"Bush is in Brazil"

[Scott Fybush]

Since I was prompted, here is another WSMN story, starring the late Maury 
Parent.

When I was working in the news department in 1991, we would have a 
half-hour news report at 5 p.m. followed by "Open Line," a call-in show 
hosted by Maury. Was 5:30, drive time, an ideal time to have a call-in 
show, while people were still in their cars, heading home from work? (this 
was before cell phones were omnipresent, remember) No, but Maury didn't 
want to stay at work so late. That applied to him and no one else, of 
course. He also never had a topic prepared and kept just asking people to 
call in, saying "what's your pleasure, this is your show," etc. When no one 
called in, he would read the news briefs I had just used for my 5 p.m. 
report. Way to attract callers, huh?

But every once in a while some people would call and a conversation would 
get going, usually in the second half of the show. One night I had just 
come back from dinner and was getting ready for a meeting, when I heard 
Maury talking about how Bush (senior) said the recession was over, and 
where did he get that idea anyway. Then he said "Bush is in Brazil." I was 
trying to figure out what that meant, wondering if it was some esoteric New 
Hampshire slang meaning "out of touch," when I heard him continue about how 
Bush was meeting with people all over the world, when his place was here in 
America. Then I remembered: Bush was attending an international 
environmental (or economic, I forget which it was) summit ... in ... wait 
for it ... Madrid! Wrong continent, wrong language. Sure, they shared a 
dominant religion and maybe some of their export products were the same, 
but Brazil and Spain aren't exactly two countries that are easily confused. 
I ran into the DJ's studio where Ken Richards was board-opping the show and 
asked him, "Which one of us is going to tell him that Madrid is in SPAIN?" 
Ken's response? "Come to think of it, you're right!"

Nothing further was pursued with Maury, but I told the receptionist about 
it the next day, and she cracked up, and I told the afternoon jock, (Jay 
Carroll, who went by Jack Davis at SMN) who also thought it was hilarious. 
He even tried to build momentum for my initial interpretation of Maury's 
gaffe by saying on air, when he missed a record cue, "Pardon my error...I 
must be in Brazil!"