Mystery Cam: Sorry About That

Ed Dykhuizen, Staff Writer
February 19, 2001, 3:10 p.m. EST

Sorry! I'm being proactive in my apology, being an envisioneer and thinking outside the box in the whole "apology" paradigm, because I know that America has fallen in love with Webcams, and within the context of our newfound love, I just did the equivalent of getting drunk with the boys and falling asleep on the front lawn.

I'll unpack that. Usually, the Webcams thing comes out on Thursdays, but I got bogged down all week doing over-extensive coverage of a certain television show whose certain plot got certainly interesting as a certain gangly seven-foot-tall whiner got his butt kicked off the show in a nail-biting double tie-breaker -- I mean, could you believe it? I sold most of my chair, since I only needed the edge, but in all the excitement the good ol' Webcams column suffered, and for that I apologize. Please take me back! I'll change, I swear!!

Anyway, here's this week's (i.e. last week's) picture. It's simple -- if you have a guess as to the origin of this picture, drop me a line. The first three people with correct answers receive a bouquet of flowers delivered by me with a hangdog expression on my face, plus a mention in next week's column. And it work best if you'd find the actual site from among the above links and send its Web address to me. New policy. Thanks!

Last Week

Last week Laura went international to find the Netcam pic of the day -- sort of. If you count Montreal as "international," that is. I mean, granted, they speak French sometimes, but I think most of us realize that French is a joke language anyway. It's all a hoax. Some oddball Europeans just throw random letters together, invented random pronunciations, and called it a language.

The picture in particular is of the Montreal Biodome. Laura's comment "I wonder what language the penguins hear the most..." was a reference to the whole bilingual affectation, while the reference to the area being big into sports in 1976 has to do with the fact that the Olympics were there at the time.

The big winners were three fellows who I don't recognize from previous wins (nice to see some new names, gentlemen -- welcome): Chris Pluchinsky from Minneapolis, Steve from Santa Clarita, Calif., and Ron Richins.

Clues

Oh! This cam is in a spot named after this one nutty Italian dude � ho ho! The stories I could tell about that guy � like the time he got one guy to dress up as a matronly housekeeper to keep track of his kids � Oh! Oh! Or the time he watched as a family accidentally left his kid at home when traveling to Paris, leading to a number of wild battles between said kid and some bumbling crooks. Oh, it was great.

Well, if you can see through that cloud of odd clues, you deserve a prize. Take your best shot.

Copyright 2001 by Channel 2000. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.