The Mystery of Rocco, the Disappearing DJ


As you may recall, Jess and I have been doing a little internal moonlighting as Yahoo! Search spokespeople on the radio. Basically we call into morning shows and talk about celebrities and movies. I know, such a stretch.

So my favorite DJ to-date is Rocco of  "Rocco in the Morning," a Philadelphia morning show on "Wired 96.5." (They play a mix of hip-hop and current hits, termed "CHR/Rhythmic" in the radio biz apparently.) Or, rather, I should say that Rocco was my favorite. Because this weird thing happened, last Wednesday night, when I went online to prepare for last week's interview... And all traces of Rocco's existence had been completely expunged from their website. Bizarre! And distressing!

A bit of research -- using Yahoo! Search of course -- yielded two potential stories: one that Rocco's morning show was booted for low ratings (the company line, no doubt -- but in March he seemed quite popular), and another that there was some mystery mishap at a nighttime event with the Philadelphia Eagles that led to his immediate dismissal. Hmmm....

This is all a bit of a bummer, as Rocco knows more about Britney than I do (true story) and he actually had cool celebrities in-studio, like Mark Wahlberg and Bob Saget and Mark Ruffalo. I thought we had a pretty good thing going. You can hear the first interview here.

Does anyone know the truth about Rocco?

The 5 Stages of Finding a Rat in Your Salad

Okay okay, so I can't be certain it was actually a rat. But about halfway through my Yahoo! cafeteria salad today -- which, by the way, I highly recommended to everyone in the office -- I found a very suspicious, um, item that can only be described as "rat-thigh-like" in shape and color. I am thinking that it could perhaps be a very strange-looking root vegetable -- but no matter, I spit out the lettuce still in my mouth and proceeded to panic.

Unfortunately since I still don't have a digital camera I can't show you.

The weird thing about all this is that my next reaction was one of shame. After shock and disgust -- shame. As if I'd done something wrong! Asked for this rat thigh in my salad! I found it interesting, in retrospect, that my instincts told me to hide my salad and keep anyone from finding out about my field greens indiscretion. After all, who wants a rat-eating coworker for a cubemate?

This led me to think that there are at least 5 distinct emotional stages one goes through after finding an errant object in their food:

1. Shock and disgust. "How did that fingertip get into my Wendy's chili?! Gross!"
2. Embarassment. "Oh god, if anyone sees that there's a hair floating in my soup, they'll be totally grossed out and think I'm gross for eating part of the soup."
3. Loss of appetite. "I'll never eat again after finding a rat carcass in my pear-and-goat-cheese salad."
4. Anger. "I'M BRINGING THIS SALAD BOX RIGHT DOWN TO URLS AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME"
5. Acceptance.

I feel much better now.

10 Things Robbers Won't Steal From Your House

1. Your TiVo. (I assume it's too darn big to fit in the Yahoo! backpack they used to steal your iPod and your laptop.)
2. A bronze sculpture affectionately dubbed "The F*ers", gifted to you by your artsy grandmother, also very large and very heavy.
3. A photo on the fridge of you, your husband, and Dave Matthews. (priceless)
4. Your 1 gig SD camera memory card containing celebrity photos from the Toronto Film Festival.
5. "The Thorn Birds," in paperback.
6. A note from your grandmother describing the handed-down necklace that no longer exists.
7. Cheap but treasured earrings.
8. A custom-made wrist brace for your repetitive stress injury, emptied out of aforementioned Yahoo! backpack. Very thoughtful.
9. Food.
10. Insanely enough, your cat.

They will steal your iPods, laptops, pointing devices, and all your heirloom jewelry.

You'll also wait more than 1.5 hours for the city police to arrive to take a report (still waiting) and you'll be very, very glad you weren't home at the time they broke in.

Fun times in San Francisco.

Toronto Update: Celebrity Stalking, Canadian-Style



I really have to commend my Canadian friends for their wherewithal. Not until 3 straight late, late nights of manic bar-hopping, street-walking, cab-taking, and camera-readying -- did I finally get to speak with an actual celebrity -- the above-pictured and oft-admired Greg Kinnear. Because I know you're wondering: He was friendly, genuine, cute, and patient with the likes of me at 1:30 a.m. on a Wednesday night.

As for other celebrity goings on... I have a few red-carpet pics to post when I return home, including the aforementioned Julianne Moore; the side of Reese Witherspoon and the top of Joaquin Phoenix's head; Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick; and a fleeting shot of Maggie Gyllenhaal. Please stand by.

In terms of actual movies, I saw "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" (not my kind of thing, I must admit) and then the world premiere of "Walk the Line." The latter was in a super-cool huge theater, and like most (all?) film festival movies I presume, there was a bit of pre-movie prep by the movie's producer. The actors were in the house, but unfortunately they did not speak. Or sing. Which apparently they do for real in the film. Impressive. Anyway... Though it surely was a good movie, with excellent performances and great music, I couldn't get this (bad, I know) Chandler-esque one-liner out of my head for the last 30 minutes: I liked this movie better when it was called RAY.

We also got to go to the "Line" after-party, which was not attended by Reese or Joaquin but still did manage to entertain by way of live music and free wine. Oh and yes, I got my suitcase back at long last! I was thinking about all the unlucky, un-celebrity-related things that happened to me while in the lovely city of Toronto:

1. Luggage lost by Air Canada for 48 hours.
2. Passport (which I forgot at home, and Bryan FedExed) lost by my hotel for 6 hours.
3. I'm staying on the 13th floor.

Maybe that's it actually. Oh well and also perhaps you can count insane toiletry shopping trips, printer troubles at the office, and the fact that the only time I decided to get room service, they told me they can't deliver because the service elevator is broken. Or perhaps not.

But I digress. Many many thanks to Greg, Dave, and Claire for getting tickets and hosting and staying out late on school nights! I had a blast. Photos and final thoughts to follow from SF this weekend. Oh and thank you most of all, Greg Kinnear. May you attend the rest of the film fest in peace.

I went camping this weekend. Honestly I did. Sadly, no one brought a camera since they all thought, naturally, that I'd have mine. Some things I would've photographed had my Canon not died last week:

1. The girls sitting in camp chairs the millisecond we were set up, reading US Weekly, In Touch, People, Star, and EW.

2. A late-night egg experiment. For the record, whole eggs dropped in a campfire explode gently, the yolk oozing out of one end and then gradually turning a burnt shade of greyish brown.

3. Mike forgetting to take the paper part off the Jiffy Pop before placing it literally inside the fire.

4. The coyote 10 feet from our campsite this morning.

5. Pigtails.

6. A mandatory morning stop at Stacks in Menlo Park.

I miss you, Canon.