Waiting, Waiting

Got up at an ungodly (to me!) hour of 7 a.m. today because I expected the architect of the Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas to call at 8 a.m. from Asia for an interview, but he seems to have forgotten. May have to reschedule that for tomorrow. I have to interview all five lead CityCenter architects by week's end; I may put them out as special editions of "The Strip" if they're interesting. Am scheduled later today to the architect for the CityCenter Hotel-Resort; that should definitely be a good one since it's the central feature of the $7 billion complex. Then I'm off to the unveiling of Planet Hollywood and premiere of Stomp Out Loud.

My morning's not a total loss, though, since at 8:45 a.m., "Late, Late Show" comic Craig Ferguson is supposed to call for a taped chat for this week's "The Strip," which I do hope actually happens. I've enjoyed the clips that they put on YouTube and am particularly keen to quiz him about this incident in May 3, 2005 during the Michael Jackson molestation trial when he cut off Bill Maher. Here's the YouTube clip:



Ouch. We do have another guest for this week's "The Strip," American Gaming Association executive director Frank Fahrenkopf. That'll be a more serious chat.

One thing about these early morning interviews that I've learned -- and now that I intend to broadcast some of them on the podcast it's especially important -- is that I need to flex my vocal chords before I take a call. Once years ago, I was working on a USA Today story and Sen. John McCain was to call at 7 a.m. our time, 10 a.m. in D.C. I had been awake for an hour but hadn't uttered a word. So when Sen. McCain called and my voice was terribly groggy, he asked rather solicitously, "Oh, did I wake you?" Embarrassing.

So I've been singing "You Can Call Me Al" for the past 10 minutes. Anyone have other tips?