Hey, what about that college football this weekend? Wow! That's all Dave can say about the games . . . "WOW!" "WOW!" Notre Dame vs. USC? "Whoa, Nelly!" Penn State vs. Michigan? "Oh, Wow!" And how about the Sunday pro games? "Oh, my God!" "Whoa, Nelly!" I laughed at this because I was saying the same thing all day today. Sounds like Dave and I had similar weekends.

The Fog is the #1 film in the country this week, pulling in an underwhelming $12 million. Have you seen the promo they have been running?

Announcer: "'The Fog' is the number one film in America. Leonard Maltin called it '... a terrifying, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride!'
Roger Ebert calls it '... the perfect Halloween horror film!'
And Gary Lezak, chief meteorologist of KHSB-TV's Action Weather Team raves, 'The Fog is arguably the finest depiction of water droplets resulting from air being cooled below the dew point ever filmed!'
'The Fog' --- now playing!"

Sunday morning, Dave woke to watch Meet the Press. Dave has a TV show and needs to keep informed. Tim Russert was speaking with Condoleezza Rice and wanted to know if Condoleezza would accept the role of running for President in 2008 if their Party so wished? Condoleezza assures Tim that he has no desire to run for President. Tim persists in his questioning, asking the same question in a slightly different way. She again says no, not sure how else she can say it. Tim persists. Condoleezza persists with her "no." Tim continues. Condoleezza continues with "no." More Tim, more Condoleezza. It almost started to remind me of Bill Clinton's "No no no no no no no no no" melt down back in the last century. Will Condoleezza run for President in 2008? I'm not sure.

NBC News Gettin' It Done - Dave was watching the Today show on Friday morning. I'm glad because I've been reading about the clip he's leading in to but haven't seen it. During the Today show, correspondent Michelle Kosinksi was reporting about the flood conditions in Wayne, New Jersey. The flooding was so bad she had to do her reporting from a canoe. We see her paddling alone in the canoe, offering a glimpse of how this neighborhood is now deep under water. And then in the middle of her report, we see two men walk directly in front of her canoe, clearly demonstrating the water to be no more than ankle deep. But who cares? It's the Today show. It's not news . . . it's the morning Today show.
Priorities in today's news programs, in order:
1. be entertaining
2. provide information
3. be right.

More With Les: Les Moonves, the most powerful man in television is on the phone. Earlier today, Les was named one of the top icons in the past 100 years by Variety magazine. The #1 icon were The Beatles. Making out the rest of the top ten, in no particular order:
- Lucille Ball
- James Dean
- Elvis
- Charlie Chaplin
- Louis Armstrong
- Humphrey Bogart
- Marilyn Monroe
- Marlon Brando
- Mickey Mouse

Les has been busy with the fall schedule, working hard to put things in the right spot and to keep Dave's numbers up. A few months ago we had Les' wife, Julie Chen on the show. Dave is still working at CBS so thinks went OK, I guess. Dave tells Les that he admired the beauty and charm of Julie and wonders, "What the hell is she doing with you?" Les answers, "I'm a powerful man with a lot of money." Ahhh! Honesty! A trait found so rarely in powerful men with a lot of money! Great answer. Right answer. I really enjoyed that.

Did Les watch any football this weekend? He said he did watch the Notre Dame/USC game and Julie was very elated with the outcome since she's a USC grad. Dave is happy for Julie but knows that USC didn't really win. If you take the final seconds frame by frame, you would see that USC shouldn't have won. Les denies that, but is quick to add that he knows a lot of Notre Dame fans are watching and doesn't want to anger any of his CBS viewers. Oooh, I like his obviousness. Still, he is adamant that USC won the game.

Dave learned that Les wasn't always a big network exec. When Les came out of college, a Bucknell Bison, he moved to New York to show acting. He soon moved out to L.A. and got a TV role here and a role there. One acting gig, his most embarrassing moment in television, was on the TV show Cannon. Cannon was William Conrad, a middle-aged 300-pound private detective who would chase down 23-year-old kids. Les recalls this role. He played a Mexican pearl diver named Pascual. Well, this is Les' lucky day. We have that clip with us tonight. It was from February 1976. The title of the episode: "Bloodlines." It takes place in a tropical resort in Mexico in the evening. Robert Hays is in the scene. He is a bit distraught and climbs a cliff to find a Mexican pearl diver. The pearl diver is Les Moonves. Les is wearing only a Speedo. He is holding two torches. Hays says he wants to dive off the cliff but Les, in accented English, tells him it is too dangerous and takes years and years of practice. Hays will hear none of it, calling the pearl diver "Pedro" or something like that, I don't remember. And then the camera cuts to a solo close-up of Les, who says, "My name is Pascual." Hays then takes the two torches and dives into the water far below. Nearby, a woman screams.

It was a brilliant piece of acting. If you closed your eyes and only listened to the clip, you would have really thought that Robert Hays was talking to an actual Mexican pearl diver. Of course, the clip delighted Mr. Letterman.

An impressed Dave asks Les if this piece of acting won him any awards? Says Les: "Oh, yes, for Best Portrayal of a Mexican-American by a non-Mexican-American."

And that's how we play, "More with Les."

And now the story behind the story: When we’ve done “More with Les” in the past, it was often a last minute thing. Dave would have something only he knew he wanted to discuss, but I was asked by others to find some additional topics for conversation. I would then scamper as quickly as I could to piece something together. Since then, I have “Les Moonves” on my google-alert and keep up on what’s going on in his life. I update my Les Moonves topic-sheet every few weeks. Back in April, Playboy magazine had an interview with Mr. Moonves covering ten pages or so. By August, I finally got around to reading the now dog-eared magazine. In the interview Les mentions his most embarrassing moment on television. It was this appearance on “Cannon.” I thought this would be a good clip for a future “More with Les,” and if not used for the show, at least we could get a good laugh around here watching it. I did a little research on the Google and found the information I was looking for. I went to our research department and asked if they could get episode of Cannon from February 1976. The research department then did the rest. They made a phone call and a few days later sitting on my desk was the Cannon episode. I don’t know how they do it down there but I always felt the research department is probably the most under appreciated department on the staff. Lots of hours, not much recognition. In fact, I’ve been getting pats on the back for getting the Cannon clip and I keep throwing credit towards Research. I had the idea and that was it. Those in research did the physical labor. It’s how things work in life. Let that be an important lesson to all of us: the idea person gets the credit. The people who do the lugging and the actual work get nothing.

TOP TEN: Signs Your Barber is Working for Al-Qaeda - U.S. Forces captured a top Iraqi Al-Qaeda member nicknamed "The Barber."
#8. Customers pay with cash, credit, or goat.
#6. When he makes a mistake, says “Ah, the turban will cover that.”
#3. During haircut he shouts “Death to uneven sideburns!”

DONALD TRUMP: star of NBC’s big hit, The Apprentice, currently in its 4th season. The Donald was married recently to a beautiful woman who Dave points out is much younger. I was hoping for another “I am a powerful man with a lot of money.” How did they meet? Donald says they met at a party. He eyed her from across the room and all he could think of was for his date to “go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom.” When his date finally went to the bathroom, the Donald made his way to Melania Knauss. How did that work out? They are now married and are expecting a baby in 6 months.

The Donald is also about to put up the tallest building in New Jersey and has a building in Dubai going up. Me? I put up lattice around my deck this summer.

As a gift for the new Donald baby, Dave presents a “Donald Trump wig” for the little one. Boy or girl, it’ll look just like Donald.

Years ago, I was never much of a fan of the pompous Donald Trump. Most New Yorkers weren’t. But back during the Koch Administration, back in the 80s, there was an ice rink in Central Park that the city just couldn’t get repaired and up in working order. The repair job went on for years with problem after problem after problem preventing the work from being done. Finally, Donald Trump stepped in and said he would do the job in record time and under budget. Six weeks later, or perhaps six months later, the job was done. The city fell in love with the “can-do” Donald Trump and he was lauded for the accomplishment. It was a black eye for the city, underlining how the Mayor’s office or the city couldn’t get things done. If you wanted anything done, get a businessman to do it. At least that’s the way I remember it. Google “Trump” and “Wollman’s Rink” for the true story.

Today is National Boss’ Day (good grief) and Biff Henderson had something he wanted to share about America’s bosses.

Biff: “Thanks, D.L. I heard about a poll naming the worst boss in America, and I’m sure the results won’t surprise you. You’ve probably seen this show on TV. Mr. Moneybags is always firing people. YOU’RE FIRED! YOU’RE FIRED! Sitting behind his big desk with his stupid hair . . .
Dave interrupts: “Uh, Biff. I think I know where you’re going with this, and I got to remind you that Donald Trump is probably still here, so maybe you better dial it back a little.”
Biff: “I was talking about YOU, dumbass.”
Fanfare from Paul.
Announce from Alan: “Did you see that joke coming? Is so, send a 3X5 card in to:
‘I Saw That One Coming’
1697 Broadway
New York, New York 10019
Good luck and thanks for playing!”

ANDERSON COOPER: From CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360” What does 360 mean? It means the show offers a complete view of the news. When younger, Anderson tried to get in to ABC News. He applied for an entry level job answering phones, but they wouldn’t hire him. They wanted someone with a degree from Yale to answer phones. What did he do when ABC didn’t hire him? He decided to start doing journalism on his own and started submitting his reports to news organizations. He knew that journalist do not like covering wars, so he decided to cover a war. Let that be a lesson to you kids out there, especially interns. Find out what nobody else wants to do, then do it. It makes an impression.

Anderson had a friend of his make up a fake press pass and went to places like Burma and southeast Asia to hook up with students fighting the government. Looking back on it, Anderson admits it was pretty dangerous. We see a photograph of a young Anderson in one of those dangerous situations covering a war. Anderson sees the youthful folly and naivety of his enthusiasm in the photo as he is wearing a bright red jacket in this life-threatening locale. Gunshots could be heard and Anderson was wearing this red jacket. It was like waving a red cape in front of a bull. “Hear I am! Here I am!”

Another time he was arrested in Iran for videotaping girls playing badminton in their burkas. He was thrown in jail. From his window he could see a large painting of the Ayatollah Khomeini. It wasn’t all bad, though. He was allowed to leave at night and go back to his hotel. In the morning, he had to report back to jail. He says he felt like Otis the drunk on The Andy Griffith Show.

And something I learned about Anderson: His mom is Gloria Vanderbilt. How about that!

And that was our show for Monday October 17, 2005. Wahoo EXTRA!

I’m rooting for the White Sox to win it all just so maybe, perhaps, I hope that it will inspire other managers to make their starting pitchers to put in a full day’s work and go 9 innings.

I rarely watch the college football on the weekends but this weekend ended up different. I hadn't planned on it, but I watched three games and a baseball game from 4:00-7:00PM. Penn St. vs. Michigan - Penn State loses on the last play of the game. I would have liked to seen a replay of the play before the last play of the game as I wonder if the clock should have run out or if it should have stopped with :01 second remaining. I didn't stick around to see because I was clicking over to the Notre Dame/USC game that was winding down to the end. USC won on the last play of the game from scrimmage after it looked as if Notre Dame had won. USC lucked out in that they had fumbled out of bounds on the next to last play of the game, stopping the clock when they had no time outs remaining. They scored a touchdown on the next play.

LSU vs. Florida State was a down-to-the-last second game as well.

With that being said, football still doesn’t match baseball for last-second suspense. Did you watch the Astro/Cardinal game last night? Whoa, Nelly!

And now my suggestion for a new rule for college football. If a team fumbles the ball out of bounds with less than one minute to play in the game or the half, the team is penalized one timeout, or if they have no time outs left, 30 seconds are removed from the game clock. This would not apply in a change of possession following a 4th down. Loop holes, anyone? I don't see any yet.

Hey, what were you listening to on the radio 33 years ago today? If you said Chuck Berry's "My Ding-A-Ling," you are correct! October 17, 1972, "My Ding-A-Ling" was the #1 song in the country.

Chuck Berry’s “My Ding-A-Ling”
When I was a little bitty boy
my grandmother bought me a cute little toy
Silver bells hangin' on a string
she told me it was my ding a ling
My ding a ling, my ding a ling
I want to play with my ding a ling
My ding a ling, my ding a ling
I want to play with my ding a ling
And then mother took me to Grammar School
But I stopped all in the vestibule
Every time that bell would ring
catched me playin' with my ding a ling
Once I was climbing the garden wall
I slipped and had a terrible fall
I fell so hard I heard bells ring
but held on to my ding a ling
Once I was swimming cross Turtle creek
many snappers all around my feet
Sure was hard swimming cross that thing
with both hands holdin' my ding a ling
This here song it ain't so sad
the cutest little song you ever had
those of you who will not sing
You must be playin' with your own ding a ling
My ding a ling Your ding a ling, your ding a ling
We saw you playin' with your ding a ling
My ding a ling everybody sing
I want to play with my ding a ling