It's Tuesday night and time to head over to Rupert Jee's to do something. Whenever we go to Rupert's on Tuesday, we usually do something that reflects a topical event in the news. Tonight's topic stems from a small story of a man in California. When dining at an Italian restaurant, he saw the image of Jesus Christ suddenly appear in his plate of manicotti.

Are you familiar with this story about the Jesus Manicotti. (Jesus Manicotti . . . . doesn't he play 2nd base for the Puerto Rican baseball team?)
A man in California claims the image of Jesus appeared to him while he was eating a plate of manicotti at an Italian restaurant.
- the image appeared in the form of a bubbling, burned portion of cheese.
- when the hostess took a look, she "got chills"
- since the appearance of Jesus in his manicotti, the man's chronic stomach problem has vanished.
Dave sends Rupert outside to find a contestant.

It's a special night here at the Late Show. Tonight we're featuring one of Dave's delightful enjoyments as we have a guy who has set up thousands of dominoes in an elaborate display and then later in the program, he will knock them down. We say hello to domino expert, Ben Herbst of Olympia, Washington. Ben is backstage still working hard to set up the domino display. The display includes mousetraps, jumps, ramps, helixes, and balloons. Ben will continue to set up during the show and we'll check in on Ben a little later.

For the 21st time, Paul Shaffer served as the Musical Director for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. It was held Monday night at the Waldorf Astoria. Performing as the house band was the CBS Orchestra. Dave once again lauds Paul and the band and makes his annual plea that if Paul and the CBS Orchestra aren't inducted into the Hall of Fame, then something is wrong.
This year's inductees:
Black Sabbath
Blondie
Miles Davis
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Sex Pistols
Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss - creators of A&M Records.
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony can be seen next Tuesday, March 21st, on VH-1.

Before we go any further, Dave announces that all this month at Red Lobster, it's Lobsterfest! A Red Lobster logo flies in, with the announce:

"Be sure to try our succulent Classic Lobster & Snow Crab, all this month at Red Lobster."

Back to Rupert's, who is now with Adrienne Nichols of Lubbock, Texas, home of Buddy Holly. What's it like in Lubbock? Flat. Flat for miles. And no rain. What is she doing here in New York? Adrienne says she is here for Spring Break . . . . it is Spring Break in Texas. That makes sense. It's fun to go to Spring Break, but when Spring Break comes to you, it's time to get out of town.
Tonight we're playing "Who's in the Manicotti?" We prepared a plate of manicotti with the image of a famous celebrity in the pasta. Adrienne will have 30 seconds to determine who is in the manicotti. Alan Kalter announces that we are playing for a Black and Decker Brew and Go coffee maker . . . or tea maker . . . and tonight's famed celebrity in the manicotti is . . . . . Burt Reynolds.
Rupert uncovers the plate of manicotti and Adrienne studies the image in the plate of noodles. Even after Alan announced the image, it was hard to tell who it was. Adrienne says to Rupert that it could be Santa Claus. Rupert shrugs who offers no help at all. When we play these games, we don't tell Rupert the answer. He didn't know who was in the manicotti either. Times up and Adrienne makes her guess: "Is it Santa Claus?" Dave responds, "Most of America think of him as Santa Claus but it's Burt Reynolds." Nice try, Adrienne. For your participation, you win a Hello Deli deli platter. How many Italians out there cringed each time Dave said, "man-i-cotti," instead of the Italian-ized "man-i-gawt"? And while we're at it, is it "sauce" or "gravy"?

Back to Ben Herbst to see how he's doing. Is he almost ready? Ben says he only has a couple hundred more to put down.

Back from commercial, Dave once again checks in on Ben. Earlier, Ben mentioned he included 3 mousetraps in tonight's domino topple. Is that the most he's ever used? Ben says it is not, that he once used 30 dominoes in a demonstration. So Ben is still a few minutes away from completion. You will not want to miss this. All month at Red Lobster, it's Lobsterfest.

"Break it! Drizzle it! Crave it! Lobsterfest is back, all this month at Red Lobster.

TOP TEN: Signs The Government is Running Out of Money - Treasury Secretary John Snow announced that the United States government is running out of money and by the end of this week, we will reach our national debt ceiling of 8.2 trillion dollars.
#9. Country renamed United States of Ditech.com.
#6. For ten bucks you can punch Rumsfeld in the stomach.

NATALIE PORTMAN: Natalie has been coming to our show since she was a brand new teen at the age of 13.
Natalie had a real New York moment earlier today. She was driving through Times Square in the middle of the afternoon and saw a guy dressed in nothing but a cowboy hat and underpants playing a guitar and singing. City locals on the staff said knowingly and matter-of-factly, "Oh, yeah, the naked cowboy." Natalie says those in her car had the same response, totally not impressed that a naked guy in a cowboy hat was playing the guitar. No big deal. Just as long as he doesn't screw up traffic. And then the other day while driving down the West Side Highway, Natalie saw a nun in full-habit rollerblading. She found that fascinating. A naked cowboy. A rollerblading nun. As Cindy Adams would say, "Only in New York, kids, only in New York."
Natalie has been in show business for years and was part of an environmental/singing group as a kid called, "The World Patrol Kids." She remembers the group well and sings one of the popular tunes which include the lyrics, "Recycle it" and "renew it." And we have a clip from one of her performances. She doesn't recall how old she was but judging from the clip I would estimate about 10 years old.

Dave interrupts the segment to take care of some business.
All this month at Red Lobster, it's Lobsterfest.

"Dive in and try out mouth-watering fiesta lobster rolls, all this month at Red Lobster.

AL FRANKEN: Al says he hasn't seen Dave since Dave's Bill O'Reilly interview. Al commends Dave on a job well done and for having the instinct to realize that what BO'R says is crap. Al says to Dave, "You said 60% of what Bill O'Reilly says is crap." He goes on to praise Dave's generosity as a host because everyone knows that 100% of what Bill O'Reilly says is crap.
Al recently spent two weeks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait doing a slew of USO shows for the troops. He met one guy at Abu Ghraib prison who guarded Saddam Hussein. The guard said he knew Saddam to be an evil guy, but admitted, "I kind of liked him." The guard said Saddam mentioned how he liked the guard's dog. Saddam also liked horses. Cats? Saddam laughed. "Cats are for women!" During the USO shows, Al would do Saddam Hussein impressions, using a generic middle-eastern dictator voice since Al had no idea what Saddam sounded like. When the guard heard the impersonation, he exclaimed, "That's exactly how he sounded!" According to the guard, Saddam doesn't know why Bush is doing this to him. Saddam doesn't like Bush. Saddam said, "I don't know why Bush is doing this to me. I was a good leader. Now, Reagan! Reagan I liked. He gave me helicopters."

What does Al think of the current administration? Bush's approval ratings are in the low 30s, but Cheney's is even worse at around 18%. Al takes an informal poll of the audience.
1. How many here have accidentally shot a friend in the face? No response, except from the horn section.
2. And if you shot a friend in the face, how many here would go to the hospital to see how your friend was doing, to make sure he was OK?
Cheney would have answered Yes to #1. He did not go to the hospital to see his birdshot-buddy, so he would have to answer No to #2. Al surmises that Cheney was either drunk or is a jerk. Or both.

What about the rumors that Al may run for Senator in Minnesota? Al and his wife recently moved back to Minnesota and he says he is seriously looking in to it. Now that would be fun!
Al Franken - check out the Al Franken Show on Air America Radio and now on XM Satellite.

ACT 5: Poor Ben Herbst working at recreating his domino masterpiece. He's got a long way to go.

To close the show, Dave revisits with domino guy, Ben Herbst. He has no more than 20 or so dominoes set up. The show's over so we gotta go with what we got. Ben tips the first domino and the next 19 fall. It's all we got. Dave looks over to the producer and wonders, "Did we pay for his flight to get here?"

And that was our show for Tuesday, March 14, 2006. Wahoo EXTRA!

Happy Birthday to the Donz!

Tuesday was Show #2525. It made me think of the Zager & Evans song.

My Yankee 2006 prediction: Out of the playoffs; 4th place finish in the East. Their entire starting rotation will end up on the disabled list at least once. As always, there are two things I hope for with the New York Yankees:
1. they make the playoffs and win the World Series.
2. if they don't make the playoffs, then I hope they have a terrible season full of disappointment. It's great theater to watch Mr. Steinbrenner's reaction to such results.

I became depressed last night. I got home from work, ate some dinner, and put the girls to bed. I turned on the TV. I stopped on PBS Channel 13. They were in the middle of a pledge drive. Featured during the pledge drive was a 1975 Bruce Springsteen concert. Man oh man, what a show. And it was 30 years ago. I felt old. I missed that excitement, that energy, that edge-of-your-seat glee of witnessing greatness. 30 years ago. I need to introduce my girls to Bruce. They need to learn Born to Run. The song "Born To Run" holds a very special place in the hearts of us 40 and 50-somethings. It's anthem-like, almost sacred. All these years later I feel the song shouldn't be heard too often. It should be saved for a special occasion, like a very expensive bottle of champagne. It's weird. If I hear the song on the radio on my drive to work, I'll turn it off. I tell myself, "No, the song is too important for a morning commute." There is no other song like it.

Osama bin Laden . . . . remember him? Isn't he the cause of all this? When was the last time the President said his name?