When Lino takes notice of Fake Lino, as in:

"linorulli@FakeLino Made a Doug Henning reference. Thats solid. I'm jealous." (via Twitter)

I start thinking of what obvious clues I am missing. And since the Catholic Guy Show has a segment on mysteries (Sirius 159, XM 117), I might as well start listing out the clues I've collected.

(That, and I had to admit I had no clue who Doug Henning was.)

The clues so far:

1. Lino and FakeLino are roughly the same age, or at minimum know of the same dubious circa 1970s cultural references (Doug Henning, Donny Most and I think there was a Mr. Whipple reference last week that Lino acknowledged). [Possible suspects: Gus Lloyd, Bob Dunning, Greg Popcak, listeners who are as old as Lino or older]

2. dustin pointed out that the sometimes FakeLino goes by Flino or FLino -- could FL be for Florida? [Gus Lloyd]

3. FakeLino mentioned Malnati's the other day, and Pretoria the day before. I had to google both to find out what both meant. One's a restaurant, and one's a city in South Africa. Could Flino be as avid a traveler as Lino himself? Dunno. There's not enough stuff to suggest that FLino is as worldly as Lino. There was also a Silver Lake reference, but I couldn't find anything that would solidly define "Silver Lake." Malnati's is driving distance from Notre Dame. [Jared Rizzi]

4. Some days, FLino's comments are spot-on homages to the phrases that Lino uses on the Catholic Guy Show. Other days they are weird (e.g. "I heart Dave Grohl"). Cathy from MN suggested that FLino could be more than one person. A distinct possibility. Though for all we know, FLino could be simply one person who chooses a different "voice" each day. [Greg Willits, Jared Rizzi, Gus Lloyd]


5. There is no FakeLino or FLino on facebook. Hmmm. Lou Ruggieri is on facebook, but refuses to tweet. Maybe Lou is using fakelino to vent his twitter envy? [Lou Ruggieri]

6. Let's not underestimate Jared. Jared's a smart guy -- he graduated out of Notre Dame (or so he says). Early in FLino's career, I asked Jared if he was FLino. He said he was not. Is Jared capable of lying? From the "Time to Choose" segments, I've heard Jared make questionable responses to the hypothetical situations. Now, granted, they're hypotheticals. But still. He's a clever enough cat to execute something like this, clever enough to drop red herrings, and certainly clever enough to google for weird 1970s references that Lino would like. [Jared Rizzi]

7. Maybe it's Maureen!! Ok, joke's over, I know. Maureen still hasn't sent the Pope Bottle Opener I won 2 years ago.

I think I'm thinking on this way too much... my money is still on Greg Willits.