[conspire] Having a great time at the ol' Bar Og

[Rick Moen]

Delightful fellow.  Really good travel television program.



 From: Rick Moen
 To: Rudy Maxa
 Subject: Bar Og Restaurant in Oslo

Hello, Mr. Maxa.  I've been a devoted fan of your work on both radio
and television for a very long time.  I hope you won't take it amiss
if I rib you a bit over one passing detail, in a particularly lovely
episode of 'Smart Travels: Europe with Rudy Maxa'.  It was episode 309,
Oslo & Norway.

At nine minutes in, just after a visit the National Art Museum, your
narration says 'After quenching our cultural thirst, we're ready to
sample this city's culinary delights.  Just outside the city center, I
discovered the hip, new Bar Og restaurant.'  [Establishing shot:  front of
the business's storefront, which indeed says 'BAR OG RESTAURANT',
overhead.]  '...Bar Og uses fresh, local ingredients, such as halibut
and reindeer, prepared with a little modern panache.'

And your visit is a sensitive tour de force, and also mouth-watering
-- but the narration left me as a Norwegian-American smiling, because....

'Og' is the word in the Norwegian language for 'and'.

It's possible that the restaurant's name was indeed 'Bar and
Restaurant', but the smart money's on something else.

Best Regards,
Rick M.




 From: Rudy Maxa
 To: Rick Moen
 Subject: Bar Og Restaurant in Oslo

Rick, 

I'm certain you're right!  Yikes.

Usually we check all foreign words with a local guide, but I guess we
missed that one.

I don't feel quite as badly as I do about our Zurich show, in which
during a stand up, I identified Zurich as the capital of Switzerland.

Now, as a kid in Germany, we often visited Bern because my parents had
great friends stationed at the US Embassy there.  In summer, I was
allowed to swim in the embassy pool.  So, since I was a kid, I knew Bern
was the capital of Switzerland.  I guess my brain was turned off, and
when I stood outside in the cold (we were filming a Christmas show), I
simply recited the line in my script (which I didn't write), and didn't
even think about what I was saying.

I've been groveling for that one for 12 years now.  Damn show just keeps
getting played over and over!

Thanks for enlightening me!  It won't happen again.  And I appreciate
your kind email.

Best,
Rudy