Friday Happy Hour: Dream Maker

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Friday Happy Hour. I keep busier in my current job than I did in my old one, so I can’t find the time in the same way. Come to think of it, it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything on my blog. Maybe I should start it up again, eh?  At any rate, as usual, the questions are from Mental Floss, the answers are mine…

1. We had our company holiday party last night. Nobody embarrassed themselves too much — or if they did, they hid it — and everyone was in at a good time this morning. So I’m going to have to look to you guys for stories. What’s your best (or worst) office holiday party experience?

I haven’t worked many jobs that have actually had holiday parties. I’ll have to go with the holiday party plan in my last job, where it meant they’d give us lunch, we’d do a white elephant, but all while staying at our desks working… because God forbid there ever be a moment where someone stopped working.

 

2. If, for reasons not entirely clear, you had to listen to one Christmas song on repeat all December, what would it be?

I can’t think of one that would make me not go insane, so I’d go for the most wonderfully insane possible and do Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.  You can say there’s no such thing as santa, but as for me and Grandpa, we believe.

 

3. “Margaritaville” has a “lost verse” that Jimmy Buffett sometimes adds back in. (He found it, apparently.)

Old men in tank tops,
Cruisin’ the gift shops,
Checkin’ out chiquitas, down by the shore
They dream about weight loss,
Wish they could be their own boss
Those three-day vacations can be (or “become”) such a bore 

What other lost verses do you know? Either stuff legitimately cut from a song early on, or extra verses occasionally added in.

I always think of the Garth Brooks ones. Everyone knows the extra verse for Friends in Low Places, but I also dig the extra one for The Thunder Rolls. Even if I am a pacifist.

 

4. If you could rename one kitchen utensil, what would it be? What would you call it?

The cork screw. It is now known as the dream maker.

 

5. Do you know of any unique charities that deserve more attention? Either unique in how they raise money or in what that money’s for.

I’m a fan of Laundry Love.  Look it up in your area.

Joe Frazier

“Smokin'” Joe Frazier
January 12, 1944 – November 7, 2011

You can map out a fight plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you’re down to your reflexes – that means your [preparation:]. That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you’re going to get found out now, under the bright lights.

-Smokin’ Joe Frazier

 

They Call Him “Sweetness”

I was 7 years old when the ’85 Bears captivates the nation and became the true America’s team for a year.  No one could resist the charms of  this incredible cast of characters, from the Punky QB known as McMahon, The Fridge (The Rookie), Samurai Mike, and our man Dent.1  But no one was more bigger than life than the ultimate good guy, and arguably the greatest running back to ever play the game… Walter Payton.

Sweetness.

When deciding which Bears jersey to buy I had more options than seemingly possible.  Ditka’s 89,  Butkus’ 51, Urlacher’s 54, Dent’s 95, Singletary’s 50… but there was no question which jersey I had to buy.

With the new book coming out about Payton comes new revelations.  He was depressed.  His marriage was falling apart. He used drugs to cope with it.  In an age in which we know far too much about our athletic heroes,2 Payton left this world long before that could happen.  We had no idea that 12 years later suddenly we’d start to have some new revelations.  But without a doubt, it doesn’t matter.

Walter Payton is still Sweetness to me.  When he died I was in college and it was the first time I ever cried thinking about someone’s death whom I had never met.  I still remember that day, sitting in my dorm room and learning about the loss of a childhood hero by way of SportsCenter.3  But I don’t remember him as the sick man who died far too young.  And I don’t remember him with the sad, dark side of his life that we now know about.  I remember him now, and always, as Sweetness.  One of the best to ever play the game.

 

 

  1. I assume you caught that each of those descriptions come directly from the greatest rap song ever written. []
  2. Twitter has created unprecedented access to athletes, and with it has come the sad reality that they aren’t the amazing people we want them to be.  I follow them for the nuggets of interesting stuff, and spend the majority of the time often disappointed in who they are off the court or field.  In Payton’s day this simply didn’t exist, and so to me he’ll always be the guy diving over the pile for the touchdown. []
  3. Even that would be different today. I’d have known instantly on Twitter if it happened today. []

TV Rankings: Week 1

There’s a part of me that thinks maybe I shouldn’t watch so much tv.  Then there’s a part of me that thinks I should embrace it.  This was an idea I had last year, and am finally putting into effect this year.  Because everything in my world is a competition, why not rank the tv shows I watch, too?
So here are the rules…
  • I must have watched the show in order to be ranked.
  • If it ranks too low, it falls into the dead list, which means I’m officially giving up on the show.
  • All shows are for a given week Sunday – Saturday
  • If I’m missing a show that you think I should watch, let me know, but understand that your taste in shows may be far inferior to mine, and I may not accept your challenge.
  • These are only my opinions, there is no panel of experts, but given that they are my opinion, they must be correct.
So here are the rankings for week 1:
  1. Raising Hope: Prodigy | Every other returning show this week seemed to start slow and feel the need to establish a ton of story lines.  Raising Hope nailed it with a quick cold open that explained the show to any new viewers, then delivered everything a Raising Hope fan was looking for.
  2. Parks & Recreation: I’m Leslie Knope | Had the most quotable line of the week: “Your inbox is lit-er-alee… full of penises.”  I was disappointed in the Tammy 1 reveal, but Ron Swanson made up for it because he has the toes he has… not to mention Jerry’s large… well…1
  3. Community: Biology 101 | 4 words: Cold open musical number
  4. Modern Family: Dude Ranch / When Good Kids Go Bad | Exactly what we expect from Modern Family.  Solid laughs, no much story.  It’s definitely fun to have Lily as a character now, instead of just a prop.
  5. New Girl: Pilot | I saw a clip of this show and thought I may give it a chance. So I did. The same clip was 100x better in context. This show turned out surprisingly good.  We’ll see if it sustains it.  Also, I totally want to date the new girl.
  6. Free Agents: What I Did for Work | Fact: Hank Azaria is awesome.  So is the weird assistant woman.
  7. The Office: The List | I know we’re all supposed to hate The Office, but I don’t. I don’t like that the resolved everything in a 30 second voice over, though. But Michael Scott wasn’t the only great character.  The rest are all still here, including Gabe, who I thought wouldn’t be.  Not sure Andy Bernard can maintain the manager spot, but he came through in the story.
  8. Up All Night: Cool Neighbors | Let’s see how long this show can sustain itself based on my lifelong crush on Christina Applegate.
  9. Person of Interest: Pilot | I’m not sure exactly where the interest is.  I expected more from a show starring Ben Linus and Jesus. Not dead list yet, but it may head there…
Whitney: Pilot | I made it through the first act and it got deleted from the DVR at the first commercial break.  It’s a bad sign when the thing I liked most about it was Whitney saying, “This show is filmed before a live studio audience.”2
Best line of the week:
 If I wanted an A-flat minor I would have had you go play with your girlfriend’s chest.
Mr. Jingles via Maw Maw on Raising Hope
  1. “That man has the largest penis I have ever seen. []
  2. Please, for the love of God, let the 3 camera sitcom die! Why scream low production value and rattle of predictable lines all the time? If I want that I can just watch 2 1/2 Men. []

Never forget this…

Has it really been 10 years?

Social networks are covered today with “Never Forget” and “Where were you when…?”  On a day like today we can’t help but look back. Our ongoing process of healing demands that we focus on a tragedy that for a brief moment, which felt like an eternity, united these States in such a way that only tragedy can do.  Every one of us stopped what we were doing as our lives became one collective being struggling through the inevitable emotions of anger, doubt, confusion, and, most powerfully, sorrow.  Some of us had direct connections to someone who was lost or affected by a loss.  Some of us were connected only through a world wide swell of emotion.  But each one of us felt it.  And that is why each one of us remembers today.  Each one of us will not forget.  Each one of us knows exactly where we were…

There is plenty of flag waving, and patriotic tributes.  In a secularized world there seems to be no greater symbol to rally behind than the flag of a nation.  Our nation.  We draw in praise for our military which, in short order, was drawn to war.  But remember, today, that we don’t pledge to “Never forget” out of a decree for a justice that can never be achieved, but instead we never forget the unspeakable tragedy that accompanies the absence of peace.

We knew there was conflict in the world.  We knew of wars.  We knew of hatred.  But we didn’t know we were a part of it until that day 10 years ago.  And now we’ll never forget that we live in a world that is characterized by the absence of peace.  We know because that day each one of us felt it.  We were united by it.  So as we mourn those losses still felt 10 years later, and wrestle with that collective emotion once more, may we no longer be united by the absence of peace, but instead be united for it.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called the children of God.1

 

  1. Matthew 5:9 from the NET version []

Friday Happy Hour: The Edge

I haven’t done one of these in a few weeks. Sitting around on a beautiful day off, turned rainy-haily, turned thunder-sunny, I should probably do a Friday Happy Hour.  The questions, as always, come from Mental Floss’ great blog… the answers, as always, come from Mike Tufano’s great mind.

1. On Monday, September 10, 2001, I started a job with Duke University’s Office of Student Development. I was paid $9.68/hour to answer the phones and greet visitors and, on my second day, try to convince panic-stricken parents all over the world that Durham, North Carolina, was not under attack (as far as I knew). What were you doing that Tuesday morning?

I was teaching high school that morning. I didn’t find out until first period ended.  I spent the rest of the day watching coverage with my classes and answering what questions I could for them.  Clearly this was more important than a day of high school math.  I made the call to cancel the volleyball match I was supposed to coach that evening, and finally made it home where I could deal with the emotion myself.

2. By now most new college students are settled into their dorms and getting into a routine, but still feeling a little overwhelmed. If you could go back and give your one-month-into-college self any advice, what would it be?

GO TO CLASS!  You can’t coast through this and ace everything like high school.  STUDY!

3. There’s a good chance some of you have added children to your lives since the last time I asked this question: what children’s books do you recommend? New ones, classics, whatever you like.

No question… Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic,1 and Falling Up by Shel Silverstein.  (And soon to be Every Thing On It)

  1. My aunt Patti gave me these two books for two Christmas gifts.  I still have my original copies and still pull them out to read them.  I’m now working on getting them for my nephews as birthday gifts []

Did someone say football?!?

Hey, guess what?  It’s football time!

Every year I set up a few football contests1, and I want you to be a part.  These aren’t fantasy football leagues, they require a lot less time, knowledge, and as many people as possible can take part.  The more people we have doing them, the better.

This year I named them all after our podcast, “The Salute.”  But don’t worry, you’re not required to actually listen in order to play2.  3 games.  Join 1, 2, or all 3.  All are run  through Yahoo, so you’ll need a Yahoo account to play with us, but who doesn’t have that already, right?

Survival Football

Survival football is the easiest to do.  It’s just one pick per week.  You pick the winner of one NFL game.  If you win, you stay in the next week.  If  your team loses, you’re out.  You can’t use the same team twice, so choose wisely.  Once everyone drops out, the last person left wins.  Usually we play two or three times each season, depending on how long everyone lasts each time.

Sign up here
Group ID:  9091
Password:  gobears

 

College Football Pick’em

Just what it sounds like.  Pick the winners of college football games.  This league is set to include all games each week within the AP Top 25, all games including a Big 12 team, as well as a few other interesting games that may come up outside of that.

Each game will be picked against the spread to make it more interesting… otherwise college games can get a pit too easy to pick.  So easy to pick, even a Mangino can do it3.  If you forget to make your picks one week, or just totally botch it up, your lowest weekly score of the season gets dropped.

Sign up here
Group ID:   7461
Password:  gostate

 

 NFL Pick’em

Finally, we do an NFL Pick’em.  In this one you choose the winner of every game each week.  Then you rank them in order of your confidence in your picks.  The one you’re most confident in gets the most points, least confident gets the least.  Sounds easy enough.  Again, if you forget to make your picks one week, or just totally botch it up, your lowest weekly score of the season gets dropped.

Sign up here
Group ID:  22020
Password:  gobears

  1. unlike my NCAA Tourney contest, I don’t have any cool prizes to give away for these. If that changes, you’ll be the first to know []
  2. But if you do listen, you’ll probably prove you’re smarter than everyone else, and have a distinct advantage []
  3. Just kidding.  He can’t do much of anything []

Friday Happy Hour: San Dimas High School football Rules!

Ok, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted this, or anything, so we’re back to a little Friday Happy Hour time.  Questions ripped from the pages of one of my favorite blog/magazines out there:  Mental Floss.

1. Under Colin’s post about items you shouldn’t microwave, regular _flosser Bert left this comment:

“My brothers once tried to make a candle by using crayons as a base (they were about 10). After a large microwave fire resulted, we knew not to try that again.”

That seems like an interesting topic, so let’s co-opt it here: what are some things you learned the hard way?

It doesn’t matter how good of a swimmer you are.  If you want to keep all your teeth, don’t dive in the shallow end of the pool.

 

2. What’s the oldest food product currently in your house?

I recently found a box of jello mix.  Naturally it was store brand… and the store was one that I shopped at the last time I lived in Kansas City, which means I’ve had that box of jello mix since at least 2001.  But it may come in handy someday.  Guess I don’t eat a lot of jello.

 

3. We had some fun this week with Back to the Future co-creator Bob Gale, who responded to a question posted here about Marty and Doc. If you could ask any plot question to any other famous screenwriters or directors, what would you ask?

I want to know why Yoda & Obi-Wan disappear when they die, but other Jedi’s don’t.  I have an idea that was sort of answered, but confirmation would be nice.1

 

4. Hundreds of movies and TV shows have been set predominantly at high schools. West Beverly, Bayside, Ridgemont, Shermer and on and on. If you had to go back and attend one fictional high school in the time period it was featured, where would you enroll?

San Dimas High School, of course.  Because San Dimas High School football rules!

 

  1. Yoda tells Obi-Wan that Qui-Gon learned a new way to communicate from beyond the grave… so I’m guessing that he teaches Yoda & Obi-Wan while still alive, which causes the disappearance.  I’m a nerd. []

Friday Happy Hour: Defenestration

 

As always, the questions come from Mental Floss, and the answers are mine…


1. According to a study by Twentysomething, Inc. that appeared in Time, 85% of college grads move back in with mom and dad. What was your first move after college? If you’re still in school, what’s your plan?

My parents had left the state in an effort to escape me, so I had no home to go back to after college.  I did move back to the same zip code in Overland Park, Kansas into a nice JoCo style apartment complex.  Years later I did find where my parents went.

 

2. On The Today Show earlier this week, New York Times enigmatologist Will Shortz said his favorite word is ucalegon—it means “a neighbor whose house is on fire.” Do you have any favorite obscure words you’d like to share?

Defenstration – to throw someone or something out of the window.

 

3. While you were in college, who was the most impressive speaker or musical act to come to your campus? I don’t necessarily mean the biggest name. Could just be someone who inspired you.

The one that comes to mind was a dude who came and lectured on having the scientific proof of the existence of God. His claim was that God existed because someday we would all be cloned, which means we would be resurrected.  Clearly not impressive in a meaningful way, but instead as a demonstration of just how crazy people could get, and still somehow be able to lecture and attempt to hold an influence on people.

 

4. If a cable network were to green-light a mental_floss game show, who should be the host?

Me.  No doubt.  They ended up letting Drew Carey take over The Price is Right instead of me, but I think it’s time I’m given the big shot… Or prepare to be defenestrated.

Everything Sucks.

Let’s get this straight right now… I can’t stand Harry Potter.  So what? It’s not my thing.  I don’t care that people love it.  I don’t care that some people love it to the extent that ignore reality and begin to attempt to use spells in real life1.   Even that’s fine as long as they don’t expect me to play along with it.

Even being someone who has no interest in those movies, the reaction I’ve seen from them bothers me.  There are plenty of people who think they’re the greatest things ever and their lives are over now that the movies are done2, but there have also been people who absolutely hated it.  Huge Harry Potter nerds, that hate it.  Why?  Because everything sucks.

There’s a trend now that no matter what you go to, or what you see, read, or hear, it can’t live up to anything positive. No matter what it is, it sucks.   Just within the last week I’ve read complaints about the final episode of LOST3, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, old WCW pro-wrestling story lines, U2, Cars 2, and Mockingjay, the 3rd book of the Hunger Games trilogy.  It’s like we can’t see things without seeing them in the negative.  Nothing can ever possibly live up to the hype, and under no circumstances will anything ever be good.

It hasn’t always been this way.  There was a time when we assumed that sequels would never be as good as their originals, movies would never be as good as the books, and that follow up albums didn’t have to stand on the qualifications of the one before it.  We just took these things for what they were and let them entertain us.  There was the rare jewel, like Terminator 2, that somehow managed to outdo the original, but there were a lot more Rocky II’s4 out there than T2’s.

But then came Star Wars Episode I:  The Phantom Menace.  A little background here.  I’m as big of a Star Wars nerd as they come5, and I, like everyone else, was insanely excited about 3 more Star Wars movies.  I’m not a George Lucas apologist.  I’m never going to claim that Jar-Jar Binks was a good character6 but the prequels aren’t that terrible.  There.  I said it.  String me up.  Sure, The Phantom Menace isn’t the most interesting movie in the world, but it’s a fun Star Wars movie.  Attack of the Clones and then Revenge of the Sith improve on it drastically.  Are they what IV-VI would be?  Not at all.  How could they be?  We had a 30 year head start on making them so much bigger than any contemporary movie could possibly be.  Nothing would ever stand up to that hype.

And then that became the norm.  Hating everything became cool.  Liking anything without at least qualifying it with an exhaustive  list of bad things about it became a way to lose all credibility on the subject.  It’s fully possible, at this point, that we’ve lost our ability to see things in color, and instead can only focus on the oddly colored negative that can’t live up to the hype in our own minds7.

I’m not sure how far it goes, or how long this trend continues.  If it only applies to entertainment, then maybe we’re able to simply accept how unentertaining entertainment can be to us now.  But my fear is that it’s more.  What if we’ve changed the lens so that nothing in our lives can be seen in true color?  What if even the people around us that we interact with on a daily basis can’t live up to who we believe they should be?

What if we can’t even see ourselves anymore?

 

  1. This actually happened yesterday.  I posted this status on Facebook:  “Come on everybody, don’t hold back… I want to hear all about the midnight show last night… was Winnie the Pooh everything I think it will be?!?!?”  After a friend re-posted it one of his friends, unknown to me, replied with a Harry Potter contrived death spell. Why are these people so easy to make fun of again? []
  2. Despite J.K. Rowlings Pottermore stuff… since she hasn’t become rich enough yet… there’s still money to take from these people! []
  3. I love this episode… I thought it tied up the series really well, and did so in a way that could have left us all continuing to discuss it for years in much the same way that us Star Wars nerds have done with episodes IV-VI instead of just whining about how bad the ending is. []
  4. Ok, Rocky II isn’t terrible. It sort of keeps the formula of the first, but by III and IV they’re just cartoon characters… and yet we love them for completely different reasons than we did the Best Picture quality Rocky. []
  5. Ok, maybe not.  I’ve never dressed up for a movie, been to a convention, or attempted to kidnap George Lucas. []
  6. Though at the time it came out I took two of my then very young cousins to see it, and they loved the character… he did have to draw in the kids somehow.  But perhaps having a kid as the main character would have accomplished that on its own. []
  7. If you can get past the wrestling part of this story, and the fact that you, like me, may not know anything about the WWE at this point, this is a great piece about how we create things in our mind that the reality of entertainment couldn’t possibly live up to []

Friday Happy Hour: The sea was angry that day, my friends…

It’s Friday again.  Questions from Mental Floss, answers from my sick demented mind…

1. Growing up, whenever we flagged down the ice cream truck, my regular order was a Bubble O’Bill. My sister preferred the Fat Frog. If the ice cream truck from your childhood showed up in front of your house tonight (you know, through time travel), what old favorite would you order? (I don’t think the Bubble O’Bill still exists in the U.S., but some half-baked research tells me it’s huge in Australia. Can any Aussies confirm?)

I don’t remember ever being too into the character ones, but I was a sucker for the strawberry shortcake bars.  Something about the cake crumbs surrounding the ice cream.  Yum.

2. Like most people, I live near lots of places where video stores used to be. What ubiquitous retail establishments do you predict will disappear in the next 20 years?

Right along with the video stores, music/video game/dvd stores are on their way out as everything becomes more digitally stored.

3. Do you still read a newspaper? I mean a real, inky newspaper. On paper.

It’s been about a year since I let my subscription to the KC Star go.  I love reading it on paper, but they doubled the price on me.

4. We were just talking about doing a series of super-focused quizzes on our favorite TV episodes. If you had to pick one single episode to be quizzed on, what would it be?

“The Marine Biologist” on Seinfeld.  No question. The sea was angry that day, my friends.

I ♥ KC

We all know who Chris Sullentrop is, right?  Oh, no?  Well, he’s just some jackass that grew up in KC but moved to NYC for “a bigger stage and a bigger paycheck.”  And that’s fine.  Kansas City isn’t New York City or Chicago or LA.  It doesn’t give the same opportunities, and it doesn’t have all the same sports teams (Though it does have an NFL team, I’m looking at you LA).  But Chris decided the best topic for his column at Grantland today would be to trash Kansas City and declare that “we” (he still says we despite his apparent hatred of his hometown) are a horrible sports town clinging to insecurities and an inferiority complex.

I may not be the most qualifed to write about Kansas City.  I didn’t grow up here.  I moved to Johnson County (on the Kansas side for those of you who aren’t Kansas Citians) when I was 16.  My pro sports allegiances are all about Chicago.   I spent time in some other places in Kansas, but 2 1/2 years ago I moved back to KC, this time on the Missouri side and couldn’t be happier to be home.

That’s what Kansas City is to me.  It’s home.  Home is when I walk into Gates and hear “Hi! May I help you!”  Home is driving by the stadium at Blue Valley Northwest High School where I participated in the first football game played there (if my participated we mean, I was there, in uniform, and got in for a play or two).  Home is walking from my place in Westport to some of my favorite hang outs, or taking in the collection bigger than a city this size should be blessed to have at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  It’s Arthur Bryant’s, Winstead’s, Town Topic, Blanc, Waldo Pizza, Garozzo’s, and a hundred other local loves we all could add to the list.  It’s First Fridays in the Crossroads, Christmas lights on the Plaza, food and drinks in Westport, and even events downtown in and around Power & Light.  It’s the city of fountains, jazz, and great barbecue, and no one does it better.

But you’re just talking about sports, right, Chris?  As a Chicago fan I’m pretty unbiased.  I don’t dislike the Royals or the Chiefs.  I can’t count myself as a fan, but I wish them well.  And here’s a secret:  I admire their fans.  I really do. The greatest quality that a fan can have is loyalty.  And while the Royals may not draw the numbers that many other teams do, their fans are loyal.  Many of the Royals fans I know really are some of the greatest fans around.  Losing, but still loving your team can do that for you.

And we certainly have no shortage of college sports.   The city is taken over every year for the Big 12 (minus 2) tournament.  It belongs here.  It needs to be here.  Like me, and so many others, it has a home here.  And even outside the tournament, it’s home to college sports.  Where else can you find a legitimate home away from home for 3 separate college programs?

We don’t have an NBA team.  I’m not sure we could support one if we did. I’d love to go to the Sprint Center and see NBA and NHL games, but that’s not a part of our reality.  While your quotes about the Sprint Center were deliberately taken out of context and to deride the arena (which, by the way is one of the best I’ve been to, and I consider myself a pretty well traveled sports fan) and our city, it is an arena that has become profitable more quickly than expected, and has done so without an NBA or NHL tenant.

I grew up in Iowa.  My family moved away from Kansas City while I was in college.  I have plenty of excuses to not call Kansas City home if I don’t want to, but I wouldn’t give it up for anything.  When people ask me if I’m visiting my family in Indianapolis for holidays they always say “are you going home?” and I am quick to correct them.

So Chris, I’m glad you’re big time in New York now.  You can keep it.

I am home.  And I love being home.

I ♥ NY!

It’s well known that when it comes to sports I’m a Chicago guy.  I never thought I’d start a post with “I Love New York,” but for tonight I do.  New York has passed a law and now will become the 6th state to recognize equality in marriage for everyone.

I’ve spent most of my life living in a dark red state, and in my past I’ve spent portions of my career working places that are pretty darn conservative, so I have friends and acquaintances who probably aren’t sharing my joy right now, but I’m excited.  The right thing is being done.

And I’m excited on a somewhat personal level as well… A few years ago, while a seminarian, I was starting to feel my views on homosexuality changing.  I took a social justice class and ended up writing my paper on the coexistence of Christianity and homosexuality.  In the process I had a phone interview with Jay Vanasco.  She wasn’t the first gay person I had known, but she was the first that I spoke openly with about the inequality issues that she and others face.

Since that time Jay has moved to New York.  We haven’t kept in touch, but we are friends on Facebook, and I keep an eye on her tweets, so I’ve gotten to follow a bit of her life since then… and because of this decision today she’ll know be able to marry the woman she loves and  is engaged to.  She deserves it.  As do so many others… male or female, gay or straight.

6 down, 44+ to go.

I love NewYork.