Not only do we have Phish performing on the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater, we also have on the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater office building, building engineer George Clarke eating Fish Sticks. Does George like the Fish Sticks? With hesitation, George says he does. Paul is excited to have Phish and George Clarke eating fish sticks on the same show. “It’s a theme show!” exclaims Paul. “Just like Merv!”

It’s sad. Every day that passes, less and less of us get Paul’s references.

Dave follows this with some aggressive drumming with his double eraser-sided LATE SHOW pencil. During a down beat, one of the erasers goes flying off. It goes unnoticed by the host.

Dave is excited about the Jeopardy game/quiz show. That guy Ken Jennings continues to pile up the wins, now up to 13 straight wins, good for $440,000. Dave hasn’t been this excited about a game show since “Monty Baker’s Hollywood Poker.” A quick Google check of “Monty Baker’s Hollywood Poker

Who or what is a Monty Baker Hollywood Poker? When I google it, nothing comes up. When I google “Hollywood Poker” a number of articles appear. When I google “Monty Baker,” a name of a car driver at the Mid America Speedway driving in the Mini Classic shows up. The connection? None that I can see. Probably just a random stab at 4 words to create a make believe game show that sounds plausible.
- Monty – Monty Hall
- Baker - ???
- Hollywood – California show biz capital.
- Poker – popular game these days.

Anyway, have you seen the Jeopardy these past few weeks? Ken Jennings is going nuts! He’s breaking the “Jeopardy” bank. Hey! Here’s an idea for Tuesday’s show. Let’s call Merv Griffin and ask him what’s the deal with this guy. Jeopardy is a Merv show and the guy is costing Merv a fortune. I wonder what Merv’s thoughts are. I would think he’s loving it. The publicity has been fabulous.

But Dave thinks something is not quite square with Jeopardy lately, ever since this guy has gone on the winning streak. Dave is now Tivo-ing the show to watch and re-watch so he can analyze just what is going on. Dave brought in some of the evidence he’s uncovered bringing the whole show into question. We see a clip of an answer directed at the champ Ken Jennings.

“This six-headed monster that devoured sailors lived in a cave across the whirlpool Charybdis.”
Ken Jennings asks, “Who is Manilow?” Alex Trebek follows with “Barry Manilow is right!”

Dave offers another example.

“This half of a legendary comedy duo was born in New Jersey in 1895.”
Ken Jennings asks, “What is hydrochloric acid?” “Correct!” chimes Alex.

GEORGE W. BUSH IRAQI UPDATE: From a June 16th speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, our President, the Great Enunciator quips, “Iraq police and civil defense corps have recently captured several terrorists including Umar . . . . . Boziani.”

SUMMER CALENDAR: It’s the first day of summer. Here’s a partial itinerary of the rich and famous for the season. June 23rd: Bill Clinton suggests George Clooney play him in movie of “My Life”; suggests Carol Channing play Hillary.

Yes, the joke made very little sense, but the image of Clooney and Channing together I guess made it humorous.

Dave says he would like to have Bubba, Bill Clinton, on the show. Dave said he met him once or twice. The first time he met Clinton, he could tell Bill could not care less to meet him . . . . “which is the correct response.”

June 24th: Members of Phish begin to wonder when the LATE SHOW will figure out how to get them down from the marquee.

June 30th: United States forces handover control of Iraq to new Iraqi government.

July 1st: New Iraqi government begs United States forces to take control back.

July 4th: Hamptons car mechanics prepare for inevitable Billy Joel car accident.

August 1: Rupert Jee changes “August” to “September” on all his expiration dates.

Dave decides to skip one and leaps ahead to the final two. And what did he skip? You can only find out here at the Wahoo Gazette:

August 2nd: Madonna finishes up with will hopefully be her farewell tour And finally, one more example of the hinkiness surrounding Jeopardy.

“After four tries, the little bald guy finally went home with this actor for his performance in ‘Mystic River.’”
Ken Jennings: “What is, hmmm, the sun?” Trebek triumphantly exclaims, “The sun! Good guess!”

Back from commercial we pay a quick visit to George on the roof. How many fish sticks is he up to? 18. Dave urges him to “cowboy up and try to finish the platter.”

TOP TEN: Surprises in the Bill Clinton ’60 Minutes’ Interview.
#10. Out of habit, Clinton vehemently denied ever writing his memoirs.
#6. To make Clinton feel more comfortable, Dan Rather wore one of Hillary’s ill-fitting pantsuits.
#5. First time an interview with a former president contained the phrase ‘Booty Call.’

LARRY BROWN: Head coach of your 2004 NBA Champion Detroit Pistons.

Larry is a Hall of Fame coach and has been around the league once or twice, a success where ever he goes. How good a coach is he? His winning a championship with the Detroit Pistons is nothing. He is such a good coach, he once led the Los Angeles Clippers to the playoffs! I think the Hall of Fame waived the waiting period and voted him into the club immediately following their appearance.

More on Larry Brown:
- attended the University of North Carolina – graduated in 1963
PLAYER: - a member of the 1964 gold medal winning U.S. Olympic basketball team
- A 3-time ABA All-Star
- A member of 5 ABA teams, including the 1969 ABA Champion Oakland Oaks
COACH: - 1988 – coached the University of Kansas to the NCAA Championship.
- coached 2 college teams (Kansas and UCLA), 2 ABA teams, and 7 NBA teams.

Larry says while growing up he wanted to be a high school history teacher and basketball coach. Dave asks if he ever teaches history during a huddle with his Detroit Pistons. Unfortunately, no.

Dave raves about the Detroit defense and how they ran the Lakers ragged. Larry says winning always comes down to defense and he senses professional sports is leaning more towards that direction. Brown calls Ben Wallace one of the best defenders he has ever coached. From the Final games I watched, he was my MVP.

Larry Brown will be keeping himself busy this summer by leading the U.S. Olympic basketball team into Greece for a hopeful gold medal. He is a bit concerned, though, that many of the players have opted out of going to the Olympics and suggests there may be a spot for Dave if he decides he wants to play for the USA. Dave seems interested, but warns, “I’d come but I gotta get my minutes.” Coach Brown laughs and says he’s heard that a lot.

To close up the segment, Dave holds up a photo of Larry Brown from 1976 coaching the ABA All-Star team. The cool dude was working the sidelines dressed in overalls. Dave says the photo was taken while Larry Brown was a member of the cast of Hee Haw. It was a funny line, even if the audience response was tepid. I find that any reference to “Hee Haw” to be quite funny.

SEAN HAYES – Sean is on hiatus from Will & Grace, which is a high-brow word for “summer vacation.” Being a big star and aware of the pitfalls into which one can fall, Sean shies away from using the word “hiatus.” But he is a big star and feels too important to use “summer vacation.” He compromises and uses “sabbatical.” What is he doing during his sabbatical? He says he’s building his mom a house. I immediately realize that when a man from his, and my, generation says “I am building my mom a house,” it means he is hiring someone to build his mom a house. This is true with any statement which involves building something with your hands.

“I’m painting the house” – means I am hiring someone to paint the house.

“I have to change the oil in the car” – mean I have to take it the car to the gas station.

“I’m re-doing the basement” – means I’m hiring people to re-do the basement.

Just about the only thing left is “I have to cut the lawn,” but even that is quickly evaporating into hiring someone to cut the lawn.

Sean tells a story of meeting Robert DeNiro and Bill Murray many years ago before he made it big as Will or Grace. Sean’s friend was working at a theater where they saw the two big Hollywood movie stars. Sean suggested they give them free “Kaboom” T-shirts; a great way to advertise the theater. DeNiro and Murray said they would gladly accept the T’s. When Sean told his friend of the news, the friend was elated but added that they would have to pay for the T-shirts. “My boss would kill me if I gave the T-shirts away for nothing.” Sean returned to Murray and DeNiro and shyly told them he would be right back. Sean then ran away and didn’t return.

While telling the story, we learn that Sean was a member of a pop band back when he was 21-ish called the “Sounds from the Stairs.” Sounds like one of those cheap mass murder movies that last a week and a half at the theater.

Quick Google Check - “Sounds from the Stairs”:”

Hey! I got a hit on his bio:

“Hayes was born (on June 26, 1970) and raised in the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellen, Illinois. He was a classical pianist, performed in a band called Sounds from the Stairs and appeared in Burn This and Love for Love, productions at Illinois State University, while going to school at ISU.”

Dave seems interested in the idea. He turns in his seat towards the audience and says to Sean, “I understand we have a clip” as he waits for the explanation for the piece of video we’re about to see. A somewhat stunned Sean says, “NO! It hasn’t even been made yet!” Dave uses this line maybe once every two years and it makes me laugh every time.

ACT 5: Phish makes their way though the window to get to the Marquee.

PHISH: From their CD, Undermind, Phish performed “Scents and Subtle Sounds.” After the show, they stayed on and played a few more songs:

"Scents and Subtle Sounds" (again)
"2001: A Space Odyssey"
"Wilson"
"Chalk Dust Torture"
"Tweezer" (twice)

And that was our show for Monday June 21, 2004. Wahoo EXTRA!

Outdoor concerts at the LATE SHOW. I’m not sure but I feel I’m missing one on 53rd Street.

On 53rd Street
BON JOVI: 7/26/95 – Show #422
SMASHING PUMPKINS: 7/30/98 – Show 1054
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE: 11/02/99 – Show #1314
MATCHBOX 20: 5/23/00 – Show #1410

On the roof:
BON JOVI: 6/13/00 – Show #1420
DAVE MATTHEWS BAND: 7/15/02 – Show #1841
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: 9/29/03 – Show #2048

LATE SHOW Marquee
PHISH: 6/21/04 – Show #2191
AUDIOSLAVE: 11/25/02 – Show #1912
MARIACHI BAND: 5/05/04 - #2163

Hey! Look at that! Audioslave performed on the marquee on Show #1912. Phish performed on the marquee on the reversed show number, #2191.

I’ve been wondering about something since the late 70’s, early 80’s. Is there any real difference between Boston, Kansas, Foreigner, and Journey?

Madonna now wants to be known as Esther. I think she’s taking this Kaballah thing a bit too far.

She’s turning into an alter cocker. She hock a chainik and has a loch in kop.

What’s next?

What's next: cooking challah while kibitzing on a kibbutz

Today is the first day of summer, or the Summer Solstice.

As the northern axis tilts towards the sun, as it does between June and September, it is summer in the northern hemisphere but winter in the southern hemisphere. On June 21, there are 24 hours of daylight above the Arctic Circle (66.5 degrees north of the equator) and 24 hours of darkness below the Antarctic Circle (66.5 degrees south of the equator.) The sun’s rays are directly overhead along the Tropic of Cancer (the latitude line at 23.5 degrees north, passing through Mexico, Saharan Africa, and India.).

Without the tilt of the earth’s axis, we would have no seasons. When summer occurs in the hemisphere, it is due to that hemisphere receiving more directs rays of the sun than the opposite hemisphere where it is winter.

And that’s the story of the Summer Solstice. Oh, and how do YOU want to remember the Summer of ’04? Make plans. Do the plans.