{"id":396,"date":"2016-02-06T18:44:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T23:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/?p=396"},"modified":"2016-02-06T18:44:39","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T23:44:39","slug":"its-groundhog-day-all-over-again-meeting-bill-murray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/?p=396","title":{"rendered":"It’s Groundhog Day all over again; meeting Bill Murray"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"venkman\"<\/a>\"carl-spackler\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Groundhog Day recently passed us by a couple of days ago on February 2nd, and while we were all trying to decipher what Punxsutawney Phil<\/strong> <\/a>saw or didn\u2019t see \u2013 it promptly snowed in the northeast. There\u2019s something scary about an entire country planning their lives on the prediction of a groundhog.<\/p>\n

Punxy Phil actually looks like a better candidate for this fall\u2019s general election and appears to be someone who would share his food, and also protect his home aggressively\u2026making him a Moderate, right?<\/p>\n

Anyway, when Groundhog Day<\/a> <\/strong>arrives it reminds me of that great movie with the same name starring Bill Murray as Phil Connors, which debuted in February 1993\u2026and it also reminds me of the brief interaction I once had with one of my favorite comedians.<\/p>\n

\"groundhog-day\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The story goes that I was working in the magazine publishing industry in the early 1990\u2019s \u2013 or in reality actually working my way OUT of the industry is more like it. At the time I was selling advertising space for a very targeted shelter (home) magazine owned by a large publishing company with corporate offices in the West 50\u2019s in New York City. The joke among the ad sales team was that irrespective of category of advertiser \u2013 we were always the third magazine in a two-magazine advertising page\u00a0buy.<\/p>\n

It was summer 1993 to be exact, and that summer, as comedy fans will remember, David Letterman left NBC to start the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. Much ado about this in the press as those of you alive or awake in that era will remember David lost the Tonight Show desk to Jay Leno. Fans of the Letterman show on both channels will also remember that the very first guest on Letterman\u2019s NBC show in 1982 and on his first CBS show on August 30, 1993 was none other than Bill Murray. Murray\u2019s return to the Letterman show was highlighted by him spray-painting DAVE on the front of Letterman\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n

\"spray\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While the magazine industry was known for lavish expense accounts in the 80\u2019s and part of the 90\u2019s, the reality was that taking a client out to lunch was done on a more selective basis, and often one would be finding their own lunch on their own. That August 31st<\/sup>, the day after Letterman\u2019s opening show, I wandered down to a deli of which the name escapes me now, but was on the corner of 57th<\/sup>\u00a0Street end 7th <\/sup>Avenue for lunch.<\/p>\n

This deli was a large restaurant with a good amount of seating and in the middle of the floor sat a counter in a half to three-quarter moon shape. I plop down in the only empty seat and order my lunch\u2026sipping on an iced tea (lunch with a client would have been a cocktail for sure). The person sitting next to me finishes and goes to the checkout to, well…check out.<\/p>\n

Sitting there with the only open seat at the counter, a guy steps up and says \u201chey man, is this seat taken?\u201d I turn and see Carl Spackler, er Dr. Peter Venkman, er Phil Connors\u2026I mean Bill Murray standing there expressionless as only Murray can do. I say \u201cits all yours\u201d \u2013 just guessing that I was that cool \u2013 but likely wasn\u2019t, and he plopped down next to me.<\/p>\n

Well, it was apparent that this might be a regular place for Murray as the guy behind the counter shook his hand and one of the waitresses came up and hugged him. Food arrived for him without ordering, a corned beef sandwich, potato salad, cole slaw and samples of other things. Murray says \u201cwhat the hell? I can\u2019t eat all this stuff!\u201d\u00a0 He nudges me and say \u201chey, you got to help me with this stuff\u2026\u201d I was full from my lunch and told him thanks – but no way. He said \u201cthis always happens when I\u2019m here; my refrigerator is full of deli food.\u201d<\/p>\n

I quickly change the subject and say \u201cyou were hilarious on Letterman last night.\u201d Murray back to me, \u201cYou really think so? Not sure I\u2019ll be invited back anytime soon, Dave seemed more than a bit unhappy.\u201d \u00a0We laughed.<\/p>\n

It was a quick exchange, but I had to go to an appointment and needed to leave telling Murray good-bye and bon app\u00e9tit.<\/p>\n

In reminiscing about this exchange, I thought although it was brief, it was genuine. I didn\u2019t say \u201chey aren\u2019t you Bill Murray?\u201d or invade his space except to respond to him, and certainly it was a pre-selfie time, so there was none of those shenanigans. You read articles on Murray<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>over the last few years with a variety of opinions on his personality; \u201cdifficulty to work with,\u201d \u201cfalling out with old friends,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n

All I know is he was gracious to me that day and maybe because it was earlier in his career, or just the casual nature of our interaction. He was normal (as normal as Murray gets) and engaging. I still believe he is one of the best deliverers of a deadpan comedic remark in the business today.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all for that story \u2013 but Bill Murray also has been thought to be inspirational at times\u2026just Google up \u201cinspirational quotes by Bill Murray\u201d for some real classics.<\/p>\n

However, I think one quote from Groundhog Day by his character Phil Connors is something we can all live by:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the same thing your whole life: “Clean up your room. Stand up straight. Pick up your feet. Take it like a man. Be nice to your sister. Don’t mix beer and wine, ever.” Oh yeah: “Don’t drive on the railroad track.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"bill-murray\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Groundhog Day recently passed us by a couple of days ago on February 2nd, and while we were all trying to decipher what Punxsutawney Phil saw or didn\u2019t see \u2013 it promptly snowed in the northeast. There\u2019s something scary about an entire country planning their lives on the prediction of a groundhog. Punxy Phil actually looks like a better candidate… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[14,8,37,36,31,22],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Clfm-6o","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wallyword.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}