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Tuesday, November 9, 1999
Sens ticket quest a trivial pursuit
He-he. Ha-ha. Ho-Ho-Ho. HA-HA-HA! HA-HA-HA!!!!!!
Sorry, I just heard a very funny one on TV. I'll share it with you in a few moments, but first ...
Let me say, giving away free hockey tickets has really been an ear-opening experience.
The first time I did so I asked a trivia-type question in a column and wrote that the first person to phone my office answering machine with the correct answer would win Cheapseats to a Senators game.
Well, I forgot that the paper hits the streets as early as 3 in the morning.
The winning call was recorded at 3:24 a.m. The contest was over, and I hadn't even been for my first middle-of-the-night pee yet.
The phone, meanwhile, continued to ring.
By 4 a.m., I had 20 messages.
By 5 a.m., there had been 80 calls.
By 6 a.m., the number was up around 200.
By 7 a.m., the recorded, woman's voice on my greeting sounded exhausted. It was nuts.
Thinking I should give a chance to non-night-shift workers and people who don't get up when darkness prevents them from seeing the end of their driveways, I decided to change the rules of the game a bit.
The question in each Cheapseats Giveaway now includes a line stating that the first person to call after 10 a.m. with the correct answer will get the tickets.
Frankly, I'm not sure about which part of after 10 a.m. some readers are having trouble with.
Without fail, I get a half dozen calls more than an hour before 10 a.m. For the record, this is not one of those cases where the early bird gets the $65 worms.
Anyway, I wanted to come up with a different way to hand out the worms, er, tickets, and for the next three Senators home games, I have.
The Sun has entered a 10-player team in the 5th Annual World Trivia challenge, which will be held Friday, Nov. 19 at the Civic Centre Salons.
Each team interested in winning prizes is to drum up $1,000 in pledges, with all proceeds going to the Champions For Children Foundation, an organization that helps prevent child abuse.
Each member of our team is required to raise at least $100 in sponsorship money, but Sun publisher Judy Bullis has set a wicked pace, already reaching the $373 mark.
Now, unlike myself and Garth Brooks, J.B. has friends in high places. But I've got a competitive side that will not allow her to out-raise me without a fight.
So I'm turning to the kindly readers of this page for help. I'm asking for cheques (and only cheques) of at least $5, made out to the Champions For Children Foundation, to be sent or delivered to me here at the Sun.
For every fiver you give me, I will enter your name once into a draw that will be held 24 hours before each of the next three Senators games. The owner of the name I pick will receive a pair of tickets.
Remember, it just takes $5 to enter. But donations of $10 (or more) will not only get you more chances of winning, but also a tax receipt. (Please specify if you want the receipt).
And getting them to me by 7 p.m. tomorrow makes you eligible for all three games.
My pledge sheet has room for 64 names. But I'm pretty sure I can get more sheets, just as I think I can raise more money for the foundation than J.B. or anyone else taking part in Trivia Night.
And now, back to what was cracking me up when I first sat down to write this ....
Actress Carol Alt, the considerably older girlfriend of Alexei Yashin, was a guest of the Regis and Kathy Lee show yesterday morning.
I missed it, but I did catch the clip on the CJOH news at 6 p.m. I had no idea Alt was a comic.
"Mentally, (Yashin) is different than any man I've ever met," she said, before delivering the punchline: "He's extremely smart ... I think he understands the capitalist system better than anyone."
Gawd, my sides are still sore.
Yashin is smart? He understands the capitalistic system?
As of yesterday, Yashin was in Zurich. The Senators said that if he hadn't rejoined the team by midnight, he would be suspended for the rest of the season.
It was his last chance at earning $3.6 million US -- instead of nothing, or the equivalent to nothing in rubles -- until next October, when educated guessers are saying he will still owe the Senators a season of him playing at $3.6 million US.
Yashin doesn't look very smart today, nor does it seem he has a clue about the capitalist system.
That Carol. What a cut-up.
IN CLOSING: Smart is not Yashin. Smart is Sun reader Glen Hayes, who e-mailed to say not only that he enjoys this space, but that every time "the annoying Citizen telemarketers call and ask why I'm not a subscriber, I tell them because you don't have Don Brennan, baby!" Thanks Glen. You keep up the good work, too ... The 30-day tryout is over. This morning at 8:15 a.m. listeners of The Bear will find out if deejays Bill and Bob got the job. Bill and Bob, plus their charming sidekick Robin Banks, have been involved in a number of fundraisers during their 30-day tryout. They've also done a good job hosting The Bear's Breakfast. When they ask the question Ringo Starr did so many years ago -- "did we pass the audition?" -- bet on the answer being yes.
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