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Yeah, I'm Alive -- posted on February 26, 2013
Wow, the last time I wrote a blog here we were at the fourth Puppy Bowl. They just had the ninth one!

Where have I been? Working hard on a book, believe it or not. I've spent a considerable amount of the last three years doing research for a biography of Homer and Jethro, the legendary jazz musicians who spent 39 years fooling everyone into thinking they were country singers. Seriously (which is a word rarely used when discussing those two), they were fabulous musicians (their two instrumental jazz albums, Playing It Straight and It Ain't Necessarily Square, are available on one gloriously incredible CD) and warped beyond warped when it came to humor. Given how much I listened to them when I was a kid I have no choice but to blame them for my insanity, so I'm paying them back by writing their biography. Fascinating men (oddballs in that both men did something unusual in the world of touring musicians: they managed to stay faithful to their wives), both World War II veterans (Homer had a Purple Heart and three Bronze Stars in the European theater, while Jethro served on Guadalcanal and Bougainville in the Pacific), and absolutely hilarious performers (if you've never heard of them, I like to explain them by saying they were Weird Al....before Weird Al was born). Give me a couple more years (I have among my voluminous faults the curse of, as a Navy psychologist put it, being a "rigid perfectionist") and we'll see if the University of Illinois Press is still interested.

And oh, yes, I'm still a professional miniature golfer. After eight years struggling with the task of chasing a white ball down green carpet with a metal putter I finally won a state tournament in 2011. In fact, I won TWO within eight days. I didn't fare so well last year; in fact, the highlight of the 2012 season was having to show ID to prove I met the age requirement to play in the Senior Open during the National tournaments. I still love it, though. It's a great distraction from hours at the microfilm reader.

Here at TV Rage I've picked up the editorship for Night Court. After the show's creator, Reinhold Weege, passed away in December I pulled out my DVDs and started watching them, and it brought back memories of just why I loved that show so much when it originally aired. That was back in the "Must See TV" days, and believe me, it WAS. I almost was under obligation to watch, especially since my commanding officer was a huge fan of it and the show that followed, Hill Street Blues. Every Friday morning my CO would come in the office, get a cup of coffee, and make a beeline for my desk, and for the next 30-45 minutes we discussed what happened on NBC after Cheers.

My personal connection to Night Court is that, for nearly 20 years, Harry Anderson stood as the only actor I had ever met (that changed when we went to a Fuzzy Zoeller charity golf event and I met Kevin Costner and Donny Most....I met another actor, too, but he was such a jerk I don't reference him in the list). During Night Court's summer break in 1986 Harry did a tour of his comedy/magic show and I went to see him. One of the funniest moments was actually provided by the audience: when Harry pulled out the hatpin that he gleefully shoved through his right arm in a demonstration of carnival geek acts, half the first two rows promptly evacuated like the place was on fire. After the show I met Harry and got his autograph. I can tell you two things about him: one, he is T A L L (I know he never looked tall on Night Court but that was because the shortest man on that show was Charlie Robinson, who was a pygmy-sized 6'2", and the tallest was the 6'8" Richard Moll); and two, he was a real sweetie, very gracious and kind to everyone there.

So I'm waiting for the golf season to start, the final season of Night Court to be released on DVD, and the announcements for the Country Music Hall of Fame inductees for 2013 (praying they do induct the Wilburn Brothers and do not induct Kenny Rogers). Hopefully I won't spend five years between blog posts here. :D Comment >>

Older Blogs

• January 30, 2008: The BIG EVENT is This Weekend!!
• December 27, 2007: Crawling From the Wreckage....
• November 7, 2007: Not Unexpected, But Still Sad
• November 4, 2007: Oh DOO-DOO, Not Again!
• October 29, 2007: Not With a Mouthful of Firecrackers

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