their way to the green room. He had seen my journal entry this morning and wanted to make sure that I would have an unobstructed view and said he was going to go and check on it.

The Magnin Auditorium at Skirball is much better suited for visibility and I chose a seat that was about 4 rows from the stage and because of the steeper rake of the floor, should be just fine, no matter who sat in front of us.

(We had to laugh, though, when two women sat in front of us and the one in front of Walt had a big head of dark curly hair! Fortunately because of the design of the theatre, it did not present a viewing problem for him.)

The next thing that happened was certainly a surprise. A guy named David came up and introduced himself and asked if I was "Bev, the nearly famous blogger" and said that he enjoyed reading my stuff. Now, since he emerged from backstage, I kind of think that Tony had a hand in sending him out to check on me, but whether he did or not it was very nice (in a somewhat embarrassing way!)

Next came the Says You cast onto the stage. The first thing they always do is a mic check, where each panelist says a few words so that the sound guys can check the sound levels. Tony mentioned that yesterday he'd received a text message on his cell phone from "a friend and fan of the show" which included a picture of this woman's head of hair and that I had not been able to see the stage. He said he just wanted to check and make sure my seat today was OK. I said that it was. That was also very nice in a somewhat embarrassing way.

Walt and I decided that today's tapings were perhaps some of the most fun we've seen (though perhaps we forget past years). Such a good time. I can hardly wait for them to begin airing on February 26 and the next four weeks to see how much of the scatological humor made the cut!

For one thing we sat next to what was probably THE loudest guy I've ever heard in any show. This guy was enjoying himself soooo much and howled at everything, tensed up when trying to think of the answer to a question, yelled "YES!!!" when a panelist got it and applauded loud and long. (I'm looking forward to seeing how much of that you hear too!) When the show was over we saw him and his female companion outside and he asked about Pomona yesterday (since Tony had announced to the audience that I'd been to the previous day's tapings). He said they had thought of doing that, and that after the fun he had today, they probably would go to both days of tapings next time too.

The panelists hung around on stage a bit at the end of the show, but Tony was talking to people and though I consider him a casual friend, I felt I didn't want to intrude. I was glad to have been able to see him for a bit before the show started.

We went looking for a Chicken and Waffle place that had been recommended for dinner, but couldn't find it (I checked the internet after we got home and it wasn't anywhere near where I thought it was!) but instead ended up at Mucho Mas, a Mexican family restaurant that was not only colorful...

...but tasty too.

We got to the airport very early. Our flight was also postponed, so we were looking at about 3 hours wait time in the airport, but then we noticed that the flight leaving right then was hardly full at all, so we managed to switch our tickets to the earlier flight and were home before 10 p.m.

The dogs were VERY happy to see us, especially Polly who nestled into my armpit the instant I sat down and proceeded to very vocally tell me all about how upset she'd been at my absence.

All things considered, it was really a fun trip and worth every penny...even the time spent trying to see around that huge head of hair yesterday.

Through a Head Blindly

Today was day #1. We got up and went to Denny's (which is in the parking lot here) for breakfast, and then got on the freeway and drove the 50 miles to Pomona, to Claremont College, where the first Says You tapings were to be held. It was an absolutely glorious drive, with clear blue skies, green hills and snow-capped mountains.

We arrived very early and found a place to park right across from the theatre. We walked up to the building and there was nobody around except one guy who looked vaguely familiar.

This was the antisocial guy we saw at the taping last year, who kept his earphones on, and his eyes lowered all the time and refused to talk to anybody, but who was darn sure he was going to be first in line when the doors opened.

last year

We laughed about running into him again...but then realized that he could just as easily be laughing at us for the same reason!

We went to the college cafeteria and I got an egg salad sandwich, which really wasn't any good. I don't think they used any yolk, for one thing. It just tasted weird.

When we got back from the cafeteria, antisocial guy had moved up to the doors of the theatre. Obviously he was determined to be first inside this year too!

We had assigned seats for this performance and I was pleased to see that we were in a great location.

Then the row in front of us filled up and this was my new view.

I must explain that the two panels sit on the stage in "stereo" format, with the two scorekeepers (usually kids) in the middle. On the left side (or "stereo right," as host Richard Sher explains each week) are Carolyn Fay Fox, Arnie Reisman, and Paula Lyons. "Stereo left" are, from left to right, my friend Tony Kahn, for whom I transcribed a bunch of stuff with a great group of people last year. Next to him is Francine Ackbar and next to Francine is Barry Nolan. Got that?

I could see Carolyn, Arnie and Paula OK, but Big Head's hair blocked Tony completely and blocked half of Francine. Barry was in the clear most of the time. It didn't work to tilt my head to the left when she was blocking Tony because in front of her was a guy about 8 feet tall, who blocked Tony completely even if Big Head had briefly moved her head. At intermission, the tall guy didn't come back and I thought I had a fighting chance but even when Big Head moved her hair and it was clear to Tony, there was a big microphone on a stand that covered all of his face except his chin. So I know he was there. I heard him, but I didn't see him at all. It was like...you know...listening to the radio.

But the show was so much fun. Every year I wonder if it's worth it coming all this way...and every year I laugh so much and enjoy myself so much that I'm always ready for the next year.

Walt guesstimated that this place seated about 1500 people and it was pretty much full, so I guess we are definitely part of a geek cult.

There was a beautiful sunset as we drove back to Sherman Oaks on the freeway.

We stopped by the motel for half an hour and then drove out to meet our friend Michael for dinner. He promised us a "hole in the wall" but with "the best barbeque in the world." He was right on both counts, especially the great name!

Tomorrow's tapings are back at the Skirball Cultural Center, just a hop, skip and jump from the motel here. It's a much smaller venue (only 350 seats), so we'll have to be sure to be early...and there is a raked floor so I have a fighting chance of maybe seeing Tony this time.

Doughy Balls

My friend Pat will understand the title of this entry; the rest of you will have to find it out in context. (yes, Pat, I know what doughy balls are now...keep reading!)

I am writing this from the Carriage Inn motel someplace in Sherman Oaks, California. We are in exactly the same room that we had last February. I know this because when I went to hook up the laptop, you're supposed to use your room number as the log-in and it was already entered in my computer.

It is our usual geek trek down here to see four shows of "Says You" taped, tomorrow at Pomona College in Claremont (about 50 miles from here) and Sunday back at the Skirball Cultural Center maybe a mile from here.

Our plane was scheduled to leave at 3:45, so we had the morning to do last minute stuff. For me it was taking pictures of the dogs.

(Note the title of the article on the cover of O Magazine!)

For Walt is was frantically cleaning, vacuuming, washing, putting things away. Walt is a good person. I am not.

Eventually we left for the airport. Anticipating a possible big tie-up at security, we left early. There was no tie-up, so we had lots of time to sit in the waiting room, which was fine. I've come to appreciate those long waits, now that I have the iPod loaded with books to read.

Finally we boarded Southwest's plane and were greeted by Valentine's greetings.

The flight was uneventful and we arrived at the airport, got our car (a Kia), and by 5:30 were headed to our motel. We checked in and within 5 minutes were back in the car to drive back to Burbank (just a few blocks from the airport!) to meet our friend Pat Peck, with whom we were going to have dinner.

We haven't seen Pat in several years and it was very nice spending time with her again. She and I met many years ago on CompuServe and she is part of that wonderful group of Netstock women.

We all decided we felt like Indian food, so she suggested the Bollywood Cafe, which turned out to be a fantastic choice.

(I was amused to learn that it shared a building with a place that teaches pole dancing. This is, after all, the LA area!)

We each had tika masala. Walt and I had lamb and Pat had chicken. It was absolutely fabulous and came with a mountain of naan bread, rice, and soup.

Then it was time for dessert. Pat recommended the pistachio ice cream and said that her son-in-law loved these "doughy balls" that were served with some sort of sweet sauce. While she and Walt had the ice cream, I ordered the "doughy balls" to see what I would get. The waiter repeated the name twice but it was so noisy in the full restaurant that we couldn't catch what he said.

Dessert arrived and my "doughy balls" were fantastic. They did indeed look like balls of fried dough topped with some sort of red coating that was a bit sweet, though not overly so.

Naturally, I had to come back to the motel and look up the menu for the Bollywood Cafe, so I can now report that "doughy balls" are really something called Gulab Jaman, which is described as "juicy, soft, round-shaped cheese made from cream, fried and served in sweet syrup." I didn't think I was eating cheese, for sure, but it was delicious. If you ever get a chance to try it, I recommend it.

We returned to the motel in time to see the United States team entering the Olympic arena, so I think we have seen most of the opening ceremonies. Such a terrible tragedy about the luge guy from the country of Georgia.

Tomorrow we join the other geeks and watch day 1 of "Says You" again. I can't wait!