11 Comments
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Liz Burton's avatar

A list of gorilla suit mavens, and not a word about Janos Prohaska?

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Mark Finn's avatar

He’s in there. I specifically included him so that you wouldn’t think I didn’t.

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Liz Burton's avatar

Well, shoot. That's what I get for multitasking when I should just be reading. I have a wonderful memory of Janos going on Johnny Carson, and you'd be hard-put to know he wasn't an ape. He was a genius.

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Mark Finn's avatar

He was great, and very talented! His son joined him on occasion when they needed extra monkeys or monster!

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Remco van Straten's avatar

Hmmm, can I be a nerd?

I'm pretty sure that Nike (the Greek goddess) is actually pronounced something like KNEEkay, so if you really want to confuse people, go that way! ;-)

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Mark Finn's avatar

I am no Greek scholar. But the shoes and the shoe company are a matter of highly public record. If he’d played the “back in Ancient Greece” card, I could have at least given him a pass. He was just being a hard head. My driving instructor was a reader. He liked fantasy and sci fi. One time, while we were driving, one of the other students asked him who he read. He named a couple of authors and then said, “and there’s a character I like, you probably call him ‘Coe-Nan’ but I pronounce it ‘COH-nun.’”

I been dealing with that guy ever since.

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Paul Riddell's avatar

I hear you. I’m constantly told that the greatest sword and sorcery hero is pronounced “Coe-Nan,” when everyone rational knows it’s pronounced “El-Rick.” (Ducking and running.)

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Paul Riddell's avatar

Want to hear something funny? I first heard about Nike tennis shoes via a radio ad running in early 1979 that worked on that same hook. Guy’s arguing with the announcer that “Nike” should be pronounced “Niik” instead of “Nii-kee.” The ad ends with the guy accepting that “Nii-kee” is the correct pronunciation, but he’s got to get home.

“How’d you get here?”, asks the announcer.

“Rode my bii-kee.”

46 years later, I STILL refer to riding my Specialized Rockhopper as “riding my bii-kee.”

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Bill Williams's avatar

I liked the Saturday Night movie. I do feel bad for the guy who played Belushi. He didn't get a lot to do.

And Don Martin was a genius.

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Mark Finn's avatar

He didn’t, but what little bits of Belushi he did get to do were pitch perfect, weren’t they?

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Bill Williams's avatar

His re-enactment of the first skit was awesome. I loved Matthew Rhys as George Carlin.

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