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A guy named Greenbagg appeared on Anello’s radio show.

Vince Anello
Oliver Greenbagg

Vince Anello likes to say, and perhaps it is his reason for being on radio, “A well informed citizenry is the best weapon against anything we dislike about government. “

That might be true as a weapon against other things too. Addictions for example like gambling, drugs, alcohol or even being a glutton.

Last week Anello, the former Niagara Falls Mayor who now hosts a radio show twice a week on WJJL radio, at 10 AM, had a guy named Oliver Greenbagg on to talk about exactly these things.

Greenbagg, whose ads for his  books appear in this paper, is a real author and, in spite of his profuse and prematurely white hair and almost preposterous snowy bushy white moustache, has written four books. They are part of a cryptic-sounding “Do not Delete” series which the author explains as meaning “not to delete yourself through your bad habits.”

Greenbagg wrote his books to educate people about “four main substances and activities people abuse,” gambling, drugs, alcohol, and gluttony.

The titles of his books are  DeGamblization; DeFatlization; DeDruglization and DeAlcoholization.
Oddball? Perhaps. He has said his idea is to make the stupid things people do seem more ridiculous. So he mocks you out.  He makes you feel stupid. He is funny: humorous, ironic, strange.

He sounds at times naive and simplistic, even dumb himself– but, if you listen carefully, he laces his stumbling bumbling monologues of  obvious statements with subtle meaning meant to be lost on the casual listener until they hear it a few times, maybe many times.

Anello is a serious man, concerned about the community. He started his show, one supposes, to help get important messages out. In the few weeks he has been on air it appears he has attracted an audience to his simple formula of straight talk.

So he invited Greenbagg on and Greenbagg gave his message out and one suspects some of Anello’s audience didn’t get it, when he spoke in his halting way last week at Anello’s studio located at the NACC.

Greenbagg said simple, stupid things like “The casino provide seats for our ass-etts.”Or pointed out too simply that casinos “seek our pennies and wind up making us penniless” and added significantly “there is a reason why casinos have penny slot machines.” 

“I understand it,” he said sympathetically, “People trying to escape from their humdrum lives. They go to the casino only to have their money escape from them.”

He spoke of a man who rushes into his house and yells to his wife, "Martha, pack up your things. I just won the state lottery!"
Martha replies, "Shall I pack for warm weather or cold?"

The man responds, "I don't care. Just so long as you're out of the house by noon!"

Or of two friends, Smith and Jones, who play slot machines at the Seneca casino. Jones lost all of his money and sat on the bench and waited for Smith.

After what seemed an awful long time, he saw Smith coming toward him carrying a huge sack of coins.
“It looks like you hit it big."

"I did" said Smith, "did I ever find a good machine! It's way in the back. I'll show it to you-you can't lose! EVERY TIME YOU PUT IN A DOLLAR FOUR QUARTERS COME OUT!!!"

Greenbagg seems comically unreal as he points out the obvious stupidity of gambling and at times must make the conscious effort to cross the thin line between tragedy and comedy.

If you’ve tried everything else to quit he says what do you have to lose? At $4.95  the price of one of his books, he may be right. 

Anello said of Greenbagg’s appearance “I was laughing at his humor. Some of the people did not get the humor. After the show, I had some people I knew personally who called and said ‘why the hell did you have him on?’ And funny some of these same people who did not understand him - these same people have in their own homes problem gamblers- the very thing Greenbagg was talking about.”

Yeah.

They missed the punch line.

 

 

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Aug 14 , 2012