TORN FROM TODAY'S TICKET HEADLINES!! Let the Guessing Begin

In the words of Screamin' Danny Bacon:   

Now, this is fun.

Today on What's on Mike's Mind, the lads were going through their annual recollection of the early days of The Ticket.  There is something distinctly thrilling to today's Ticket listener about hearing Skip Bayless's first words over a transmitter that sounded as though it were designed by Marconi himself. 

Then, as they also frequently do, they turned to the shortcomings of Mr. Bayless, although Mike does acknowledge that his presence was critical to getting the venture off the ground. 

In light of what came just after I wish I had listened to this discussion a little more closely.   I did catch that he was speaking negatively of his former colleague Bayless, and (please correct me here, I don't have time to go back and listen to it on The (Incomparable) UnTicket) I think his point generally was that Bayless had bigger fish to fry, held himself apart from the station as a whole, never really warmed up to the enterprise, may only have been in it for the money, such as it was. 

And then, Mike said – and, as usual, I don't have the exact words, and if anyone wants to donate them from checking out The UnTicket replay, I'd be delighted to correct this – "There's only one person like that around here now."

Well, well, well, well, well, now isn't this lovely?

Mike doesn't pull back the curtain very often, but that was certainly tantalizing, was it not?

Who do you think he was talking about?

This is important to the P1 Nation and its Confessor subset.  We don't get stuff like this from a host very often.  If we could figure out who it was, well, then we'd really have something.  Probably some things would fall into place for us, stuff that puzzles us would no longer.  And our forecast for The Ticket's future might sharpen up some.

I have a couple of possible candidates, but I want to know what you guys – almost all of whom get to listen to the station more than I do – think he was referring to.  I'm certain your guesses will be better than mine.

And if a consensus candidate emerges – even if we are wrong – the fact that we think this may be the candidate will tell us a lot about how the station is presenting itself to the P1 Nation.

Now to aid our considerations I consulted Full Disclosure to see if I could find exactly what the issue was with Bayless, and that would help us compare with the current Ticket lineup.  Fail.  The firing of Skip Bayless by the Laddy occupies exactly one line, and there's scarcely a discouraging word about the guy, at least not in the part I reread tonight.

So we are left with what little archaeology we have about Bayless, and we have to compare that with what little we know about the behind-the-scenes (and perhaps even the not-so-behind-the-scenes) behavior and attitude of the current Ticket team.   In your considerations, Confessors, bear in mind that Mike didn't limit his remark to hosts, or on-air guys.  Maybe he was referring to management.  Maybe to a yuk-monkey.  Or maybe to one of his on-air host colleagues.  Maybe he was referring to himself.  Riddle me that, if you will.

Voting for

Who at The Ticket does Mike Rhyner believe possesses the character, attitude, and relationship to his Ticket colleagues exhibited by inaugural Ticket host Skip Bayless?

is now  .  .  .  open.

FROM THE PLAINSMAN'S ARCHIVES: One -- No, Two of the Funniest Typographical Errors of All Time

I'm time-pressed to compose new jewels for you, so here's one from awhile ago for those of you who are more recent visitors.  I'll be back soon.  Have a splendid weekend.  Plainsman

===============

Since yesterday was the sixteenth anniversary of the birth of The Ticket, I thought this might be the right time to post this item that's been rattling around on my topic list for awhile.

I read "Full Disclosure" in hardcover. It's not "Gone with the Wind," but it isn't badly written and moves along nicely, tells you some things the Ticket fanatic needs to know. And then I came to this typographical error that absolutely put me on the floor.

Now, the error appears in the course of George relating a story that was very frightening and unhappy for him and his family. But once you factor this out, and think about what this typo is saying, it's hilarious. And what is even more hilarious is that the book contains exactly the same typo a few pages later in an even more hilarious context.

Congregation, please turn to page 97 in your hardcover copy of "Full Disclosure." On that page you will see the dramatic story of how an out-of-control boater almost struck George's son Blake who was in the water having fallen off his skis. The bad boater missed Blake. You can imagine the drama of the scene when it was clear Blake was going to be OK. You yourself experience this relief, until you see this passage:

"It was just horrible. Everybody was crying, and my wife was balling."

I defy you to read that sentence and not have an image flash through your mind of Mrs. Dunham engaging in some grossly inappropriate behavior while everyone else is crying with relief, and I'm not talking about a pickup game of hoops.

The same error appears a few pages later as Junior is describing how he left a girlfriend in Dallas to try his luck in Colorado. They had dated for two or three years, but, Junior reports, "the relationship was wobbling a little bit." Upon parting, Junior recalled on page 107:

"It was really tough; I remember leaving her that morning and we were both balling."

Doesn't sound all that tough, really. I love that "both," as though perhaps they were not balling, uh, together. (If they were, you wouldn't need "both.") Of course, the word the writer (who apparently was working without an editor) was searching for is "bawling." I note the unusual acknowledgement in the front of the book: "Proofreading by Jennifer Canzoneri."

Someone must have brought this to the publisher's attention, because neither error appears in the paperback version. So hang on to that hardcover first edition, P1's – like a misstruck penny or a stamp mistakenly bearing a likeness of Pauly Shore, or Billy Ripkin's notorious 1989 Fleer baseball card – it'll be worth a fortune someday.

"Full Disclosure" and One -- Actually, Two -- of the Funniest Typos of All Time

Since yesterday was the sixteenth anniversary of the birth of The Ticket, I thought this might be the right time to post this item that's been rattling around on my topic list for awhile.

I read "Full Disclosure" in hardcover. It's not "Gone with the Wind," but it isn't badly written and moves along nicely, tells you some things the Ticket fanatic needs to know. And then I came to this typographical error that absolutely put me on the floor.

Now, the error appears in the course of George relating a story that was very frightening and unhappy for him and his family. But once you factor this out, and think about what this typo is saying, it's hilarious. And what is even more hilarious is that the book contains exactly the same typo a few pages later in an even more hilarious context.

Congregation, please turn to page 97 in your hardcover copy of "Full Disclosure." On that page you will see the dramatic story of how an out-of-control boater almost struck George's son Blake who was in the water having fallen off his skis. The bad boater missed Blake. You can imagine the drama of the scene when it was clear Blake was going to be OK. You yourself experience this relief, until you see this passage:

"It was just horrible. Everybody was crying, and my wife was balling." 

I defy you to read that sentence and not have an image flash through your mind of Mrs. Dunham engaging in some grossly inappropriate behavior while everyone else is crying with relief, and I'm not talking about a pickup game of hoops.

The same error appears a few pages later as Junior is describing how he left a girlfriend in Dallas to try his luck in Colorado. They had dated for two or three years, but, Junior reports, "the relationship was wobbling a little bit." Upon parting, Junior recalled on page 107:

"It was really tough; I remember leaving her that morning and we were both balling." 

Doesn't sound all that tough, really.  I love that "both," as though perhaps they were not balling, uh, together.  (If they were, you wouldn't need "both.")   Of course, the word the writer (who apparently was working without an editor) was searching for is "bawling." I note the unusual acknowledgement in the front of the book: "Proofreading by Jennifer Canzoneri."

Someone must have brought this to the publisher's attention, because neither error appears in the paperback version. So hang on to that hardcover first edition, P1's – like a misstruck penny or a stamp mistakenly bearing a likeness of Pauly Shore, or Billy Ripkin's notorious 1989 Fleer baseball card – it'll be worth a fortune someday.