Ah, There's the Rub

Well, Sunday night's incredible episode of What's My Line? - Live on Stage was certainly a blur of activity. No, I mean that literally, since I broke my glasses five minutes before showtime and had to go onstage without them. The rest of the panel this week consisted of Emmy-nominated writer and former co-host of Win Ben Stein's Money Nancy Pimental, comedian, writer, actor (The Astronaut Farmer), the multi-talented Rick Overton, and former Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast member Felicia Day, and a wondrous bunch were they all. We had two -- count 'em, TWO -- Mystery Guests this week, which was fun. The first, whom I guessed, was current CSI: cast member Wallace Langham, formerly of The Larry Sanders Show and Veronica's Closet. He was charming and chatty and we briefly discussed my one day visit to the CSI: set earlier this year. Our other Mystery Guest was Olympics legend Bruce Jenner, who remains as entertaining as ever, and who was guessed, as I recall, by the lovely Ms. Pimental. Guessing the two non-celebrity contestants, however, proved to be an entirely different case.

The first, after considerable questioning on our part which came nowhere near the truth of his line, turned out to be a gentleman who sells medical Marijuana. The second was a lovely young woman named Jessica Dragan, who we quickly determined was somehow involved with dogs. How she was involved with dogs, we had no idea. We tried everything we could think of, dog walker, dog groomer, dog trainer, dog doctor, dog dresser, dog manicurist, I even asked if perhaps she was a dog whisperer. Wrong on all counts. When the ten NOs were turned over, Ms. Dragan was revealed to be a dog masseuse, someone who massages dog therapeutically. As ever, our terrific host J. Keith Van Straatan, asked if the panel and the audience would like to see exactly what it is Ms. Dragan does, and when we all responded enthusiastically, J. Keith gestured to the side of the stage and said, "In that case, let's all welcome Len's dog, Muffin!" And, from around the corner, dragging our lovely hostess for the evening, Natasha Leggerro, behind her, comes trotting my big ol' beautiful brown baby. You could have heard my jaw bouncing off the floor from five counties over.

As many of you may recall, we almost lost Muffy early last month when she had to have her spleen removed. Thankfully, she seems to have recovered almost completely, and has been on a special diet where she has started losing some of her extra weight. But to see her come trotting out on stage like that? Those in the audience tell me I was slack-jawed. Apparently, just after my lovely wife Christine and I had left for the show, my buddy Bob Skir (who had told me he couldn't make it to this week's show because he had to finish reading the new Harry Potter book before someone spoiled it for him, an excuse, BTW, I understood) had secretly driven to my house, collected my stepson Michael and my dog and had taken them to the theater and hidden them backstage. Muffin thoroughly enjoyed her massage and then proceeded to spend the remainder of the show sitting by my side, thus adding a fifth, albeit silent, member to our panel.

All in all, one of the single most surreal nights I've spent in the theater. Wish you could've been there. Of course, you can still come to this coming Sunday's show, sadly the last of our current season. For details, click here.

My dog Muffin, definitely bigger than a bread box.

Okay, I'm Finally Back

Well, this week bore pretty much no resemblance whatsoever to the week that I had planned.

I did get back from the wonderful 29th Annual Superman Celebration in the terrific town of Metropolis, Illinois, last Sunday night on schedule and I will blog at some length about all the fun I had and all the fabulous people I met there as soon as I a) have a little time and b) figure out how to download all the pictures I took there to this here blog. My good friend Bob Skir picked me up at LAX and drove us both over to the legendary Canter's Deli in Hollywood to meet my lovely wife Christine and the What's My Line? - Live on Stage gang for a late dinner. Last Sunday's panel included Boston Legal's Gary Anthony Williams, the remake of The Parent Trap's Elaine Hendrix, Bones' Eric Millegan, and The Daily Show's Beth Littleford. The Mystery Guest for the evening was the wonderful Sharon Lawrence (of NYPD Blue and now Hidden Palms fame). You can check here for this coming Sunday's cast and how to order tickets. I'll be back on the panel on Sunday July 1st and will remind you of that in plenty of time before then. Anyway, I'd planned to blog about the trip when I got home, but it was well after midnight when we pulled into the driveway and I was a little jet-lagged and I figured I'd blog on Monday instead. Yeah. Right.

I got up Monday, ran a few local errands, and prepared to blog when I got a call from the aforementioned Bob, asking if I could come over the hill from the Valley into LA proper to pick him up at his car repair place. I said sure, put aside the blogging, and headed over the hill (which, of course, is where some say I've already been for a long, long time). Anyway, I picked up Bob, we had some lunch, did a little shopping, and then Bob asked me if I'd mind helping him pick up his beloved dog Barda from the vet. Again, I say sure, and we're back over the hill to the Valley. By the time we collected the dog, I realized I didn't have time to go home before my improv class that evening and, since Bob's home isn't far from the studio where the class is held, I hung out with him a little longer, then headed to class. By the time class was over and I've had my dinner, it was about midnight, and I was exhausted. I'll blog tomorrow, I decide. My readers will understand.

Now Tuesday was my birthday, and I was looking forward to the day. I was going to blog, have lunch with friends, maybe catch a movie, then have dinner with Christine and our dear friend, TV writer (Profiler, Reasonable Doubts, others) and novelist (the Circuit series) Melinda Snodgrass. But when I got out of bed, I noticed my big old beloved Golden Retriever Muffin seemed to be having trouble walking, and that she was groaning as she laid down. Concerned, I rushed Muffin to the vet, and x-rays revealed she had a mass of some sort around her spleen. The vet said they'd have to operate to remove the mass -- and possibly the spleen -- if she was going to survive. I told him to do whatever it took to save her, to call me if there was a problem, and went home. I wasn't good for much of anything else for the rest of the day. Bob came over to keep me company. We still went out to dinner. But my mind was on the dog, and not the company. Blogging just wasn't gonna happen.

Wednesday was basically devoted to sitting by the telephone, waiting to hear from the vet how the surgery went with Muffin. Bob came by, took me to lunch, then over to Golden Apple Comics to check out the week's new releases, but I really wasn't all there until the vet called to tell me that, although they'd had to remove her engorged spleen, Muffin had come through the surgery with flying colors. You could hear my sigh of relief in Australia. The vet did tell me that they'd sent the spleen to be biopsied to find out what had caused the problem, and we're still waiting to hear back the results, but at least she was alive, and that was all that mattered.

Yesterday, I spent some time visiting my old dog at the vet's, and was told I could take her home late in the afternoon. I went home, prepared the house, then picked my big old baby up and brought her back where she belongs. She moved slow, and she had big patches of her fur shaved, but she was home and everything else was incredibly unimportant. I spent the remainder of the day and evening keeping company with my dog. I didn't blog. So sue me.

Anyway, here I am at last. I'm back. I'm blogging. And I'll do my best to keep it up daily. Unless, of course, God forbid, something happens to my dog.