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Eth Lab
Side Splitters Comedy Club isn’t normally open at lunchtime. It was yesterday. The Volunteer chapter of the PRSA held their September meeting in the club on Thursday. This is Ethics Awareness Month for the organization. Ethics chair Michael Holtz of the American Cancer Society was responsible for the meeting’s content. He hired Einstein Simplified to do ethics-themed improv scenes.
Five of us from the group were available for the gig. We prepared by reading the case studies on the PRSA website. We took some of our regular games and twisted them slightly for the occasion. We even made up a new fast game, “Spin Doctor,” that will likely show up in our Tuesday-night repertoire.
I knew many of the people in attendance, which made me feel a bit nervous. The PRSA members are public relations specialists from charities, hospitals, banks,PR firms, government agencies and more.
Managing partners Bridgette and Coley O’Dell did a fine job of feeding the guests. The buffet lunch included mixed-greens salad, pulled pork, beef brisket, cole slaw, potato salad and pecan pie. I took the stage to get things started. Before introducing my fellow improvisers, I suggested that the PRSA members should consider booking their companies’ holiday parties at Side Splitters. Of course it would be nice if they also hired Einstein Simplified to entertain, but they could just as easily have Bridgette book a stand-up comedian for their party.
Shining Time Station
East Tennessee PBS hosted a small party for some public-relations big shots on Wednesday. Executives from Ackermann PR, Moxley Carmichael, The Tombras Group and Z11 Communications enjoyed a gourmet lunch provided by Holly’s Eventful Dining. The point of the gathering was for them to hear a little about “Smoky Mountain Magazine” from Taz Cable and me. Our new weekly show debuts Saturday, October 15 at 10:00 a.m.
From the salad to the cupcake, the food was nothing short of amazing. The main course was chicken wrapped in Benton’s bacon with a moonshine molasses reduction. There’s a photo on the new SMOMOtv Facebook page. Benton’s bacon is a popular conversation topic with almost everyone in East Tennessee. I told one of the PR execs how much I preferred cooking bacon in the oven rather than on the stove. She’s going to make her husband try it that way.
The guests received some 80-proof parting gifts from Troy & Sons Distillers, a moonshine company based in Asheville, North Carolina. They also got an East Tennessee PBS mug filled with Sharpie markers, which are made in Maryville, Tennessee.
Dee-lightful
The eventual sale of Aunt Dee’s condo means that my wife and I will have to find a new place to stay when we are traveling in the Midwest. Of course, I want it to sell quickly because that would be best for my wife’s family. However, I still have two or three trips through St. Louis planned in the year ahead. The last time I was there, I packed up some photo albums and other valuables.
My friend Bruce Butler has the listing. He is a real estate agent with Keller Williams. I met him many years ago when he sold syndicated radio programming and I worked at WAVA. He moved to Los Angeles for his job. When I also moved to L.A., he would occasionally give me some voiceover work. As the radio business kept consolidating, Bruce took advantage of an opportunity to move back to his hometown and get into real estate.
Aunt Dee’s place is in a great neighborhood called Webster Groves. I feel at home there, especially now that I know which restaurants have the best WiFi connections and which ones have the best breakfast. Before the condo could go on the market, Bruce had a professional photographer take a series of shots of the building, the common areas and the condo itself. They also got a nice picture of the swimming pool. The apartment looks the same as it did when Aunt Dee passed away. Maybe that’s why I joked that the building’s lobby was reminiscent of a funeral parlor.
Faith, Hope and Charity
Delores Hope was so Catholic that even her Presbyterian husband won an award from the Pope. Of course, Delores was married to the legendary Bob Hope for 69 years. They were generous benefactors of many children’s charities and of her parish. Their money helped build a beautiful sanctuary. Mrs. Hope died Monday at home. She was 102 years old.
The Hopes lived in Toluca Lake, which is next to Burbank. On Halloween, their staff would hand out promotional items with Bob’s ski-nose caricature. I took my kids trick-or-treating in Toluca Lake several times in the years we lived out there. I remember the kids getting pencils and flying discs from the Hopes.
Before the rest of my family moved to California, I rented an apartment in North Hollywood. On Sundays and holy days I would attend Mass at St. Charles Borromeo Church. The custom there was for the congregation to hold hands during the Our Father. One Sunday, there was only one other person in my pew, so I took a few steps to my right and held the hand of the woman next to me. She looked familiar but I couldn’t think of her name. I realized later that it was Delores Hope. She had a slightly runny nose and I remember thinking she must be rich if she can afford to wipe her nose with an Hermès scarf.
Funeral services for Mrs. Hope will be private. When Bob Hope died, they had his funeral at dawn at St. Charles Borromeo. Delores will be buried alongside him in the Bob Hope Memorial Garden on the grounds of the San Fernando Mission.
Are You Fluff Enough?
Susan Olsen and I have been swapping emails and Facebook messages about Marshmallow Fluff for years. It’s been over ten years since I presented her with her first jar of Fluff. About five years ago, I wrote a blog post about how she adopted Mother Fluffer as a nickname.
It’s also been five years since I wrote about the first “What the Fluff?” festival in Somerville, Massachusetts. When Susan started creating Warhol-inspired Fluff Art about three years ago, the match seemed obvious. This year the twain shall finally meet. Susan Olsen will be a VIP guest at next weekend’s festival. It gets better. Her Fluff Art is already on exhibit at Bloc 11 Café throughout this month.
Since I can’t be in Massachusetts on Saturday, I will be keeping an eye on Twitter and Facebook and any other online media I can find. After it’s over, I will have to chat with Susan to get her first-hand comments about all the gooey goodness.
Mayberry Preserves
WVLT, the CBS affiliate in Knoxville, recently moved its daily reruns of “The Andy Griffith Show” from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. In the TV business, the 7:30 timeslot used to be called “prime access.” In 1970, the FCC ruled that the first hour of prime time must be controlled by local stations rather than by the networks. The rule was repealed in 1996 but there hasn’t been any noticeable change in programming strategy since then. Most channels run “Jeopardy!” or “Entertainment Tonight” during the 7 o’clock hour. I wonder how many network affiliates around the country air a 50-year old sitcom during prime time.
I suspect that “The Andy Griffith Show” will get decent ratings in Knoxville. People here love the show, as proven yesterday at the Tennessee Valley Fair. My wife and I walked in to the entertainment tent just as this year’s Opie look-alike contest was ending. The festivities were organized by the Mayberry Chapter of The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club. Local parade mainstay Sammy Sawyer does a great job of impersonating Barney Fife. His URL says it all: bfife4life.com.
In addition to Barney, they had people on stage dressed as Andy, Gomer, Aunt Bee and others. My wife and I stayed to watch the Mayberry Trivia Challenge and the pie-eating contest. When I got closer to the stage to take a picture, I saw Sharon and Mark Cawood. Mark had just taken second place in the adult round of the trivia contest. They are now the proud owners of a restored Mayberry Squad Car, which was parked just outside the tent.
Judgment Days
WBIR’s Erin Donovan and I were the judges for a Lego building contest at the Tennessee Valley Fair on Saturday afternoon. We picked our favorites and awarded first, second and third place trophies to the winners. They had two rounds of individual competition and one round of group competition. The winning creations will be on display through the Fair’s final day on Sunday.
A week ago, I was one of the judges for a talent show at the Sevier County Fair. The top three performers were sent on to the Tennessee Valley Fair to perform tonight. Since I was already at the Fair for the Lego contest, I stayed to watch the talent contest from the audience. Of course I’m a little biased but I really thought that one of the Sevier winners (Emmaus, Triple Threat or David Middlebrooks) would place in the top four in the Knoxville contest. They didn’t. The winners were Katelyn Parker, Kayla Faver, C.N. Davis and Allison Balsley.
I would never have predicted that my favorite performance of the night would be by a clogger. Kayla Faver won second prize overall with her routine as a zombie clogger. She stayed in character as she walked on stage and again as she left. Because almost everything is on the Internet, it took mere milliseconds for me to find a YouTube video of Kayla performing the zombie routine last month at the Appalachian Fair.
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