Right after Dave's last joke, our costume designer Sue Hum walks on stage to take care of some last minute costume designing. The perfectionist she is, Sue Hum saw a piece of lint on Dave's jacket during his opening remarks and could not help but do something about it. She waited like the professional she is for Dave to finish with his last joke and then approached, swiped Dave's jacket with a lint brush, and then exited.

Dave's been watching a lot of the news lately and can't help but notice that every commentator describes the power grid that went down during the Great North American Blackout of 2003 as a "house of cards." "It was like a house of cards" says the many. "It was like a house of cards." Throughout the evening, Dave will repeat the phrase, "It was like a house of cards."

It's in stores now, the new Warren Zevon CD, "The Wind." Dave says it's a "must buy" and suggest everyone to press the Pause button on the TIVO and run right out and pick up a copy at your nearest CD store, whether it be . . . . Dave asks Paul for some help. "Where do they sell CDs?" Paul offers "Tower, HMV, Virgin, Mega-Virgin, and Coconut. Or your local CD store."
Performing on the CD include: Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Ry Cooder, Tom Petty, Dwight Yoakam, and Emmylou Harris.
Dave likes the name Ry Cooder and plans on calling Paul Shaffer "Ry" the rest of the week. Will it be in Thursday's Opening Announce? I don't know. I'll ask Thursday morning.

Did you take a look at Mars last night? It's the closest it's been to earth in 60,000 years. NASA released this footage of the Angry Red Planet earlier today. We see Mars. We see earth. We see Mars approach earth and take a bite out of it like a Pac-man. Turn on the radio right now. There's probably bad news coming out of Western Europe and Russia. Half of it may be missing.

You remember the Great North American Blackout of 2003 two weeks ago? Well, our 12 floor communications director Art Kelly remembers and it was quite frightful. Dave phones Art to have him once again relive that fateful night.
"Where were you when the blackout hit?" asks Dave.
ART: "In the subway."
DAVE: "And how long were you stuck in the subway?"
ART: "About 20 minutes."
I still get shivers whenever I hear that story.

CNN TECHNICAL MISHAP OF THE NIGHT
CNN's "At This Hour"
CNN anchor Kyra Phillips.
There is no audio. Just a lot of blank stares. It reminded me of our audience some nights.

THE GEORGE W. BUSH PRESIDENTIAL COUGH:
Our President is concluding a heartfelt speech. He says to his audience, "Thank you for coming and may God bless." Bush remains at the podium. After a moment, he coughs a lip-and-cheek-flapping cough. Dave enjoys this so much; he asks to see it again. I have a feeling we may be seeing it again on Thursday.

ALAN KALTER'S "SOMEONE WHO ISN'T RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR IN CALIFORNIA" - We cut to Alan who is reading from a script:
"Thanks, Dave. There are now 135 people running for Governor in the California recall election, but due to the Federal Communications Commission's 'equal-time' law, we're not allowed to show you any of them. So now it's time for Alan Kalter's 'Someone Who Isn't Running For Governor in California.'"
Alan then begins to read off cue cards. He describes the life of a guy named Richard Sanders.
After the bit, Dave congratulates Alan on a great job. Dave mentions to Paul, "Did you see that? He didn't have the 'thing' (cue cards), and then he got the 'thing.' You couldn't even notice. Smooth as could be. That's why he's the best announcer on TV."

TOP TEN: REAL REASONS WE'RE NOT PLAYING IN THE U.S. OPEN
And here to present tonight's Top Ten list, tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams.
#8. "We can't give you any details, but we're very close to catching Saddam"
#6. "I heard the Jets need a Quarterback."
#1. "Surprise! We're running for Governor of California!"
Very nice job by the Williams sisters. It's cool to see the best in the world up close.

VENUS WILLIAMS: 23 years old
-winner of 4 Grand Slam Tournaments: Wimbledon (2000, 2001), U.S. Open (2000, 2001)
-Venus is not competing in this year's U.S. Open due to a torn stomach muscle.

SERENA WILLIAMS: 21 years old
-winner of 6 Grand Slam Tournaments: Wimbledon (2002, 2003), U.S. Open (1999, 2002), French Open (2002), Australian Open (2003)

So where was the cue card guy (Bill) during the Alan Kalter piece? He was rehearsing the Top Ten with the cue cards for the Williams sisters back stage. When he heard Dave introducing Alan, he flew like the wind to get the cards.

DAVID SPADE: Paul plays Spade on with "How Long Has This Been Going On?" We in the shack conversed, "Why?" David Spade sits, looks over at Paul, and wonders the same thing. Paul explains, "It's by 'Ace'. As in 'The Ace of Spades.'" Now it makes sense. Spade says he survived the blackout OK. It was touch and go there for a while but he made out all right. He was in California.

Spade had some funny thoughts about Bush and the recent blackout. Bush says he's often asked about "The Grid" in California. Bush says, "I tell them it's outdated. I tell them that all the time that "The Grid" is outdated. Spade admits to not knowing much but is quite sure Bush is lying here. "Bush hasn't always talked about 'the grid'. Has anybody ever heard Bush talk about 'The Grid' before last week?"

How is Arnold Schwarzenegger doing in California? Does he have a chance? Spade says Arnold is just trying to stall until the recall vote. David recently saw Arnold on the C-Span II and he was asked a tough question. Arnold's answer: "Uh, the deficit - that's a tricky one - I will have an answer by the time I'm in office." Spade thought that was a great answer. "Vote for me now and I'll have an answer for you when I'm in office."

Spade doesn't think Gary Coleman will win, but hopes he does since he's in Spade's movie and it can only help.
David gives his views on the Saddam thing going on and how it must be for him constantly having to crash at friends.
David Spade is starring in the September 5th release of "Dickie Roberts, Former Child Star." His TV show, "Just Shoot Me," was just canceled after 7 years on the air. 7 years? How can that be? Hasn't "Just Shoot Me" been in syndication for eight?"

BOB SARLATTE: Celebrating his 20th season as field announcer for the San Francisco 49ers. Bob was Dave's daytime announcer back in 1980 on "The David Letterman Show". Bob and Dave also "starred" in an afternoon talk show, something called "Leave it to Dave" in 1978 but it never made it to air. Bob describes one of the pieces on the show called, "Recent Haircut", or something like that. During an interview with a guest like Melissa Manchester, Bob would interrupt with "Hold that thought, Dave! It's time to play 'Recent Haircut!" I laughed at the concept. And I hope to see it on our show soon.

Dave asks Bob about his "Waffle-O Bill" character he performed in a commercial for a children's snack. The product was taken off the shelves because children were choking on them. Bob also did the voice of the Pretzel Pencil around the same time. Bob gives a sample of his Pretzel Pencil. Dave says it sounds a lot like the Waffle-O Bill character.

In his free time, Bob likes to call his dad on the phone and give him the answers to the Jumble before his dad gets a chance to do it. This frustrates his dad to no end. This reminded me of my wife Denise purposely calling home during Final Jeopardy. She would call just before Alex would read the answer/question. The phone would ring and her father Jim would answer the phone and frantically tell her he couldn't talk just right now. Denise would say "Fine, but I have to tell you something." Jim would be torn between Alex and Denise, not knowing to whom he should listen. She would do this nearly every night. He never caught on.

I always like Bob's visits. Full of energy. I hope to hear his band one day, Butch Whacks and the Glass Packs. I'm not sure if he's Butch or one of the Pack.

ACT 5: It's our costume designer working her lint brush on our announcer, Alan Kalter.

MAROON 5: From their debut CD, "Songs About Jane," Maroon 5 performed "Harder to Breathe"

I think I got everything right today.

And that was our show for Wednesday, August 27, 2003. Wahoo EXTRA!

I checked out Mars through a telescope last night. I think I saw Cheney.

I've been having some problems with my e-mail. I'm receiving a bunch of "Mailer-daemon - mail delivery failed: returning message to sender", so I'm missing out on a lot of your e-mail. I'm presently trying to decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

From the March 31st Wahoo Gazette:

"This year's Anaheim Angels will be the Montreal Expos and the Chicago Cubs."

What happened on the Late Show one year ago today? Times up. Brent Bailey made his debut on network television. Brent participated in "May We See Your Photos, Please" and we soon discovered he was an accomplished pianist. Dave invited him in and Brent tickled the ivories (and the ebonies) for our enjoyment. And that's what happened one year ago tonight.

Brent performs regularly at the Logan Inn in New Hope, Pennsylvania. To find out more about the Logan Inn and if Brent is still there, check out their website - www.loganinn.com.

Friday concludes 10 years of the Late Show at CBS. Yippee for us.