When I went to sleep in the wee hours of Friday morning, after staying up too late to hear Lino Rulli and crew do the lock-in show, I told myself that this was the best show they ever did.

The next day, I reeled back those thoughts, thinking that it was based purely on emotion. "Let's wait a few days, then look at the show with a clear conscience and no bias."

As I write this nine days later, I have to say that the lock-in was indeed the best show that Lino, Lou and Maureen have ever put together. The three hours were simply fantastic.

What made the show amazing? The novelty of it was big, but when that wore off, you had a studio full of energy. No sluggishness noticeable on my end of the radio. And despite the lack of phone calls the first hour and a half, Fr. Jim's two students, Glenn and Chelsea, really gave Lino and crew a nice angle to play off of. Both students seemed like naturals on the radio, and I wouldn't be shocked to find out that one of them is pursuing an education in radio.

The segments were fantastic: "Fans wanna know" had some really good questions, the bible study really showcased Lino's theological strengths, and the late-night phone call to Greg Willits might just be the best moment we'll ever hear on the show.

I really hope to hear more lock-in shows in the future, but I'd hate for them to be a scheduled chore. Doing them once every six weeks or so would be amazing, as it gave west-coast listeners and overnight workers a chance to call in (and night owls like myself, Allicia and Kristen, who lovingly live-blogged the entire thing). I think to keep them from being mundane or stale, they need to have big-event status. I'd hate to see a lock-in with just Lino, Lou and Maureen: guests are definitely needed to make the lock-in shows really special and worth staying up late for (not saying LLM can't do it, but a studio full of people late at night is a lot more fun).

Best. Show. Ever.

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.

Greg Willits, Mr. WAM himself, has 1,018 followers on twitter.






Lino has only 109.

Could this be why Lino was not happy about his tweeting yesterday?

Thank God we're not judged by the number of Twitter followers we have.

(St. Michael, pray for us!)