It Dangled the Carrot and Got Michaels
Disney employees are invited to an elaborate “Welcome Home” lunchtime celebration today at the Walt Disney Studios Commissary in Burbank for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Appropriately, carrot cake will be served.
Disney recently acquired from NBC Universal the rights to Oswald, created in 1927 by a then-unknown Walt Disney, in the deal that allowed announcer Al Michaels to get out of his ESPN contract and sign with NBC.
There’s no word of any celebration at the NBC Commissary to commemorate the arrival of Michaels.
“I’m just glad to spread joy around the world,” Michaels said. “And I’m glad that Oswald wasn’t reduced to playing the role of a rabbit at a dog track.”
It all balances out: It’s presumed Oswald is a vegetarian.
“That’s where he and I differ,” Michaels said. “I hate vegetables. I’ve never eaten a vegetable in my life.
“That’s my contribution to putting balance back in the food chain.”
Trivia time: Of the NHL players competing in the Winter Games in Turin, who has the most Olympic goals?
One problem solved: On the conference call in which it was announced that Michaels would be moving to NBC, the veteran play-by-play announcer said he had one regret about leaving ESPN -- “nobody gives better golf lessons than [ESPN’s] Joe Theismann.”
NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol, also on the call, said, “Johnny Miller works here. He’ll take care of those golf lessons.”
Staying out of sights: Ozzie Guillen, manager of the World Series champion Chicago White Sox, chose not to accompany the team when it visited the White House recently. Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune says now we know why.
“He was afraid Dick Cheney might be there and accidentally shoot him,” Downey wrote. “A baseball manager can handle being fired, but he sure hates being fired upon.”
Lots of negatives: A “Looking Back” item in Wednesday’s Morning Briefing regarding Leon Spinks’ upset victory over Muhammad Ali on Feb. 15, 1978, reminded reader Andy Nagle of Long Beach of the answer Spinks gave to questions about a bottle he was drinking from during the fight.
“I ain’t denying there wasn’t no bottle,” Spinks was quoted as saying.
That’s a quadruple negative.
Nagle recalled that someone asked 10 English teachers to construct a sentence containing a quadruple negative and none of them could do it.
Trivia answer: The Mighty Ducks’ Teemu Selanne, who has 16. He had seven in 1992, four in 1998, three in 2002, and two in Finland’s 5-0 victory over Switzerland on Wednesday night.
And finally: Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press, on Turin residents’ worries about what to do with the city’s glut of hockey rinks -- there are now six -- once the Winter Olympics are over: “Well, after watching Italy lose to Canada, 16-0, in women’s hockey, how about practice?”
Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.