If you’re not aware of how awesome Carl Kasell is as the official “Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me!” scorekeeper, you’re completely missing the point of this post and there’s very little hope for you. However, there’s still time to catch up if you get to work immediately listening to old episodes in the archives. Or check out their excellent blog, which seems to be mostly about food.
My brother-in-law Mitch pulled off an incredible coup recently; some time ago he wrote to our local public radio station (the mighty, mighty, WBEZ) and simply asked if he could get a “Carl Kasell on your home answering machine” recording as a surprise for his (our) parents’ upcoming 50th wedding anniversary, which is June 10th.
We’ve all listened to the message, and as my husband David likes to say, it’s TREMENDOUS.
It makes us both laugh and cry at the same time, which is quite a feat as we’re not that dramatic a family. It even references the name of the restaurant where the party was originally planned to be; in the meantime a much smaller and quieter gathering will happen, probably at “the folks” house. Sadly, we will be short one beloved person that day.
This change of plans does not prevent us from getting a lot of mileage out of the recording, which we can now play via our smartphones at any time –we do not need to wait for a phone call. No operators need stand by. Modern technology is a miraculous thing.
Thus, we can laugh (or what have you) at any time we wish. This is a TREMENDOUS blessing.
Carl Kasell is, quite simply, teh awesome. Sir: you rock. You helped us laugh. Thank you.
