In this week's episode, we offer a small tribute to one of my heroes, Jerry Garcia.  It was 14 years ago on August 9 that Jerry went to that great Shakedown Street in the sky.  So, for NOTA #106, I was able to string a few completely unrelated stories together in his honor.

To be slightly more relevant and timely, this episode was actually planned for last week.  However, technical difficulties pushed back our schedule (read: Paul the editor had to go out of town).  Still, this thing was already written and we figured we might as well go ahead with it, now. Better late than never.

Also worth mentioning... long-time viewers may notice our fancy new studio.  Technically, it's not a studio.  Even more technically, it's not all that fancy.  It's the CNN.com employee lounge – those are real co-workers playing FIFA '09 in the background.  Slackers.

I suppose that's sort of the beauty behind NOTA.  We're totally rogue.  And by "rogue" I mean poorly-budgeted.  And by "poorly-budgeted" I mean we have no budget.  But, that never stops us – we actually once shot an entire episode up on the CNN Center roof.  Why?  Because it was a nice day, Paul found a hidden stairway, and, well, it was there.

So, enjoy this (loosely) Jerry Garcia-themed episode of News of the Absurd, shot in front of a rather inattentive and unaware live studio audience in the employee lounge.