Inspired by Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken, George offered a 'What If' hotline for people who wanted to wax hypothetical about what could have been if past (or future?) events played out differently. Some of the callers' scenarios follow:
What if...

• the South had prevailed in the Civil War?
• civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks had not refused to give up her seat aboard a public bus?
• the Beatles had never come to America in 1964?
• all of us got together and didn't buy gas for one day?
• the world had listened to doctors who proclaimed Hitler insane in 1934?
• Robert Kennedy had not been ushered through the kitchen pantry in the Ambassador Hotel the day he was assassinated?
• the founding fathers had voted German as the official language of the U.S.?

Also during Open Lines a caller from Hot Springs, Arkansas shared his penchant for microwaving RFID tags in order to watch them "go up in a puff of smoke." Don from Anaheim recently noticed that his motorcycle's gas mileage has dropped from 41 to 34 mpg. He said his wife also reported a reduction in gas mileage for her Saab. Greg, a practicing Wiccan reverend, recalled his experience at a haunted 'haunted house' built in an cement factory. He said he performed a ritual there and felt a burning sensation in his feet. He later found out that an employee of the factory had burned to death.

UFO Crash Retrieval Conference

In the first hour, reporter and editor for Earthfiles.com, Linda Moulton Howe presented interviews from the 3rd Annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference, the first with author Jim Marrs, the second with researcher Richard Dolan. Marrs discussed one of the oldest UFO crashes on record which occured in Aurora, Texas in 1897. He said a newspaper from that time described the crash of a silver cigar-shaped object. The paper also commented on the pilot of the UFO, who reportedly was "not an inhabitant of this world" and had been buried in a local cemetery.

Dolan said he became interested in the field of ufology after reading the Twining Memo, in which U.S. General Twining detailed the reality of UFOs in the '40s. According to Dolan, the advanced vehicles reportedly seen around Area 51 are based on alien technology recovered from UFO crashes. He also talked about Ben Rich, the former head of Lockheed's Skunk Works, who was of the opinion that we already have the ability for interstellar travel. Dolan believes there has been a big government coverup regarding UFOs, but thinks truth will eventually be known.