Thanks for the memories, Don

With Don Shelby's retirement eight days away, I asked former and current colleagues to share their favorite anecdotes about the longtime WCCO anchor. But first, one from me.

In May 1997, I traveled to New York City for a special episode of "The Late Show With David Letterman" featuring an audience made up entirely of Minnesotans. Kirby Puckett was the primary guest, but Shelby almost stole the show with a series of "breaking news" cutaways from the WCCO studios in which he hammed it up, declaring that he had a gopher in his pants named Carlos.

Shortly after the show, I found myself talking to a gentleman who kept going on and on about Shelby's performance, pronouncing it one of the funniest things he had seen in years. That person was Letterman.

Figures. I finally get a chance to interview Dave, and all he can do is talk about Shelby.

Now some memories from the A-listers:

Paul Douglas, former meteorologist: "Don offered to come to my cabin back in 2005 to help me cut up some firewood. I thought he'd bring a chainsaw and a sandwich. Instead, he drove up in a trailer loaded with gear and started climbing trees, lopping off branches 50 feet in the air. I was on the ground taking pictures while Don hurled down obscenities at me for sitting on my ass."

Amelia Santaniello, current co-anchor: "Don does not eat healthy. He goes to the vending machine, gets two packs of doughnuts, some candy and that's dinner. You can see him going through drawers for food. One time, when he was doing radio, he talked about a banana he had picked up. Later in the day, I ran into a woman in the foyer of the station who stopped me and said, 'Listen, will you tell Don Shelby that that was my banana that he ate?'"

Dave Nimmer, former reporter and associate news director: "We were in the Boundary Waters when we dumped our canoe on the Canadian side. There was a logjam so we had a hard time keeping our heads above water. When we came up sputtering, the first words from Shelby were, 'Nim, are you OK?' and I said, 'Don, are you there?' I was so proud of us coming up with our heads together. On that same trip, I woke up one morning and found him cooking a blueberry breakfast roll in his reflector oven, 80 miles from the nearest road. Crazy."

Pat Miles, former co-anchor: "After Don and I were doing the weekend news together, he started the I-Team and I started co-anchoring with Dave Moore, but our desks were still together in this little room, along with the other two members of the I-Team. One day I was told I couldn't go into my office yet. The boys were voting on whether or not I could be trusted to work in the same room with them. I got their blessing."

Mark Rosen, current sports anchor: "We've watched every Final Four game together since we met, starting with maybe the most famous one in which Magic Johnson went up against Larry Bird. At halftime, he grabbed a napkin and started diagramming plays that Indiana State should be running. That was my first introduction to Don's I-got-this-taken-care-of attitude."