BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Two good reasons not to break into cars in Northern Kentucky's MainStrasse area: Rocco and Bosco.
Rocco is Rocco Castellano, owner of Rocco's Personal Training, an ex-boxer and a body builder who has built so well he's going to drag a school bus July 21 as a promotion for the opera's Samson and Delilah. Bosco is his dog.
But this is about cars. A few months ago, Castellano got fed up with neighborhood auto break-ins. So he and two friends formed the MainStrasse Safety Patrol.
"The difference between us and a Neighborhood Watch, is the Watch usually doesn't confront criminals," he says. "We confront." Trust us, he's not someone you want to be confronted by. We're talking a big dude.
Case in point: A week ago he was walking Bosco and saw a break-in. "The car window was broken and the guy was in there scrounging. He saw me and started running. I chased him, tackled him and held him till the cops came."
And what about Bosco, the terrier-lab mix? "At my side the whole time, running with me. I'm going to buy him a little black beret and start calling him Safety Pup."
So how's the track record? When Safety Patrol started, Castellano says, "there were 30 break-ins in three weeks right alongside my building. After we started, we went almost six weeks without one."
This confrontation bit is ugly, but it works, even though the police are against the whole idea: "We love the idea of people watching out," says Lt. Col. Steve Schmidt, "but we want them to call us rather than risk their lives. You never know who's armed, and property just isn't worth dying over."
LIPPY DOLLS
OK, so maybe everyone in town wasn't wondering, but hard-core theater goers were: Why do the voices of certain Silly Slammers sound familiar? Have you met them yet? Slammers are roly-poly bean bags -- with faces -- that people are calling "Beanies with attitude," because they snap out some pretty snippy phrases when you slam them with your hand.
One of the voices is that of Cincinnati actress Kate Wilford. Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati audiences know her from this season's Death Defying Acts (she was the foul-mouth, drunken shrink) and from last year's Keeping the Faith.
And now, as Ms. Slammer. She's the voice of Tiffany, Pinky and Administrative Assistant, with such lines as "Whatever!" "Loser!" and "You want it when? -- Ha! ha! ha!"
That's not all: She has more Slammer voices in the works: Easter Egg, Easter Bunny and mayhaps a Brown-nosed Reindeer.
Oh yeah, and Rude Dude, who will be out sometime soon. "At first they told me, "Go into the recording booth screaming expletives.' I thought, "Wow, here I am, a mother of two and I have two jobs that pay me to curse.'
"I did as they asked, but it turned out too strong. Rude Dude will still come out I guess, but we recorded something new."
Here? When?
Speaking of mummies (well, somebody must have been) . . . Did anyone catch Paul Harvey's Cincinnati segment last week?
It was based on an incident at the Cincinnati Art Museum: A docent was leading a tour of the Egyptian section and talking about the mummy. Because of the mummy's age, the docent explained that it's possible Moses himself may have seen the mummy before he got the linen wrap. As the tour continued, the docent overheard a history-impaired soul say, "I didn't know Moses was ever in Cincinnati."
Next thing you know, the story turns up on Harvey's radio show. And that, as Harvey likes to say, is the . . . rest . . . of . . . the . . . story.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE