Standing by...
October 1, 2007

This spot on the Steve Dahl website is so stale that I cannot let it remain untouched.  I have asked Steve to eliminate me from these columns, not because I am tired of posting my meanderings, but because my presence here is not reflective of any connectivity to the current Steve Dahl show.  I am an amputated appendage. I feel a twinge of phantom pain, but it is telling me to think differently.

Years ago, I was the conscience on the phone, the newspaper editor, current events briefer, and the reflection of Steve’s other world.  Now I am nothing to the show.  Truth told, the show does not need me in any of those capacities.  Mark Czerniec does a masterful and dedicated job of pouring news and factoids into Steve’s head.  Steve’s other world is just like his public world since he became a non-drinking, exercising adult.  It needs no interpretation.  He is funnier in his public pronouncements than he is at home, so I rarely have an anecdote to tickle the audience with.  I am the very middle-aged mother of Steve’s grown men, 22, 24 and 26 years of age. Steve rarely speaks of me, consults me or internalizes my ideas about the show.  He doesn’t need to.  He has stopped using Instant Messaging during show hours, because the delay and multiple messages are disconcerting.  He has told me that he doesn’t want to be called and chastised anymore, and I can take a hint.  My instinct is top make the separation total, and fold up this literary exercise.  I am thinking about it.

In the meantime, I just wanted to assure the people who have written to ask if we are divorced or separated, (because I am so absent)  that I am still steady on the home front.   The home front is just a less interesting place than it used to be, before the boys were emancipated and Steve’s energies were less formatted by his radio responsibilities.  It is still where Steve returns to, to watch his sports, write his blog, e-mail his listeners, eat, jog and sleep.  See?  There is not a lick of anything there to muse about.  I am like the comfortable old shoe- still here, a good place to be, but not much to talk about or look at.

But never fear- I am still standing by.  If I can muster any relevance- I will post.  Perhaps Janet’s Planet needs to move to its own orbit, instead of circling Steven.  I will think about that, too.