If you listen to KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket)--and if you don't, you must, you must--you know that Greg Williams, one half of the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. show "The Hardline," is hosting the show for the next few days with guests sitting in the place of Williams' padnuh Mike Rhyner, who worked last week when Greggo was taking vacation time to have some dental surgery. Well, next week's schedule goes a little something like this: On Monday, former Texas Ranger Rusty Greer will co-host "The Hardline" with Greg, and on Tuesday Dallas Cowboys quarterback Drew Bledsoe will sit in the co-host's seat. Then, on Wednesday, I will be Greggo's co-host. For the whole show. From 3 to 7. Yeah. You read it right. Go figure. Must be my NPR voice and radio good looks.
At least there will be one bright spot: At 4:10 p.m., gubernatorial hopeful and my favorite Texas Jewboy (next to my daddy, of course) Kinky Friedman will join Greg and me for at least one segment and possibly two, the second of which will allow callers to pose questions, among them, perhaps, "Kinky, precisely why aren't they making Jews like Jesus anymore?" Friedman's been everywhere in recent weeks: The new issue of Newsweek has a lengthy profile of the Man Who Would Be Governor ("A Very Kinky Campaign: An unpopular incumbent. A lackluster field. Could Kinky Friedman sneak into the Texas statehouse?"), and on Tuesday The Washington Post ran a story so popular with Kinky's campaign they've put it up on the Web site. And earlier this month, the Dallas Business Journal released a poll regarding the governor's race and put Friedman way at the top of the list: He got 45 percent of the vote, followed by Rick Perry (26 percent), Carole Keeton Strayhorn (19 percent) and Chris Bell (eight percent). Of course, all of this comes months after the paper version of Unfair Park had the foresight to put Friedman on the cover.
So if you have any questions you want Kinky to answer, feel free to send them along in the next few days. Dunno if we'll get around to them, but it's worth a shot. Or just listen and call in, should he have time to stick around for a Q&A with the P-1s. Really, you should be listening anyway. Right now, as a matter of fact. And, yeah, we will have some kinda contest to see if you can keep track of how many times I can say "Unfair Park" in four hours before producer Danny Balis kicks into a prolonged bass solo. --Robert Wilonsky
