I'm proud of how many of our region celebrity claim-to-fames I've gotten to interview during my 11 years with The Times. Besides the late Orville Redenbacher, I've met and interviewed Harvey, Ill., native and comedian Tom Dreesen (who played the same stage as stained "Seinfeld" star Michael Richards, right before the man known to most as TV's "Kramer" took the stage and launched into his now-embarrassing racial tirade last weekend); Lowell's "Laugh-In" legend Jo Anne Worley; Highland's queen of cosmetics Georgette Mosbacher; East Chicago's game show favorite Betsy Palmer; and Gary acting legend Karl Malden, among others. But unfortunately, I missed my chance to interview Hammond's Jean Shepherd, who gave us the holiday screen staple "A Christmas Story." He died at age 78 at his home in Florida in October 1999. He didn't get back to our region too often. His final visits were in 1995, when Shepherd received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Indiana University Northwest, and in 1996, when he returned to Hammond to give a talk to aspiring student authors at Purdue University Calumet at the annual Sigrid Stark Writing Awards. At that time, I had just been hired by The Times and was covering news stories, not the features beat. But New York publicist Joe Barth has the next best thing to a face-to-face meeting with Shepherd, whose famous voice is heard narrating the favorite 1981 film based on his book. After the success of the February release of two digitally remastered audio CD collections from Radio Again featuring Shepherd's broadcasts, Barth said two more are now available. According to Barth, the radio programs (from the 1960s) in these collections were long lost and forgotten until rediscovered during a warehouse inventory. "Jean Shepherd: Life Is" (8 performances on 8 audio CDs) and "Jean Shepherd: Security Blankets" (4 performances on 4 audio CDs) are Shepherd at his best. In "Life Is," Shepherd ponders such topics as forbidden magazines, a wonderful reminiscence of playing tuba in the school band, his old man's love of Oldsmobiles, chauffer-driven Ferraris, daily life in his hometown in Hammond and the insidiousness of the business of public relations. "Security Blankets" finds Shep expounding on the joy of working in radio, monster movies, the beauty of the kazoo, his quick-change artistry as a theater performer and his analysis on what he describes as "human illusions, foibles and impenetrable human complexity." The collections sell for $16.95 for "Blankets" and $28.95 for "Life Is." For more information, call (800) 344-5985 or visit www.RadioAgain.com. Another name I received a great message last week from a dedicated grandmother. Apparently, when I mentioned the names of local students from our region featured at this year's Purdue Christmas Concert, I left out her grandson, who wasn't included in the press notice I received. Joan Zajeski of Crete, Ill., writes: "My grandson, Randy Sarnowski, is a freshman at Purdue and is with the group singing. He attended St. John the Evangelist in St. John until his family moved to Pentwater, Mich."