This is the story of the “A Christmas Story” house, a trip we have to call “not so nerdy” because this movie is such a part of pop culture. An enterprising fan bought the house in Cleveland where the movie was made, and now thousands of people pay to visit it each year, including my friend Nancy and me in the fall of 2010.

As you might imagine, we come across quite a few ghost stories on our Nerd Trips, but this is a story of my own “ghostly” encounter at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas.

It’s the event where hundreds of people sit in the broiling Texas heat to watch a high stakes verbal sparring match of puns, words and wits. That’s right, we went to the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championship in Austin, Texas!