Monday, February 26, 2007

Phone Call From Jay!

Friday as I was getting ready to leave for the weekend (I had a book signing in Traverse City among other things) my phone rang at the office.  "It's someone who claims to be Jay Leno," my secretary told me.  I picked it up in my office and -- IT WAS JAY LENO!  He called to thank me for the books I sent him.  Along with the copy of Death's Door (the great holiday gift!) I sent him a copy of the book I wrote about the Chrysler Turbine car (see www.hickoryracing.com).  I figured he'd be into it because of his well-known love of cars, and I even mentioned him in the book (he helped a man I interviewed get an engine for his turbine car.)

The whole conversation took less than five minutes but it was very cool.  How many people can say that they've been called by Jay Leno?

Steve

Posted by at 19:05:25 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Here's The Link

And here is the link to see Jay Leno talking about the book: 

http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/headlines/H_3308/19.shtml#headline

Steve

Posted by at 11:56:33 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The Tonight Show

I began receiving emails and phone calls this morning to let me know that "Death's Door" was mentioned on the Tonight Show by Jay Leno.  Since I was not on the show (I would have known if I'd been a guest) all I could think of was the Headlines segment he does once in a while where he features things that are amusing from local papers -- often because of typos, juxtapositions, or other things that seem out of context.  And, here it is:

Jay and his writers were amused by the ad from the Finnish American Reporter where we suggested the book would make a "great holiday gift!"  While the book does make a great gift (I had quite a few people tell me that they were buying them for Christmas) I can see why they found it an odd thing -- a book named Death's Door, about a mass murder, being promoted as a holiday gift.

I'm gift wrapping a copy of the book today and sending it to Jay.

Steve

Posted by at 19:00:48 | Permanent Link | Comments (3) |

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

My New Favorite Cartoon Character

While I was visiting Hancock and Finlandia, Gary K gave me a tour of the Archives and showed me some old Finnish magazines from the time of the Italian Hall tragedy. One of them had this neat little character, which he was kind enough to get me a copy of:
 
Gary told me his story, which I could not remember in detail, so I asked him to retell it to me. Here it is:
That little fellow is Lapatossu, Tossu for short. Lapatossu means "Shoepack" in Finnish. He was a way for the Finnish socialists to take ownership of a derogatory nickname they had gotten from the folks at Suomi College and business types. As the story goes, many of the editors and staff of Tyomies were working class folks, some coming to work there straight from the mine. The people at Suomi College and in the upper echelon business community called Tyomies offices' Hobo Headquarters or "Jakastappi." So, Kalle A. Suvanto came up with Tossu, the loveable Hobo, who was said to have great intellect and was able to stand up to the bosses. The publication by Tyomies was of the same name, Lapatossu. It was a satirical comic-magazine that began around 1910.
Hope that helps,
Gary Kaunonen
Thanks Gary!
Posted by at 13:18:06 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |