[Update: Jared is out sick today. Jared also told Lino to wear Jared's beads in memory of him (Jared). That's creepy.]

After listening to yesterday's show, and hearing about Lent and Lino's request for listener assistance, I felt compelled to list out some suggestions for our beloved Catholic Guy.

No, this won't be a request to have him not talk about his life during Lent as one listener stated -- that would be like ordering a pizza without sauce and cheese, and besides, if you take away Lino's stories we'd end up with a young Bob Dunning. A whole lot of people would be asleep at the wheel each afternoon. Not good.

I did like one listener's idea -- have Lino go for 40 days without mentioning his 3 Emmys and his Generation Cross DVD & website. But the more I thought about it, the more I discerned that Lent is about actually doing something that would benefit our spiritual lives and allow us to grow in our faith past the Lenten season. To have Lino not talk about his Emmys or DVD isn't really benefitting Lino spiritually. I personally want him to keep plugging his DVD because

a) his DVD is a pure 90-minute fiesta of Catholic pleasure; &
b) if people spend more time watching his DVD, it's more likely that those people aren't spending those 90-minutes sinning (or in occasions of sin). And that's a good thing.

Things Lino could do for Lent:

1) Auction off some of his Catholic stuff from home for charity. Remember how he talked about how much cra... er... stuff he has at his apartment? Auctioning off some of that stuff would certainly improve his living conditions and could quite possibly net some cha-ching for his favorite charity.

2) For each broadcast during Lent, say at least one unique, sincere, non-mocking, non-joking compliment about his producer Jared Rizzi. Jared has become the proverbial whipping boy as of late on the show -- Geared, Geraldo, Jughead, Lughead, etc. -- and while the comedy is certainly there in the name-calling, one has to admit that it would be a true sacrifice to stop the jokes at Jared's expense all-together. But heck, I'm not asking for that. It's not like I'm saying that Lino go and not poke fun at Gus Lloyd, or not call Ron Astorino short. I'm not saying Lino should stop making fun of Jared at all either. (I after all want to arrive safely at home during my afternoon commute and not fall asleep at the wheel.) But what if Lino gave a true, unique compliment -- without jokes, mockery, or innuendo -- to Jared at least once every show through Lent?

3) Run a Lino-thon -- have Lino collect sponsorship for each point that his cholesterol goes down during Lent. This will hopefully give us a healthier Lino by the time Easter comes around. Again, the proceeds should go to his favorite charity (or Lou).

Got more suggestions for Lino?