Amazingly, Fr. Rob Keighron AND producer Ryan Grant share the same birthday! It's like God reserved December 3 for awesome people or something. Today is also Ozzie Osbourne's birthday, so that kind of proves my point (also the birthday of Phoebe Hearst, which kinda trumps my theory, but anyways).

A feat like this CANNOT go unnoticed! I present to you, the tale of the tape.

First we have Ryan Grant. A producer with musical talent, he studied in the seminary before realizing that it wasn't God's calling for his life. He could have chosen to become a dentist, but instead Ryan chose to produce Lino Rulli's humble little radio show, The Catholic Guy, after Maureen died.

Then there's Fr. Rob. A scrappy fellow of 43 years of age, Fr. Rob has been a priest 1957. He sings and dances, both noble talents that could have earned him work to feed his family in depression-era Vaudeville times. But instead, he decided to give his life to the spirit of the Lord and joined a radio show, where his cackles, charm and sophisticated noble knowledge can be on display for years to come.

So which of the two would win this Birthday bash? If this was a WWE event, here's how their promos might sound.

Grant: Father Rob, God may love you but I think you're nuts! You stink, your logic is all off, and you bring your D-game to work each day! If I earned a better salary from The Catholic Channel, I could afford to smash this guitar over your Irish head. Your wish of a demise has...been....GRANTED!

Keighron: You want to come at me with that, Grant, you big dummy? All night, all night, every night you'd better hold tight, cause when I bash this bottle of Schnapps over your head, the only thing you'll have left to produce is your own will!

But thankfully, these two get along. Sure, we don't hear Ryan on the air as much, but when he does talk, they seem to have a civil relationship.

They are two great men of faith, and we as fans are blessed to have them on the air. But for what it's worth, I'd wager on Grant by submission.

Lino has good witty banter. Seeing his struggle to get it in under 140 characters is even funnier. We present Lino's Tweet of the Day!

Happy Birthday Lino! In honor of 40 years of greasy love, I am putting together a list of 40 things that I've learned from you! You inspired my conversion to Catholicism, led me to my bride, and give me funny radio each day I turn you on!

Thank you Lino Rulli.

1. Christians can laugh.
2. Doubting is OK.
3. God can handle our anger
4. The Eucharist is really Jesus' body
5. The Foo Fighters are an amazing band
6. All Italians have a lawyer and a priest of some sort in their family.
7. Pilgrimages can be expensive
8. You can only get baptized once.
9. It's ok to call your Mom every day
10. There are really men named Goob
11. Howard Stern is a genius.
12. Jay Leno is a giant tool.
13. Every day is a struggle if you really want to follow Christ.
14. Praying to saints just means talking to them, not worshipping them.
15. Boring Christian media should not be acceptable.
16. Somewhere in Minnesota there is a huge ball of twine.
17. Apparently people can cheer for Green Bay and Minnesota without issues.
18. Goddaughters can be bribed to not get pierced tongues.
19. Don't say the word "cock" on the radio, even if you're referring to your chickens.
20. Living in the Bahamas is beyond cool.
21. Priests don't reveal what is heard in confession.
22. NYC is filled with Urine
23. It's possible to lose games on your own show
24. Your boss is truly clueless.
25. Bella Napoli has the greatest pizza in the world.
26. It's ok to listen to Eminem and call yourself a Christian.
27. It is possible for Catholic media to win top secular awards like Emmys
28. Peabody awards can be elusive.
29. The Bible started out with 73 books.
30. St. Peter was the first Pope.
31. Brett Favre allegedly sends cell phone pictures (Lino broke that story to me) of his naughty bits.
32. Apparently Catholic celebrities can still be wrong about some things. Yes Lino, Kris Allen, not Adam Lambert, deserved to win American Idol.
33. And they can be right about some things to. Yes Lino, The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Title in 2010, not the Boston Celtics.
34. Commercial breaks are horrible.
35. Priests actually start out as deacons before becoming priests.
36. You should fast an hour before Mass.
37. If you take Brett Siddell on vacation with you, prepare to lend him money.
38. Catholics are Christian.
39. Beautiful women that are willing to marry me also listen to The Catholic Channel.
40. My Mom was a genius when she bought Sirius Satellite Radio for me in 2002. Best gift ever.

There are many more things I've learned from Lino, but I'll save those for another birthday. In the utmost seriousness, so many wonderful things have happened to me just because I decided to listen to your show. I'd be a complete bum, probably destined to Hell, had you not come along and inspired me to care about my faith.

Happy Birthday Lino Rulli. You will never know the impact you've had on so many lives. I hope and pray that God continues to bless you for the amazing work you've done for His Kingdom.

When mom bought satellite radio for me in Christmas of 2003, I had no idea what I was getting into.

When Best Buy installed Sirius in my car the day after Christmas seven years ago, it was Sirius before Howard Stern. Before the NFL started airing all of its games on Sirius. In fact, the main reason I wanted satellite radio was for a clear ESPN radio feed and classic rock.

I had no desire for religious programming.

Favorite shows came and went for me. I listened to Breuer Unleashed nearly every afternoon. Tony Kornheiser took up my morning time. Even Playboy radio had a pretty decent advice show (one great piece of advice I took away from the woman hosting the show is that relationship problems don't get solved by spending time apart from each other). I never found the one show that really grabbed me though.

That is, until March 2008, when I discovered Lino Rulli on the radio. Good grief, I've harped on this plenty to anyone who will listen, but hearing that show changed my life. And once I started listening to Lino, I found other shows on the station that I really started to love. Busted Halo, Bob Dunning, Greg and Jennifer Willits, even Gus a time or two.

It's great that this December, Lino and The Catholic Channel are turning four years old. Sad to say that I didn't start listening to The Catholic Channel when it first debuted in 2006, but our own Elaine in North Carolina was one of the first listeners, even telling people in the Catholic Answers Forum about it days before launch. But in the two-plus years I've listened to it, it's easily been the best thing I've heard since getting satellite radio seven years ago (except for Notre Dame screwing things up).

Thank you Lino for four great years on the radio. I hope you and the rest of the channel keep up the great work. You are all appreciated more than you'll ever know.

Regular visitors to this blog (God bless you) will see a change today (Friday, Oct. 22). In honor of Lino Rulli's birthday (Oct. 26, but we're doing it today since he'll be gone to Italy on his actual birthday), what better way to celebrate this great man by honoring another great man?!

We've been counting down (missing a few days here and there) by taking the daily readings and applying them to Lino. At least one of those readings had to touch on the virtue of sharing, which is something we hope Lino will appreciate when he sees his fan club altered today. We promised something fun for Lino's birthday, and here we go!

Yes, for one day, the site dedicated to Lino Rulli gets dedicated to the morning man Gus Lloyd instead. Follow us all day for all things Gus (and a little Lino as well).

Happy Birthday to former intern Krista!!!! She's 20 today, still one year away from drinking. But we hope you go into a bar while on a date with Busted Halo intern Buzz and order a Roy Rogers today. Yippie Ki Yay!

In honor of your birthday, we play the song Lino hates to have played on birthdays.

"Sorry Fr Jim about that -- you were right.
You can see Lino's nose from Arkansas."

Happy birthday to the best technical director that radio has ever seen. Lou doesn't do pushups, mind you: he pushes the earth down! Another interesting fact about our birthday boy is that there is no control button on Lou's computer: Lou is ALWAYS in control.

Best wishes. Hope his weekend is a safe one!

by dustin (The Boston Celtics fan)

Father Chern kicked off today's show. As you saw in the post earlier, he put Lino in his place by questioning his belief that he is not called to the priesthood.

"One of the people they interviewed was my atheist camera guy, who has no religion," Lino said as he defended his belief that priesthood was not in the cards. "The question was posed, should Lino be a priest? And he said, you know I'm sure Lino would be a great priest, but It seems to me that this is his calling, this is really his mission right now."

"Yeah, cause agnostics are really good at that," Father Chern replied. Zing!

Father Chern, who celebrated nine years in the priesthood, said that it would be nice to have more guys join the priesthood.

"I think a lot of guys are being called to being a priest, and they're scared," Father Chern said. "Look at how much work we had to do with Dan."

Dan's future in Texas as a priest-in-training was touched on, with Lino quipping, "Hopefully I'll have a priest running Linofans.com."

Hopefully so. Which would give this blog two writers that are priests, a married guy as a writer....and me, who seemingly contributes nothing but idle time.

That hurts. I'll cry myself to sleep tonight.

"Congrats on nine years, here's to nine more!" Lino said.

After Father Chern supposedly spoiled Lino's birthday plans for Lou by telling him happy birthday, with Lino claiming to be embarrassed by the awful turn of events, the show settled into Fridays usual banter, complete with The Inquisition game and a new, spontaneous segment that came evolved from Ryan mentioning that he would love to "lay down his life for his friends."

The segment asked listeners what they would go through before they would denounce their faith in Christ (torture, death, and so on). Most people that called said they would go through any kind of torture, including getting your intestines ripped, beheaded and so forth, without so much as blinking.

I like to think that I would not deny Christ in that time of weakness. But Peter thought he wouldn't deny Christ either, and he did it three times. So while I could flap my yak and tell you, "Of course!" the truth is, right now, I do not think I am strong enough in my faith to be able to choose pain and torture over escaping with my guilt-ridden life.

Honesty hurts. But I hope to build my faith up, so that in time, I can give you a much different answer to that question.

Solid show, with Father Chern's appearance in the first 10 minutes highlighting the three hours, and Lino giving Lou a birthday card, complete with a Popener. It's about time Lou got one.

We'll keep you posted randomly throughout the weekend.