My mom is on vacation with the mother of the person whose alleged movie rating title is in question in Quiz XII. I won't say where they are, to protect the vacation hot spots of my mom or the person she ran into, except that it's in the southeast quadrant of the mainland U.S.

Last night, after a long search for a restaurant to eat dinner in, my mom and her friend found a nice little place and sat down to eat.

Mom looks over at the next table, and sees a familiar face. A face which an even more familiar voice often emerges from, on summer nights in New England, since 1983.

That's right, dining with his wife a few feet from my mom, hundreds of miles from home, is the voice of the Boston Red Sox, Joe Castiglione.

Mom quickly went into action, asking her waiter to ask the white-haired gentleman if his name is Joe--even though she's 99 percent sure it's him. The waiter asks, and Castig responds, "Who wants to know." The waiter points at my mom. "That lady."

Joe acknowledges, and my mom and friend settle in for a 15-minute fireside chat with the Castigliones.

She said they were really nice. Joe even flashed "the ring," which he apparently usually where upside down to avoid drawing a crowd. Mom said it was incredible to see the ring on someone's hand. They also talked about their Connecticut backgrounds, and 1960s CT high school basketball.

The best part? My mom had Joe do a personalized autograph--for me! It says "Can you believe it?" How cool is that? I'll have to scan that one when it gets back to the northeast.