who worked at Mike McDonald’s Fitness Shop in the Duluth Heights when I was a kid. He was actually a theatre major over at UWS (just across the High Bridge from Duluth) at the time. He also got on their weightlifting team, and had this job at the fitness shop selling weights, dietary supplements, work-out books, and other stuff. We kids in the neighborhood were pretty much dirt poor and could never afford a set of weights, so we would go up to the shop and use the ones there that were for sale. We were allways getting in the way.

One day this Austrian guy (who we just called the foreign exchange student), asked us in his heavy accent, “Ah you guys eveh going to buy someting, oh ah you just going to get in de vay all de time and get ouh weights dihrty?”

My friend Mark answered like a true smartmouth, “Ve ah just going to use de weights and get in de vay.” We two 15 year olds thought that was funny and we started to laugh.

Then the Austrian came over and picked us each up by the scruff of the collar and said, “Deh you go Mr. smahtypants, ..”, as he threw us out the door into the parking lot. Then he added, “You can come back in here vhen you leahn some mannehs.”

About six years later there was some movie that was coming onto HBO, and was advertising it all the time. The actor had the same name as this guy in the fitness shop, the former student at UWS. My brother and I said to each other “This can’t be the same guy though, even if it is a very uncommon name. It just can’t be the same guy. We were determined to watch it. “It was a strange movie with a storyline set somewhere back in the first or even second millennium BC. About ten minutes into the movie, after the main character grew to be an adult we saw that yes, it was the same Austrian student from UWS and Mike McDonald’S Fittness Shop.

His acting wasn’t so good in this film, but he has since become one of my favorite actors. About ten years ago or so, he came back to be the allumni speaker for the graduation commencements at UWS. They had a limited number of seats open to public who wanted to come (just to see him). One of my students got one of the tickets, so I told him to ask the Austrian if he remembered two little smarty pants kids at Mike McDonald’s. His response to the kid was “Who told you those stories?” He told him that I was his teacher, so he sent his congradulations to me, for making something of myself.

I’ve thought about writing him once in a while just to cheer on our adopted “homeboy”,, especially after his latest job, but don’t even know if the message would ever get to him.

If you want to know who this Austrian is, just send me a message, and ask. I wouldn’t want to publicly embarrass him here. Either that or you can take a good guess. Here’s a hint: Which Austrian governor of CA went to UWS?