Fun Facts

George has tagged me, kicked my can, captured my flag; and since I can neither hide nor dodge, I'll play. So, eight more or less fun facts about me. Allee alle incomefree.

1. My grandfather died in 1934 as the second most powerful man in Boston, the Mayor's chauffeur, through whom funnelled all the party patronage. His political acumen died with him, since the only political accomplishment that his twelve children and 66 grandchildren have been able to muster is to stay out of jail (mostly).

2. An example of staying out of jail, or the confession of an eco-terrorist: Back when I was fifteen (so the statute of limitation has long run out, me hopes), a couple of friends and I were pissed off that a developer was destroying the woods we had grown up playing in. He was a very modest developer, probably just a contractor with a hefty loan and small profit margin, a total project of maybe ten houses. But he and his minions were bulldozing the trees, building tract homes, paving paradise for profit. The kicker was that he was building among the standard seven-room capes a fifteen-room colonial for himself. It was like the Lord's house surrounded by his serf cottages.

We weren't going to let him get away with it. We sabotaged his bulldozer, cutting wires, pouring dirt into openings for gas and oil. We slit open bags of plaster and emptied them on the wet ground. We even left notes, expressing our ecological rage in words and letters cut from magazines. In those notes we called ourselves the Green Mountain Boys. On the second or third night-time raid, a couple of guys were waiting for us, and suddenly the blue lights of a cop car came around the corner. We ran like hell, through the paths in the woods we knew too well. They never caught us, but they did put an end to eco-acts of the Green Mountain Boys.

3. I used to dive off cliffs of the Red Rock sort, up to fifty feet and higher, until I got to be 18 and conscious enough to realize I should be scared. And so I was, and so I stopped. From then on I only bragged about my daring-do without daring to do.

4. I once screamed at a power hitter in Fenway Park to bunt. And he bunted.

5. I lived the first 40 years of my life on the 42nd parallel, from Boston to Amherst to Binghamton to Ames (B-A-B-A). Then I moved to Santa Baba.

6. I met Robin swing dancing. On the same date a year later, we got married. Robin wore the same dress.

7. I played on a pick-up basketball team in Robb Gym that won by a shut-out, 11-zip. With a collective experience of over a hundred years of playing pick-up ball and tens of thousands of games, none of us had ever witnessed it before.

8. The only things in life I like to be bitter are coffee, beer, and, in small doses, truth.