It’s Glenn Beck Day in Mount Vernon, WA, this weekend sometime. He will get the key to the city, but the press is not invited.

Except for one presser who will be the mayor’s date. The event sold out at a whopping $25 per plate.

The Times says there will be no press credentials for the sold-out event with the exception of one member of the local press —  selected by Norris — who will go with the mayor.

Celebrating Glenn Beck Day is controversial. (Understatement of the hour.)
People got 16,000 names petitioning the council  to cancel the Glenn Beck Day celebration.

The Mayor responds: …Glenn Beck…

“has reached a level of recognition and acclaim in the radio and television field, and I think that warrants consideration for the honor that I’m bestowing on him.”

The mayor of nearby Bellingham,WA  says he’s offering a key to his city to Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s satirical news program The Daily Show.

It’s the Battle of the Cable Network Keys-to-the-City.

No video of Glenn Beck working while in Mount Vernon yet,  but here’s a promo done while he was at Phoenix Y95.

OK, give ole Glenn Beck  a break here. Let Mount Vernon have their Glenn Beck Day.

What’s the harm?

A lot of us did stuff in our early careers that we would be embarrassed to have posted on Youtube.com now. The difference is,  many of us, (Beck not included) realized that at some point, being a buffoon at work isn’t necessary over the course of a whole career.

I have done, nay, I have devised, and then been instrumental in carrying out many lame-ass stunts all in the name of getting attention.

There was:

• Moonlight Madness where I drove the boss’s car with loudspeakers on top up and down the street announcing the Yellow Light Specials (way back when K-mart still had Blue Light Specials) at local merchants.
• a time I wrapped myself in aluminum foil and rode on top of a step van (the UPS type) with a jiggly ball thingy on my head. (I was an alien.)
• Yes, I did an airplane drop. Not turkeys, numbered paper plates. They were to fly. Instead they fell to the ground in clumps. (Yes, exactly like WKRP in Cincinnati.)
• Next year, I decided numbered ping pong balls would work. They did. Except it was over an asphalt parking lot and kids got many skinned knees. Diving for a numbered ball and falling, or being run over by an adult.
• I was Big Bird. Nancy came up with a great costume of yellow cloth, to which she and others stapled hundreds of yellow paper napkins to.  Big orange feet, huge orange beak, large plastic googly eyes. A classic to this day.
• I convinced a bunch of people to pay big bucks to ride  in the back of a semi-truck trailer for a progressive dinner party at six places of businesses. In the dark. With wine.

I used to have a lot of fun before the businesses I worked for started worrying about liability and OSHA.

Yup, Good Old Days.