Kim Bitter Birthday!

Today is Kim Bitter's Birthday! Here she is displaying her friend (and mine) LUMP.

The most fun I've ever had on the radio was co-hosting the weekly "Heads Gone Astray" show with Kim Bitter on WLHA-FM. We had legions of fans (within a 4-watt radius) and most of them called us when we were on the air to accuse us of being lesbians or to tell us to shut up. We got into the habit of actually putting these calls on the air and arguing with them as entertainment. Sometimes we would threaten the audience by saying, "If one more person calls to tell us to shut up, we are going to talk for another twenty minutes!" This was usually followed by a call telling us to shut up. At that point, I would name a topic and Kim Bitter would immediately have a long story to tell! One afternoon, I selected subject "Peat Moss."

This is the short version. The peat moss story involved Kim's job student teaching at a school outside of Madison. Kim told lots of good stories about student teaching. This particular one involved a teacher who was walking into the school with a flat container of peat moss that would be used for a student project. At the same time, another teacher was walking into the building, took a look at the peat moss and said, "Mmmm, Brownies! Can I have one?"

Then we would laugh on the air for another ten minutes, fulfilling our threat for the obnoxious telephone call. When we finally played a record, more people would call to ask us if were were stoned. "Stoned? Why would they think we were stoned?" we would quizzically ask each other. This made us laugh even harder.

Lump reminds me of the peat moss story and fun times laughing with Kim Bitter. Even though Lump is more stout cake than brownie or peat moss, Lump still made us all laugh hysterically last October despite the fact that none of us were stoned. I look forward to more long stories from Kim Bitter that result in hysterical laughter, because I know they are just around the corner.

Happy Birthday Kim!