Nostrabobus' defective crystal ball

Okay, so Nostrabobus predicted that Gus Hall would win the 2004 presidential election. So sue me. Nobody told me Gus Hall died in October 2000. I just assumed Gus Hall would always be running for president the way I just assumed the Old Man of the Mountain would always gaze down from the White Mountains of New Hampshire. (Well, at least he got stamped on the new New Hampshire quarter before he vanished in the middle of the night.)

Gus, the son of Finnish immigrants, was born in a tiny town in northern Minnesota. A couple of years after he died -- i.e., not too long ago -- somebody on that little town's council introduced a measure to re-name a street "Gus Hall Street." The debate down at town hall went something like this:

COUNCILMAN B: Are you fuckin' nuts? He was the head of the goddam Communist Party, fer Christ's sake!

COUNCILMAN A: But he's the only guy from this one-horse town that anybody ever heard of!

They ended up not re-naming the street.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) was made in the suburbs of Minneapolis, and Minnesota lore looms large in it. In one episode, Mike and the robots are watching the crappy sci-fi movie, and in one scene, a slick-looking young blow-dry guy steps to a podium and says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my great honor and privilege to introduce the next president of the United States ..."

MST3K ROBOT: GUS HALL!