An Evening with Dave
We spent an hour or so with our good bud, Dave Barry, who dropped by Midland as a part of the Phyllis & Bob Cowan Performing Arts Series at Midland College.
Barry has always been the guy I wanted to be when I grew up, at least as a writer, but I'd never heard him speak. We went with high expectations -- and he didn't disappoint. While his stories are inarguably hilarious in writing, there was something about hearing them in his voice made them even better. Of course, there's also the crowd factor -- laughing at the laughers, so to speak.
He went through the usual shtick: the joys of living in Miami (whose new tourism motto is, "Come Back -- We Weren't Shooting at You!"), the wonders of North Dakota (based on a column about the state that generated 150 letters, or "one from every resident" and resulted in a sewage lifting station being named in his honor), the challenges of removing a big honkin' dead whale from a beach in Oregon (is there anyone who believes a state highway department anywhere should be entrusted with dynamite?), and the mind-numbing qualities of certain Neil Diamond lyrics. He closed with a reading of a short story illustrating the fundamental differences between men and women, which, frankly, I didn't understand, but then, I'm not a anthropological psychologist.
One of the funnier running gags arose spontaneously when he noticed that someone had forgotten to put any water in the drinking glass left for him on the podium. He periodically paused his delivery to take a swig from the empty glass. OK, you just had to be there.
He also gave me a great idea for a meme, which I'll close with here. Feel free run with it as you choose, but just remember where you saw it stolen first:
In anticipation of the opportunity of a lifetime, prepare in advance a list of things you'd do with the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile if and when it's offered to you for the day.
By the way, he makes a better Dave Barry -- albeit a shorter one -- than Harry Anderson.
In answer to your meme question...
Route 5.
Posted by: Jim at May 4, 2007 06:02 AMWallace, if you don't rue it already, I'd say you're safe.
Jim, do you really think you could steer the Weinermobile with your knees?
Posted by: Eric at May 4, 2007 06:38 AMSmother it with chili and onions and go Kong hunting?
I wanted to go see Barry, but I assumed there would be more than 5 other people there so that squashed my enthusiasm.
Posted by: Kelly at May 4, 2007 08:38 AMYeah, it's hard to fathom the mysterious draw the combination of "Pulitzer Prize winning world-famous humorist" and "free tickets" has on people. ;-)
I figured Kong for a sauerkraut kind of guy, but I'm probably just anthropomorphizing.
Posted by: Eric at May 4, 2007 09:22 AMWife and I went, as I've been reading one of Dave's earlier books. We laughed ourselves silly, but I had to explain to those around us that there's a perfectly good explanation for why you "lift sewage". The City's Director of Utilities was there, and she was probably the only other person who understood.
Amazingly, we asked at least 6 other couples to join us, none of whom could/would attend. Their loss, I guess, because we had a great time. Kudos to Midland College and those involved with this series.
Posted by: Another Eric at May 4, 2007 10:22 AMAlthough I've never had the dubious honor of driving the WienerMobile, several of us spied it in Amarillo during our lunch break my senior year of high school. We didn't stop laughing for the rest of the afternoon.... because: 1) it looked amazingly stupid; and 2) we made dirty jokes about it that would turn all of our faces red nowadays! (ah, youth.....)
Having actually seen the - ahem - "vehicle", I can just picture Dave Barry behind the wheel - picking up his son in junior high.....even I would be reporting him for child abuse!
Eric, obviously the humor in the sewage lifting story comes not from the practical reasons for lifting sewage but from the very concept itself. It's a nice throwback to junior high humor. ;-)
Toni, I think picking up your child in the Weinermobile could also fall into the same category of "payback for rap music" that Barry puts global warming into.
Posted by: Eric at May 5, 2007 10:08 AMWhen I had the Weinermobile for the day, I made more friends than I had in a lifetime. But they were all canines. * Sigh *
Posted by: John C (My really real name) at May 5, 2007 09:07 PMThe, uh, Dave Barry incident here in North Dakota made several newspapers.
'Twas a big deal.
And it's a fine lift station.
Posted by: Julie at May 6, 2007 11:42 PMJulie, I actually thought about you when Barry started talking about this. I seem to recall that you posted about it at the time, although I could be making that up.
Posted by: Eric at May 7, 2007 06:34 AMJohn, I thought I'd responded to your comment, but Movable Type obviously had other plans.
Anyway, you should feel good about your experience. After all, dogs are man's best friends -- even if their friendship is predicated upon the presence of processed meat products.
Posted by: Eric at May 7, 2007 06:36 AMAbout the publisher
Random Abbye photos...
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Review: The Amazon Kindle
Personal Library Exploration Continues
Tech Support That's Out of This World
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The Season's First Roundup
Recording History
Want a Healthier Mind? Fuggedaboutit!
Redefining a Bust
Thank you...
Farewell to Abbye
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I usually attend the lecture series and had planned to go tonight, but with my new personna of "reclusive hermit", I passed. I'm sure I'll rue the decision.
Posted by: Wallace at May 4, 2007 12:06 AM