On Monday, Erica took me along as her date on the annual Goodman Theatre staff boat outing. I've been out on the lake on a sailboat, but never on one of these cruise boats -- it was the same kind of flat, open boats they use for the Chicago architecture cruises (and yes, the same kind of boat that just got Dave Matthews Band's tour bus sewage dumped on it -- which we joked about everytime we went under a bridge.) We just cruised around the lake inside the breakwater until it got dark and then went up and down the Chicago river once. Plenty of snacks and beer and jello shots(!). Oh, those jello shots were nasty.

At one point, Erica started doing the Macarena, as she is wont to do (not that the song was playing -- she's just like that). Her boss' boyfriend bet her $10 that she couldn't get "a bunch of people to do the Macarena."

"Easy. But how many is 'a bunch'?"

"Twenty-five."

"Twenty-five? That's a lot."

"Well, ten. But one of them has to be Matthew Modine."

Matthew Modine? Well, the first show in the Goodman's 2004/5 season is the world premiere of Arthur Miller's new play Finishing the Picture and a bunch of the all-star cast were along for the cruise: Scott Glenn, Linda Lavin (Alice!), Stacy Keach, Frances Fisher (Kate Winslet's mom in Titanic -- our friend Clint gave her a cigarette and then told us the story seven times that night -- "Frances Fisher bummed a smoke off of me!" "Yes, Clint."), and, yes, Matthew Modine.

Erica made a bee-line for Mr. Modine.

"Hi. Excuse me. I was just wondering if..."

"I'm not going to do the Macarena."

"OK, but it'll win me a bet and I'm poor."

"Umm... no."

In the end, Erica got about 12 people, none of whom was Matthew Modine, to do a full 'square' of the Macarena (again, not to the actual song). The challenger compromised and gave her $5 (which we blew on video games at ESPN Zone after the cruise).

I suppose Matthew Modine can't win. If he doesn't do the Macarena, he looks like a jerk. If he does the Macarena, there'd be a picture out there of him looking as dorky as we do:

photo by Jodi Brown

photo by Jodi Brown