As promised, here's my brother's tale. Take it away, Brad....

...

So my buddy Mike and I were on the town one evening in the fall of 1996. After a couple of beers at a local hangout in Santa Monica, we decided to upscale the night a bit and go down to Schatzi On Main in Santa Monica.

Schatzi's is Schwarzenegger's restaurant, so Mike and I figured we could at least get a decent Austrian/German beer. When we arrived, it turned out that it was Oktoberfest-time and Arnold was setting things up with special live music and special Oktoberfest kegs flown in from the Old Country just for the occasion.

As we bellied up to the bar for a couple of $9 beers (Arnold might be a Conservative, but he's definitely a Capitalist), Mike asked the bartender "Where's Arnold?" The sudsman said, "Oh, he's in back." and nonchalantly pointed his thumb over his shoulder toward the back of the dining area.

I decided right then and there that we needed to say hello, so we headed toward the back. We got about halfway there, when a couple of security dudes let us know that the back area was off limits "for a while."

We weren't going anywhere, and decided to wait. Half an hour and half a Macanudo later, Mike and I were positioned perfectly to say hello if Arnold decided to call it a night before we did, and our patience was rewarded -- Arnold was working the room and headed in our direction. He shook a few hands but mostly waved that well-practiced celebrity wave. I was a bit surprised by one thing - he's only about 5'11" or 6'0" - not as big as he's made out to be on the bigscreen. At 6'5" I towered over him.

As Arnold got to where we were, I popped up and walked over to him and stuck out my hand. "Arnold, I'm a big fan" with that half stogie clenched in my teeth. He shook my hand and replied, "Ja, thank you." and before he could move off I added "..and a Republican." The double-take was the best - he smiled and said in his best Austro-English:

"Absolutely."

...

Sweet.

Posted by Russ at 10:30 PM, August 19, 2003 in Politics