Daniel replies:

The great Jean Shepherd narrated, (and wrote), A Christmas Story, as everyone but imdb.com must know, and the commercial, in the great tradition of ripping Shep off, uses someone who sounds a little like him. I sound a little like him, 'cause of similar timbre, and also similar regional accent. And it was a thrill to be a commentator on All Things Considered after he had that gig for a while. Not exactly a thrill, but was a big honor to write an obit for him for the NY Times magazine section. There are some Jean Shepherd sites, where you can probably hear sound clips--but nothing can compare to the days when you could tune him in live on the radio, late at night, on WOR out of NY, a station whose signal carried to many parts of the country. Excelsior.