Category: default || By jt3y

Scientists have created a hybrid animal that's part sheep, part human. Actually, I thought we already had that. They call it "Bill O'Reilly's audience."

I keed, I keed! But it reminds me of a sick joke. A city slicker is driving through the country when he passes a farm and sees a man taking liberties with one of the sheep. He turns off the road into the driveway and goes to the house.

A curly-haired boy answers the door. "Young man, call the police, someone's messing around with your sheep," the driver says.

"Oh, that's just my da-a-a-aa-a-a-a-a-aad," the boy says.

. . .

Speaking of sick jokes, let's go back to Bill O'Reilly for a second. Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based actress and talk show host April Winchell wrote about a visit to KABC radio in that city by Mr. Who's Lookin' Out for You?:

He was extremely unhappy with the croissants that were laid out for him. Not because he is against the French and everything they have to offer. No, that would almost show some character on his part. I mean, it would be obnoxious, but consistent with his professed beliefs, so you'd have to give him points for walking the walk. No this was a bigger problem. Much bigger. The croissants were not fresh enough.

Winchell claims O'Reilly demanded that a local baker make a fresh batch of croissants for him. "He followed that up by demanding that a helicopter take him to Orange County for his next appearance, because he didn't want to spend an hour in the limousine the station had arranged for him," she says. "After all, he's Bill O'Reilly, and he can't be expected to sit in a car and be driven somewhere. Who do you think he is, Chris Matthews?"

Winchell's anecdote was picked up by a number of bloggers and made it to MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann," which competes against "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News and whose host has been baiting O'Reilly for years. (In the interest of full disclosure: I've exchanged a few emails over the years with Olbermann about his collection of Bob & Ray airchecks --- I am not making that up --- and I think Olbermann can be a riot when he's on a tear.)

Now, if you were a big star like Bill O'Reilly, you might follow this up by ignoring Winchell, or if you really wanted to react, you could send a box of croissants to her.

Or, you could do what O'Reilly did, which was to call KABC and demand that they never use Winchell on the air again. Winchell, who guest-hosted programs twice a month for five years, says O'Reilly "really knows how to hurt a girl": "You got me fired from a job I didn't have, at a station that wasn't paying me ... That's a real blow, because I wanted to add another eight listeners to my fan base."

"Another bridge burned," Winchell concludes. Yeah, I know that feeling.

. . .

And speaking of Bob & Ray --- yesterday was Bob Elliott's birthday. (Tube City hard hat tip: Doug Hoerth.) Bob is 84, and last I heard, was retired in Maine. It's a little bit late now, but feel free to send him a chocolate wobblie (they were chocolate Easter bunnies until they were left too close to the radiator in the Bob & Ray Overstocked Warehouse) or a shiny steel ingot from the Monongahela Metal Foundry.

And just in time for Easter and Passover gift-giving, the Elliott and Goulding curators extraordinaire at The Radio Foundation have released another new CD --- the 24th in a series --- of Bob & Ray material.

. . .

In local news, there was another shooting at the Hi-View Garden apartment complex Downtown. The Post-Gazette reports that the injuries were not life-threatening, thank goodness, though more than a dozen shots were fired. It's the same complex where two people were shot Jan. 19, one fatally. Something tells me they need to stiffen the background checks at that place, but I could be wrong.

. . .

Finally, I'm overjoyed to see that Michael Bérubé, professor of dangeral studies at Penn State's University Park Campus, is blogging again. Bérubé is one of the best things to come out of Centre County since Peachy Paterno ice cream.

Sure, he's no Jonathan Frakes, but who is?