Question of the Week

Brad, Bettendorf, IA
Subj: The Kutch
Is it true that Ashton Kutcher used to be a pretty decent athlete?

That’s correct, Brad. Long before he began swapping spit with Demi Moore, Kutcher was a middle linebacker and tight end at Clear Creek-Amana High School in Tiffin, Iowa, where he helped the Clippers win two games over a three-year span. The Punk’d star still follows the game closely and is a self professed super fan of the Chicago Bears. “I consider myself the 12th man, he says. “I'm a member of the team. I actually feel I should be on salary.” Kutcher insists his interest in Da Bears isn’t a passing fancy. “For 22 years I have bled blue and orange,” he says. “Through the Harbaugh, Tomczak, Krenzel, Salaam, Enis pain.” If that’s anything like the pain of sitting through The Butterfly Effect, it must be intense.

Question of the Week

Jonah, Bloomington, IL
Subj: Dino
Is it true that Dean Martin was a boxer before be became an entertainer?

That’s correct, Jonah. Dino was a high school dropout who turned to boxing at the age of 15 in order to make ends meet. Unfortunately Martin didn’t have much of a feel for the sweet science and, as he recalls, he "won all but 11 of 12 fights." His brief time in the ring also left him with a broken nose, a permanently split lip and several sets of broken knuckles. Although his tenure as a professional pugilist was short-lived, Martin returned to boxing several years later when he moved to New York. According to legend, he and his roommate, Sonny King, used to cobble together rent money by charging friends a dollar each to watch them box in their living room. Comedian Denis Leary remembers talking to Martin about his amateur face-offs. “It’s classic. He said they’d get like 15 or 20 people a night,” Leary recalls. “That’s how they’d pay the rent. That’s old school.”