Dave sits at his desk with a story to tell about a friend. Says Dave; “To protect his identity and his confidence, I’ll call him ‘Fred.’” Dave says how there is not a more crushing feeling, nothing more discouraging, than a relationship that’s not working out. Dave’s suggests if it’s not working, then get out. And once you’re out, no matter how hard it may be, you need to get back on the horse. You need to get back in the game. You need to start swinging the bat again. After 30 years, Dave’s buddy has come to this point. It’s a dreadful experience but it needs to be done. So he finally meets a gal who meets what he is looking for. He doesn’t want to play it safe and decides to take her on a cruise for a whirlwind weekend. Once on the trip, he soon finds out that she ends everything with, “ . . . right?” “These are nice shoes, right? It’s a nice day, right?” He soon finds this it turning out all bad and there is no escape. They are trapped on a ship. 12 hours into the trip, a bottle of champagne arrives to their room. His gal pal reads the note accompanying the champagne and it reads, “LOIS.” She wants to know, “Who is Lois? Why would Lois send you champagne?” Fred doesn’t pay much attention and explains he has no idea who is Lois. She persists. “It’s from someone named ‘Lois.’ Who is Lois?” This goes on for some time. Finally, Fred says “Give me the card.” He takes the card, looks at it, turns it ‘upside down’ and says in exasperation, “It’s ‘5107’!”
True story.

Dave is concerned about this Al Gore movie about global warming. Dave has our head carpenter Harold Larkin check out the weather outside. Harold opens the door and we see volcanic lava spewing across the street. Cries Harold, Lave in the streets! Streets on fire! Run for your lives!” Harold runs away like a scaredy cat.

It’s summertime and for some reason it made Dave think back to something we used to do on our show years ago. Let’s talk to Stephanie. We find Stephanie in one of the offices up on an unnamed floor. The place looks a little messy and Dave wants it tidied up before he gets back.
Dave recalls an ex-boyfriend Stephanie once had back in her college days and sadly, it didn’t quite work out. They’re still in touch, right? Stephanie corrects Dave and says that is not the case. She hasn’t seen him in 7 years. When they were a couple, they often times went out to the college dances. Stephanie does not like to dance much, but her boyfriend did. Dave has Stephanie demonstrate her boyfriend’s dancing moves. To the tune of Rod Stewart, Stephanie does her ex-boyfriend’s dance. It always reminds me of a character on Charlie Brown’s Christmas special; shoulders drooped, arms hanging, one shoulder drops and then the other. Repeat.

GREAT MOMENTS IN PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHES: We see FDR. We see JFK. We see the President stumbling with the English language.

Al Qaeda has named a new leader in Iraq. He’s already implementing some innovative fundraising strategies. Announcer: “The death of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was a blow to the insurgency in Iraq, but we will never bow to the infidel aggressors. Do your part to support the continuing jihad by purchasing hot, new al-Qaeda ringtones! Stand out in the crowd with favorites like (Osama singing Neil Diamond’s “America”) ‘Everywhere around the world, we wish Death to America.’ (singing YMCA) ‘It’s fun to have Jee-ee-ee-had. It’s fun to have Jee-ee-ee-had.’ (singing Daniel Powter’s ‘Bad Day’) ‘Cause you had a bad day, taking one down, 500 pound bomb just blew up your safehouse.’
New al-Qaeda ringtones --- order today!”

AL GORE: His new film, An Inconvenient Truth is the talk of the summer. I immediately sense a new Al Gore; a more relaxed Al Gore. Dave says of the film, “It’s thought provoking . . . I can’t say I enjoyed it, but it thought provoking.” He adds, “But at the end it provides a glimmer of hope.”
Dave asks, “Do you still get the Secret Service?” Al says, “Oh, no, I’m not worth killing anymore.” Ouch. Doesn’t he know you’re not supposed to joke about that?
How’s the movie going? Al says he’s a little surprised that his little slide-presentation has made such an impact.

Before Dave wants to hear more about the movie, he wants Al’s take on the war in Iraq. What does he think of our war in Iraq? 2,500 Americans killed; 60,000 to 100,000 Iraqis killed --- Al says it is our mess now. The decision making process that got us into the war was flawed and has been gone over many times but now that we’re there, there is no easy option to get out. We need to find out the least bad option. It’s not so easy to just be done with it. What we need to do is get our troops home as quickly as possible, but will result in the least amount of problems over there once we leave. We stirred things up over there pretty good over there and we can’t just leave. It’s a tricky situation.
North Korea? What’s the deal? They know how to make weapons, it makes them money, it gives them prestige, and it’s a complete dictatorship. It’s what they do.

Al has been aware of the Global Warming since his college days in the 60’s. His professor was one of the first, if not THE first, to track the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The increase in CO2 keeps hot air in and not out. When Al learned of this information, he thought the world would gobble it up and demand something to be done. Unfortunately, it created barely a blip on the screen. But isn’t the warming of the globe a natural, cyclical occurrence? Al says taking all that into consideration, the amount of warming is NOT natural. We need to change our habits and use of fossil fuels. He says it’s difficult for people to change their ways, but for those who do change, they love it. Dave brings up JFK’s desire to get to the moon by the end of the decade. We achieved that goal and in addition, the Apollo program produced millions and millions of dollars in business and commerce along the way. Why can’t the oil companies and the country do the same with the energy problem and create new ways to create new income?
Dave mentions one scene in the film where we see the earth in that familiar shot of the blue orb with clouds and the continents and oceans . . . and then you pull back millions and billions of miles to show how insignificant and tiny the earth is in the universe. It’s eye-opening.
With the increase of CO2 levels ongoing for years, Dave wonders what was done while Gore and Clinton were in charge. Why wasn’t something done then? Al says a lot was done but they couldn’t do more once the Congress was lost to Newt Gingrich and the Republicans in 1994. Al went to Kyoto to plead the case and set up a program, but when he came back to the United States, he was only able to convince one Senator of the dangers of global warming and the need to change our way of life. Al has since decided that the only way to change the thinking of those in office is to change the thinking of the American people. Only when the people demand changes will their representatives change. And then they will claim to be leading the people when it’s the other way around.
We end with seeing a clip from An Inconvenient Truth. It’s now playing across the country. Unfortunately, the theater may not be near you.

For those reading the Wahoo for the first time, don’t quote me on the Al Gore segment in your term paper or newspaper article. I jot notes as it goes along and probably miss more than I catch, and that what I do catch may be in error. But I try my best.

ROCK KILLS KID: From their CD, “Are You Nervous?” Rock Kills Kid performed “Paralyzed.”

And that was our show for Friday June 23, 2006. Wahoo EXTRA!

The New York Knicks have fired future Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown after one season. Taking over will be the artist who sculpted this current team, Isiah Thomas. It is the highest paid team in the NBA by far, and it all rests on the shoulders of Isiah Thomas.

Hey, here’s a trade idea Yankee fans might go for. How about Alex Rodriguez for Alfonso Soriano?

I’ll be dining at Annie’s Snack Shack this weekend in Stony Point, New York. Annie’s is one of those 1950’s style restaurants that have long since disappeared. Nothing fancy; just good food and a very comfortable atmosphere. I like to take my girls there and eat on the picnic tables outside. There’s a juke box which is filled with songs from that time which my girls like to listen to. The last time we were there they played “The Twist” 5 times. Sitting next to us were bikers with long beards and tattoos. They enjoyed the music as much as the balding guy in the short pants and wearing my shoes did. The place hasn’t changed much in years. But now, “progress” has come knocking at the door and Annie’s may soon be gone. Yes, it’s been decided that a bank would serve the community better and Annie’s will soon be bulldozed. I’ll be heading over at least one more time before Annie’s is gone. Maybe I’m wrong but when was the last time you heard someone say, “We need more banks.” I’ve never heard it said. We probably need more banks because more and more people need to borrow money. Bye bye, Annie. Hello, Chemical.

An Alan Page e-mailed me a google site that features Google holiday logos from the past. Al says they had one for the First Day of Summer the other day, but it is not up yet on this site. I looked for it on Wednesday, the 21st, but I don’t remember seeing it. I’m told it was a father and his boy fishing. Did anyone else see it? I didn’t.
http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html

Samuel Johnson of Normal, Illinois wrote that he loves all the talk about the Google logos and can’t get enough. Check it out, Sam!