"the stakes couldn't be higher"

On a slightly less serious note...

My station of choice here in Seattle is the Mountain, 103.7 f.m. Their morning and afternoon DJs have both been on the air for 10ish years - same station, no less - and I've been listening at least that long, so there's way too much history there.

Their morning DJ is a guy named Marty Reimer, who has the minor historical distinction of being the DJ (not the police or the paramedics, mind you) the electrician called when he found Kurt Cobain dead. Be that as it may, he's pretty irreverant and funny. He and his new morning partner, Jodi, hatched a deal where anytime they are interviewing to someone on the air - usually politicos - and they say some variation on the "the stakes couldn't be higher" - someone wins a $25 steakhouse certificate. I swear, right after they made up this contest - first person they had on the air (which was a rep from the Clinton campaign), lo and behold she says, "the stakes couldn't be higher." Both Marty and Jodi had to work hard not to lose it.

This reminds me of something we would do in college: play professor baseball. Everyone has their stock phrases, so we would assign them as singles, doubles, triples, home runs... even outs. Your half-inning was either class, or three outs, whichever came first. Laugh if you will, but it made you pay attention far more than you normally would...and a good way to keep in touch with your friends in other classes. :) Nowadays, we could have texted scores to one another.

Ah, it's good to have some fun messing with those who think we're taking them seriously.

*Update on March 31*: today they played a clip from the Kansas coach about going to the Final Four and he said, "it's great to be playing for the highest of stakes!" Ding ding ding, you win! Brilliant.