Pubdate: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2002 Hearst Communications Inc. Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 Author: Josh Sens STONER DUDE QUITE A VOCAL RAIDERS FAN Nearly a week after Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson delivered his powerful hit, Michael M. of Alameda leaned back and took one of his own. "You can try to be philosophical about it," he said, drifting through the misty rings of memory, "but basically it all comes down to this: The Raiders got robbed." Michael M. is not a bitter man. He is not an angry man. But he is a rabid Raiders fan, known to local radio listeners by his mellow-sounding moniker: Stoner Dude. Over the past two years, he has created a cult following on the Ticket 1050, the all-sports radio station, which he calls most afternoons to share his views on everything from the nickel back to the nickel bag. He often signs on with a signature sound: a deep inhalation on a bong. "Am I really smoking? Maybe, maybe not," says Stoner Dude. "I like to leave that as a mystery." Like a poorly executed screen pass, Stoner Dude's character was slow to develop. It was born a few years back, when retired basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was pulled over on suspicion of driving under the influence of marijuana. Hearing Jabbar get raked over on the sports call-in airwaves, Michael M. rang to his defense. "I had to," he says. "They were giving stoners a bad name. " Former Ticket 1050 host Bob Frantz encouraged Stoner Dude to keep calling. The name got known, and now he gets recognized on the street. "People will come up and say, 'Hey, what's your real name?' " says Stoner Dude, who often wears a Raiders jersey with his radio handle emblazoned on back. "I say, My first name's Stoner, my second name's Dude." The past few days, of course, his thoughts have been consumed by Saturday's controversial call in the game against the New England Patriots, which sent the Raiders' season up in smoke. Stoner Dude wasn't hallucinating -- he saw what every Raiders fan saw. Charles Woodson hit Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Tom Brady appeared to fumble the ball. "To say that wasn't a fumble is an atrocity," says Stoner Dude. "But you can't dwell on the anger or the frustration. One world, one love. And you can quote me on that." - --- BURNING DESIRE: The story of Stoner Dude helps dispel a nasty stereotype -- that all Raiders fans are drunken rowdies. Clearly, some prefer to smoke. It also cuts against a common perception -- that stoner dudes lack motivation. Michael M., for one, hopes to parlay his pot-smoking persona into a profession in TV or radio. "I'd like to be an on-air personality," he says. "I'm a stoner with ambition." - --- MORE THAN A PRETTY FACE: While we're at it, let's do away with another misperception -- that cheerleaders aren't the brightest lights on the field. Piedmont High's cheerleading squad just earned top academic honors from the North Coast Section, the regional organization of high school athletics, for compiling a group grade-point average of 3.48. Piedmont's football team followed close behind, with a 3.02. Gimme an A . . . well, make that a B. - --- GIMME AN A-FRAME: Or, better yet, gimme an arch-shaped Thermoshelter, a highly unusual, highly heat-efficient home that Point Richmond architect Don Mill is helping his brother, Ian, build in Arlington, near the El Cerrito border. Don holds the patent on the Thermoshelter, and the one he is building is the first of its kind in the United States. Though the construction material looks like Styrofoam, it's actually a more environmentally friendly form of insulation -- one part resin, 50 parts air. To learn more about it, check out Mill's Web site: www.thermoshelter.com. - --- GIMME SHELTER: Or, better yet, give me tighter surveillance. So says Leah Kopels of Oakland, who wonders if post-Sept. 11 Bay Bridge security is slacking off. A few months ago, drivers got accustomed to seeing armed National Guardsmen standing alongside Humvees near the toll plaza. But last week, Kopels says, she saw a lone sentry leaning against a Jeep. What's next? she worries. A hippie reclining in a VW Beetle? Or maybe Stoner Dude sleeping in a van? - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom