Million Dollar Men
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Apparently, having millions of dollars to flash around in the wrestling ring doesn’t translate to not charging to sign autographs and pose for pictures for free in real life. But in all honesty, that was ok with me, because it was so fun to meet retired wrestlers Ted DiBiase (who was known in the WWF as “The Million Dollar Man” and in the WCW as “Billionaire Ted” and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010) and Mike Jones (who was knownalternately as Virgil and Vincent, often acting as valet to DiBiase). Read the rest of this entry »
…So I made no qualms about tricking him back. How did he trick us, you ask? If you were a fan of the TV series Dallas during the 1980’s, you might recall an entire season of the show that in essence ‘never was’. This was because Patrick Duffy who was portraying Bobby Ewing had decided to leave the series and so the producers killed him off in a car accident. The next year he decided to return, so in a season cliffhanger, it was revealed that his death – along with the entire season – had been a lengthy dream sequence. Longest damn dream until Bob Newhart would have one that lasted for an entire series. 
Our time on the road was winding down as Bob and I departed the Grand Canyon National Park on the morning of Thursday, March 31, 2011. We had only one more major city to hit and this would be Phoenix, Arizona, which I would be seeing for the first time. We headed out that morning at around 9:30am, with only the minor distraction of seeing a Smokey the Bear statue delaying us initially. Then we came upon the small Arizona community of Valle, where we were sidetracked for over an hour. The reasons for this: Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. 
There were over 40 band members in the popular 1970’s group Sha Na Na, but easily the most recognizable of them was Jon “Bowzer” Bauman, whose giant mouth and gangly greaser persona became a rather iconic image of 50’s nostalgia in the 70’s. Today people might forget how big Sha Na Na actually was at one time. The played at Woodstock, headlined with Bruce Springsteen as a supporting act, and were invited to a charity concert by John Lennon. They even had their own syndicated variety show from 1977-1981, not to mention their starring role and soundtrack inclusion in the blockbuster movie version of Grease.