Paranoia Strikes Deep: The Galliano Bottle Call
In the years between Nightmare Lounge and Aerial View I hosted an overnight music shift, 3 - 7 AM Saturday mornings. Between long sets I'd open the phones to see what strangeness lurked - and was never disappointed.
One particular morning just after 5 AM I reeled in the most bizarre phone call I've encountered in all my years on the radio. It revolved around the Galliano bottle. Galliano is a sweet, yellow Italian herbal liqueur that comes in a tall, slender bottle. Over the course of four and a quarter paranoid minutes the caller pressed his case for why the Galliano bottle is an instrument of pure evil and should be removed from the market permanently (MP3, 4.9 MB): "The bottle should just pick up and pour a drink."
That caller vaguely reminds me of Taylor Negron.
Posted by: Jeffersonic | February 02, 2007 at 08:18 AM
I get the uncomfortable feeling that when this guy would say "some guy" and ends with something terrible happening, he could be talking about himself in the third person.
What show were you doing when this happened? Is this show in the archives?
Posted by: Nicholas | February 02, 2007 at 09:17 AM
I was doing an overnight show, it didn't have a name. It's not in the archives because it goes back to 1987 or '89.
Chris T.
Posted by: Chris T. | February 02, 2007 at 10:26 AM
Not sure whether I'm more disturbed or amused. Thanks for posting this.
Posted by: Melody | February 02, 2007 at 10:31 AM
Sounds to me like the caller is a schizophrenic. And a bit lonely.
Posted by: poesboes | February 02, 2007 at 10:43 AM
the caller sounds a bit like a Jerky Boy, no?
Posted by: krup | February 02, 2007 at 05:19 PM
At first I thought it might be a Jerky Boy but I know someone who knows them and it wasn't.
Posted by: Chris T. | February 02, 2007 at 06:46 PM
name dropper...
Posted by: krup | February 02, 2007 at 07:03 PM
It seems like media outlets attract this sort of thing. I used to be the circulation assistant at a major, and now defunct, radical paper which meant I was the guy that opened the mail. We got some amazing artwork from prisoners, right wingers sending us fishing weights in our postage paid envelopes, and some stuff that was sort of similar to this but in the form of letters. One night I pulled an all nighter and slept in the office and got a call at around 3 a.m. It was similar to this but more word salad-y. I was so creeped out I took the subway home. Later I was at a much less prominent radical rag. Even so we had our "wingnut file" there too. My current job, allthough I still open mail any wing-nut content is weeded out by office services, if there is any. Ah, the things you miss...
Posted by: bartleby | February 02, 2007 at 07:15 PM
Wow and I thought I got some weird late night calls...
This definitely takes the cake though.
Posted by: Mita Tate | February 02, 2007 at 07:36 PM
in 9th grade, we drank the galliano we had used in the water p1pe. 1977 9th grade. imagine the quality! bleeeeeehhhhhhhhkkkkkk
Posted by: lee | February 02, 2007 at 08:46 PM
Chris T, please come back to the air! I have exhausted the archives!
Posted by: fatty jubbo | February 02, 2007 at 10:25 PM
I do enjoy a Harvey Wallbanger now and again. Good breakfast cocktail.
Posted by: Gregg | February 03, 2007 at 12:04 AM
Although the caller was being quite circumspect, it sounded like his complaint was that women were getting raped with the Galliano bottle, and the bottle rapists were then being punished for their misbehavior. The caller then blames Galliano for making a bottle that is so obviously phallic. At least, that's what I got out of it. I posted my theory at The Bottle Gang.
Posted by: Max Sparber | February 05, 2007 at 12:06 AM
http://missourilawreview.blogspot.com/2008/10/state-v-freeman.html
Posted by: Sam Wilson | February 18, 2009 at 12:36 AM