After more than twenty years, the public face of Menards is going off the air ... for a while at least. The septugenarian Ray Szmanda (zih-MAN-duh) is known for his grey hair, his glasses, his crooked smile, and his LOUD delivery. Back in the 1970s, Menards was looking for another Pat Summerall, and picked the broadcast veteran as its pitchman. Since then, he's done an estimated 35-hundred spots seen tens of thousands of times in nine states. Szmanda, who lives in rural Wisconsin, is taking at least six-months off for health reasons. He's mystified by all the attention, which he says has really taken off in the last five years or so.