Why I Was Detained By Secret Service

de·tain [dih-teyn] verb (used with object)
1. to keep from proceeding; keep waiting; delay.

As I was leaving work today I was stopped in the elevator bank by a very serious looking man in a suit. He said "just one minute sir, stay there," and he stood in front of me to impede if I were to disobey his request.
I noticed five men in suits walking formation around another man, Mitt Romney. They walked off the elevator and to the door at the other end of the vestibule. Then another elevator opened and four more people stepped off and followed the group into the main area of the floor.
When they were all through the door, the Secret Service agent (I think half were Secret Service, the other half regular building security) thanked me and allowed me to continue.
On the other side, the door through which the group entered the floor, was a co-worker of mine who was similarly stopped from proceeding to the elevators.
Kind of excessive if you ask me, especially because President Obama was freely shaking hands and kissing babies at the NCAA tournament game last night without any visible sign of protection.
But regardless, I think it's a pretty cool story to tell about the time I was detained by Secret Service.

Two Celebrities, One Block

I saw Bobby Ojeda parking his car at the same garage I use. At first I thought it was Paul Reiser. But then the parking attendant called him Bobby. He was talking to the attendant when I started to drive, and I almost hit him because he started walking without looking.

Then, when I drove around the corner I saw a very tall man getting into a taxi. A taxi stopped at a red light in a center lane, not the far left lane. That is an unadvisable practice. But I guess no one is going run over former Knick great and U.S. Senator, Bill Bradley.

Chase's Underwhelming Reaction to Something I Thought Was Really Cool

I have met many celebrities in my career, most of them didn't even register with me as anything more than a smile and a good to meet you. There were a few I wanted to get a picture with (Uncle Mick Foley, Jonathan Duhamel and Jon Bones Jones).

But never have I been more insistent on meeting a celebrity, tried harder to do it, and had a more unusual request than when I recently met Larry the Cable Guy.

For those of you without children, please understand that LTCG (nee Daniel Whitney) is the voice of Mater in "Cars" and the forthcoming sequel "Cars 2."

Chase absolutely loves Mater and is so excited to see the new movie (I will elaborate in a future post) that I just had to get him to record a brief message on my blackberry.

I had all my minions following his every move throughout the building but my schedule and his just didn't work out and I thought I had missed him. As luck would have it I was walking right past where he was, so I waited around and much to the dismay of his PR person, I accosted him and he complied with my request.

He couldn't have been a nicer guy to everyone, not just me. And his message was pretty awesome, even though Chase didn't react with the amazement I expected.

If Possible, I Like Jon Jones Even More Now

Jon Bones Jones is a UFC champion and a world champion nice guy.

First of all, when I went to meet him and his PR flak he was standing off to the side texting with the championship belt over his shoulder. But because it was raining he had a belt cover. A black cloth cover for the belt. And not just a big black cloth, it was cut perfectly to cover the belt and protect it from the weather.

He was in a bit of a rush and his PR guy was quite chatty so I didn't get to talk to him very much until after his interview. I did tell him that I'm a big fan and had been since I first read about him as Arthur Jones's brother. He seemed impressed that I was a Syracuse grad and nodded in recognition when I told him how many SU people are in the industry.

I've seen a lot of famous people in these circumstances and you can tell a lot about a person watching them interact with strangers for five minutes. Other than his PR guy he had no entourage. There is an direct correlation between number of people in the entourage and how friendly the celebrity is.

It's hard for me to explain in this post, but you know it when you see it. You could just tell he was a good guy by the way he was smiling and really listening to what people were saying to him, even though "you're the greatest" "congratulations champ" and "can I suck your dick?" must get old after a while.


After the interview I explained a little about the control room and how I was talking to the anchor during it. He seemed impressed that someone could talk to him and listen to someone else without getting distracted.

And even though he was in a rush to get on a plane to do Leno tomorrow night, he posed for pictures with about 8 or 10 employees who had waited outside the studio for him. And one annoying person (not me) was chewing his ear off about a seminar Jones is teaching to MMA beginners. Instead of rushing past him, Jones put his arm around the guy and guided him in the direction he was going so they could walk and talk.



Just being around the guy for even just a few minutes you could tell he is very appreciative of everything he has, and very kind and gracious to all his fans.

God bless the Champ. Long may he reign.

Annnnnnnnnnnnd Good Afternoon Everybody

I'm standing the garage waiting for them to bring my car around and I see a driver coming in who looks like Chris Mad Dog Russo. I can't get a good look at him but I notice he is driving a Lexus LS450, with Connecticut plates - could be him.

He gets out of the car and is just a few feet from me and it his so I say "Hey Mad Dog!" And he replies very cordially then goes over to the attendant to get his ticket. As the guy is inspecting his car he says to Mad Dog "are they going to sign you up again?"

It was clear Mad Dog didn't understand what he meant or what he said because of his accent, so he just said "I've got two years left on my contract."

This is when I chimed in:
"Mad Dog, you have to come back, I just cannot listen to Francesa by himself."
"I've got two years left, so they're gonna have to do it with someone else, not me."
"But he is terrible."
"I know, it's tough." [He actually agreed with my rip of Mike.]

Then he starts to walk away and he says "You need to get Sirius."
I said "I'm a shareholder."
He replied "A dollar-81" and just like that he was gone.

I forgot to get his e-mail address so I can copy him on my e-mail to TON when Sirius hits $2.

Hopefully I'll Have One of My Own Someday

Took a picture this morning with 2010 World Series of Poker Champion Jonathan Duhamel and his bracelet.



He was a very nice guy and the first thing I said to him was "I have a sick bad beat story to tell you." He looked kind of surprised and then I told him I was just kidding. He laughed and said he was surprised because he doesn't really get that a lot. He expected to be bombarded with bad beat stories.
Other interesting notes from our conversation:
-He doesn't know how much he actually took home. But the casino automatically withholds 30% for U.S. taxes, then, he has Canadian taxes to pay, which are higher because he is a professional, not an amateur. All told he will pay about $4m of his $9m in taxes.

-He sold a 1% piece to his best friend for $100. That guy now has $90,000.

-He gave me an autographed hat

-My blackberry takes awful pictures. I might need to start carrying a real camera

Guess Who's Coming to Thanksgiving Dinner

Uncle Mick!

One of the Good Ones

Through my job I've gotten to meet a good number of celebrities and an even greater number of people who thought they were celebrities when they really weren't.

Here's how you tell the good ones from the bad ones:

When you meet a celebrity extend your hand and offer your name. If they reply with their own name as if you'd never heard of them before, that's good. Sure you know their name and they know you know their name, but if they just say hi, they're probably an arrogant pompous jerk.

This morning I met Steve Schirripa aka Bobby Bacala. I stood up and as I was being introduced to him I said "I'm Paul, pleased to meet you.". He said "Steve. Nice to meet you too."

He's one of the good ones.

During this time our teleprompter also wanted to meet him too but she was prompting. I said "Michelle wants to meet you too but you can't distract her while she's prompting."

So Steve proceeds to tickle her.

He did other friendly and courteous things during the five minutes I saw him including posing for pictures.

Note: I considered asking him to take a picture with me but I always think that's cheesy and unprofessional and maybe a little gay when you're talking about two dudes.

It's nice when you see someone on TV and develop a theory about them (in this case I thought he was a struggling actor who never got jobs because he was too fat until his big break after which he got a lot of success but never became spoiled by it) and he turns out to be just as nice and funny as you expected. Or more.

David Spade Mixing Drinks Octagonside

During UFC 104 during they showed David Spade sitting in the crowd. When he raised his hand to acknowledge the camera you could see he was drinking a Coke but in between his fingers was one of those little airplane bottles of Jack Daniels.

I wonder if they actually sell or provide those liquor bottles at Staples Center or did Spade make an alcohol run before the fight then sneak them past arena security.

Thoughts on the fights below the picture.



Obviously the Lyoto Machida decision victory over Shogun Rua was very controversial. I kind of agree that overall Rua did more to win the fight but if all three judges scored it the same then maybe it wasn't a fix and Machida really won three of those rounds. Each of the first two rounds probably could have gone either way. Also, do you judge strikes to the head the same way you judge kicks to the leg. Yes Shogun landed a lot of kicks, and they did damage, but Machida landed many more blows to the head.

I also think the announce team influenced general opinion on this fight (though the in-arena crowd reacted as well). Mike Goldberg was harping on the scoring the whole time and Joe Rogan tried to dismiss him several times by saying basically "who knows what the judges see, forget about it and watch the fight." But Goldberg kept going leading to an argument over Machida's strategy, Goldberg saying he needed to do something desperate, Rogan saying desperation can get you knocked out, and Goldberg saying without desperation you get decisioned out of your title.

I love Machida and I'm glad he won but this is the problem with him sometimes. He's so elusive and so patient that some of his fights lack action. This one was kind of interesting from a technical standpoint, and there was action, there just weren't any decisive moments.

I think whichever way the decision ended up on this one would have been disappointing. Obviously, Rua losing pissed some people off but it would have been kind of hollow for him to take the belt with that performance.

Mugshot Madness

Joyce DeWitt better known Janet from "Three's Company" arrested for DUI.



Former US figure skater Nicole Bobek arrested for drug possession, you guessed it, meth.

Celeb Sighting

I was walking through the lobby of my building reading my book. When I heard the clomp of high heels walking towards me, I looked up.
I saw a woman in a very short skirt.
When my eyes got up to her face I realized I was about to bump into Ann Coulter.

Celeb Sighting

As I was parking my car in the underground garage and waiting for the slow attendant to give me my ticket, I noticed a black Escalade pulling in, trailed by 15 to 20 paparazzi.
They were snapping pictures of the car as it pulled into the garage.
Garage security stopped the photographers from entering and two security guys got out of the Escalade, and ushered a woman into a side door.
I asked the attendant who it was and he said "Madonna."
I didn't get a good look at her because she was ducking her head and standing between two large men, but I guess it could have been her.

Blast from the Past

Susan Wagner High School sports mascot during my time there was a developmentally disabled 21 year old student, affectionately known as Nick Tooth.
Without going into great detail about him, I'll just relate one quick story.
When Danny Anderson became the first basketball player in Wagner history to score 1,000 points in his career, I was there and so was Nick Tooth.
When the basket when in, I stood on the sidelines and applauded. Nick ran on the court with a sign comemmorating Danny's accomplishment. The sign said Danny was the "frist" player in Wagner history to score 1,000 points.
I haven't seen Nick Tooth since high school, until he appeared on SNY's sports trivia show "Beer Money."
His first question was "how long is the NYC Marathon?" He said he ran it in 2005 so he knows that it.s 26 and a half miles. Even though it's 26.2 miles, they gave him the $10.
His second question was "who did the Knicks beat in the 1970 NBA Finals?" He quickly said Lakers and moved onto question 3.
This was a hard one "what was the proposed name for Shea Stadium before they decided to name it after William Shea?" Nick Tooth had no idea. When he got a hint ("where is Shea Stadium?") he said "Queens." Not Queens Stadium, not Queens Park, just Queens. The answer was Flushing Meadows Park.
But Nick represented himself well and I got a kick out of seeing him again.

Pretty Good Seats for a Guy Who Hasn't Had a Career for 10 Years

Steve Sanders aka Ian Ziering was seated in prime position right behind home plate at Dodger Stadium for Monday's game against the Mets.




Story suggested by SCZA

Celeb Sighting: Loka

I just saw Loka, a 4 year old Tibetan Mastiff who will be competing in this year's Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. The Tibetan Mastiff is one of 4 new breeds added to the show this year, for a total of 160 breeds.
In order for a breed to be added there need to be at least 300 dogs of that breed living in the U.S. with a three-generation pedigree.

Celeb Sighting: Jerome Williams

Jerome Williams "The Junk Yard Dog" in front of my building.