The Chris Moeller Archives

A Remembrance – by Aaron Moeller

One of my favorite features of Chris’ blog is his obituaries. Whenever some public figure passes to the other side, Chris generally responds with a nice remembrance on this site, always with fond memories or anecdotes noting some personal attachment.

A couple weeks ago, my heart was warmed by Chris’ tribute to Don Knotts. A year ago, it was Johnny Carson, but there have also been more obscure favorites along the way, such as comic Mitch Hedberg and the guy who played Seinfeld’s dad. Chris even wrote something about St. Louis native and Bowling Hall of Famer Dick Weber. Who knew Chris knew anything about Lou Rawls? Not me. And I shared a womb with him.

So you can imagine how much I’ve been praying that some celebrity would drop dead on my watch, giving me the opportunity to express something this week that shows my own interest and passion for the beloved recently-dead.

Actress Maureen Stapleton died this week, but I’m not really familiar with her work. She played anarchist Emma Goldman in the movie “Reds”. Hmm… I’ve been meaning to rent that one. Never saw “Cocoon” either. The only movie of hers that I think I’ve seen, according to the Internet Movie Database is the lost Michael Keaton classic, “Johnny Dangerously”. (His last name was an adverb, people!) I loved that movie as a kid but she only had a handful of scenes. A game show host died Monday, too – the guy who hosted “Press Your Luck”. I thought I’d remember him, but he barely looked familiar in the photo I saw.

So it looks like I’m left with my back-up plan:
Like Hitler, many people have wondered if Slobodan Milosovic was perhaps kind to small animals….

Nevermind. It’s no use. I’ll just give my NCAA tournament predictions.

I didn't fill out a bracket this year, but I'll give some upset specials, just so I can say I called them:
In the D.C. bracket - #12 Utah St. over #5 Washington
In Minneapolis – (what the hell, why not?) #10 Northern Iowa over #7 Georgetown, #13 Pacific over #4 Boston College, #11 Wisc.-Milwaukee over #6 Oklahoma.
And I pick all #9 seeds over #8’s

Round #2 upsets:
#6 West Virginia over #3 Iowa (according to most brackets I’ve seen predicted on the internet, this has been a wildly popular upset pick), #7 Marquette over #2 UCLA, #6 Indiana over #3 Gonzaga

Final Four:Duke, N. Carolina, Villanova and Kansas.

In the championship, I predict the ghost of Rollie Massimino will lead Villanova to victory over Duke. (Oops. It turns out Rollie Massimino isn’t dead yet. I’ll try to come up with some nice things to say about him, just in case he doesn’t make it through the week.)

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Also, on Friday night, at the University Arena in Albuqurque, New Mexico, I pick the Harlem Globetrotters over the Washington Generals.

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Joke of the day:

This joke comes to us from the late, great King of Memphis himself, Rufus “Walk the Dog” Thomas:

A young boy is studying for a spelling bee, but is interrupted by his hard, domineering father, who says, “Son, you better do well on that spelling bee tomorrow. If you disappoint the family, there’s gonna be hell to pay.”

The next day, the kid comes home from school hanging his head with a glum look on his face. “I lost the spelling bee, Dad,” he confesses.

The father is outraged. “You dummy, I can’t believe you lost,” he says. “What word did you lose on?”

“Posse,” the boy replies.

“It’s no wonder you can’t spell it!" Dad fumes. "You can’t even say it!”

posted by Anonymous @ 7:07 PM