Thursday, July 27, 2006

Celebrity Sighting - Cleveland


Celebrity sightings in the Midwest are rare. Usually they go something like this:

“Hey isn’t that Mike Hartsock, the sportscaster from Channel 7 Action news.”

“Holy crap, it is. Be cool, dude. Be cool.”

This past weekend while at the dock on the Picton Castle in Cleveland, I saw my first nationwide-level celebrity in Ohio. I immediately recognized the ‘stache, the shifty eyes, the aura of cocky confidence. I was excited, much more excited than I thought I’d be.

“Look, its Geraldo.” I turned to the nearest crew member.

They stared blankly, “Who’s Geraldo?”

Ughh! No one in my immediate vicinity had even heard of him. Where the heck do these people live? Well, actually, some of them live at sea and some are from other countries – pretty good excuses. But the Americans of the bunch, they have none.

I’m not really much of a celebrity hound, but somehow this was different. Geraldo Rivera is part of our Pop Culture. He is the walking talking equivalent of the old school T-shirt with a big can of SPAM on it - equal parts retro and ridiculous. It’s almost un-American to not know who Geraldo is.

The 3rd Mate on the boat spotted him and hollered, “Hey, everybody – It’s Geraldo!” I expect that is how it always goes for Geraldo: there he is trying to enjoy a sunny Saturday afternoon looking at some Tall Ships. Somebody hollers and its time to go.

Poor Geraldo. He could put on the classic Groucho disguise, with black furry eyebrows and mustache and people would still recognize him. I suggest he shave the ‘stache and drop the “O.” No one would recognize clean-shaven Gerald.
Update:::: Geraldo still has a show! Who knew?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have that Spam shirt! A friend bought it for me as a joke, like, 12 years ago....

Kelsey said...

Do you wear it?

Anonymous said...

Only as work out clothing.

Anonymous said...

Okay, since you only wear it as work-out clothing . . . .you're still cool. But just barely.