The
Menards Guy was not dropped. He was diagnosed with
cancer and had to take a more-or-less
permanent hiatus from the ads.
His real name is Ray Szmanda, and he is a legend. He smiles.. er.. grins with his teeth, and shouts stuff like "Save BIG on BATTERIES from RAYOVAC!!!" We all love the Ray, and we hope he's alright.
A picture of the Menards Guy:
http://www.psych.nwu.edu/~ghand/ray.jpg
Listen to Michael Feldman interview Ray at
http://notmuch.com/Audio/RAfiles/place981205.ram