Where's Oprah?

March 29, 2007

Oprah Winfrey was supposed to have been here, but she must have been so darned sneaky that nobody noticed her, or else she didn't get here at all, no matter what anybody says.

My pal Judy Bridger said she had her eyes trained on the airport for any and all muscular jets for the last week, but she didn't see any that would have been Oprah's, so she doubted the rumor right away.

On the other hand, they don't call her "Lyin' Judy" for nothing, so I myself took a wait-and-see stance. The first thing people thought of was that Oprah was coming up here for the April 9 first anniversary of the ski patrol tragedy.

Another rumor had it that she was coming up to do a story on alla peculiar deaths we had this past year, including the three ski patrollers.

Over in the town offices, people were buzzing about this and buzzing about that, and my pal Buck Meadows said that if she were going to show up as planned, howzabout a fiction event of some kind over at The Booky Joint?

Up on Mammoth Mountain, the folks were as closed-mouthed as an Alberto Gonzales flunky, while down in Bishop, people hadn't even heard that Oprah was coming up here, and if that doesn't tell you a little bit about how far apart these towns are, well ...

Anyway, with the whole town buffed out and riding high expectations, it naturally came as a disappointment that Oprah didn't show up, but that her production crew did.

The crew, minus O, (can I call her "O"?) was in town to get some footage for a story they're all doing on survival stories. This bit is going to feature Eric LeMarque, the snowboarder who got lost back in '04.

I coulda told her lots of other survival stories, by the way. Like the week we spent waiting for her to drag herself and her entourage up to Little Old Mammoth, where we waited with bated breath.

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