Robin Quivers does Beaune

A view from the window through which Robin was spotted.

Robin Quivers, of Howard Stern fame, spent a week this past July tearing up Beaune. I know because I was there. Everywhere I went, Robin was right in front of me. It all started one morning at the Hotel Le Cep front desk. I was waiting for my car to be retrieved when I heard a familiar voice standing next to me. Before Howard Stern went to satellite radio, I would listen every morning to Robin laugh her way through the role as Stern's sidekick. Our paths almost crossed once before, back in 1991. As an aspiring radio jock, I traveled five hours by bus for an interview at the Howard Stern show. The show was conducting its annual search for summer interns and I was more than willing to be humiliated at the feet of America's number one radio host. In my world at the time, Stern was God and Robin an angel. I walked into the skyscraper that housed the radio studio, but Howard and Robin were long gone. Gary Dell'Abate (aka Baba Booey), however, was still hanging around. Stern fans have made Gary famous while pranking various t.v. and radio hosts. Many of the pranksters finish their hoaxes by shouting, "Baba Booey."

That brings me back to Beaune. My wife had not been in the lobby that morning and did not believe that Robin was staying in the same hotel (I always mistake people for someone else). In an effort to prove my sighting, I sat by the window that evening hoping to spot the SUV Robin had left in that morning. By 11pm I had givin up and jumped into bed. Moments later, I heard a car engine under our window and that familiar laugh echoed through the quite streets. My wife and I raced to window. Standing next to the vehicle was the woman I saw earlier that day. "Say it," I thought. Robin walked along the sidewalk and into the hotel enterance.

"It really was Robin!," my wife said, excitedly.

"I should have said it," I replied.

"What?"

"She would have talked about it on Howard....I should have said it," I bemoaned.

"What?" A feeling of depression sank over me. "What are you talking about?"

"I should have yelled, Baba Booey!"