The Usual Susspects

  I just learned the sad news today that a friend and fraternity brother of mine has died tragically. Guy Moran, known to everybody as “Bugsy”, was mountain biking in California and got separated from his group. Although we never attended college at the same time, Bugsy was the reason I became a brother of Alpha Sigma Phi. I had no interest in pledging any fraternity but I went along with some friends to an Alpha Sig rush. Bugsy had already graduated but he was up visiting for the weekend and talked with me for at least an hour about what the fraternity meant to him and convinced me to continue rushing. I got to know Bugsy much better many years later I moved here to Charlotte and Bugsy was among several brothers who were also living here. Rest in peace. In an eerie twist, another fraternity brother of mine, Jim Murphy, whom I actually pledged with, died tragically just last year… also while mountain biking.

Patty found an old slide of her and Lore with their mother, Sharon, circa 1973 or 1974. Now which one is Patty?

  Today was our only full day in Charleston. Almost everything is closed on a Sunday morning in “The Holy City” but luckily we were able to take an early guided tour of the city. We got to see all the historic houses and sites like The Battery, Rainbow Row and more. Kudos to an excellent tour guide at Gray Line Tours. After lunch we headed to the South Carolina Aquarium. We tried to take Maegan to the aquarium in Charleston a few years ago but were surprised to find a three hour line to get in due to the fact that tickets were only $1 for Community Appreciation Day, an event they failed to publicize ahead of time on their website. After a three and a half hour trip to Charleston we had to turn around and head back home empty handed. This time I called ahead of time to double check that the same thing wasn’t going to happen again. The staff told me that although there was a festival that day in the adjacent park, there would be no special discounts that would create a similar situat...

  We left early this morning for a mini-vacation to Charleston, South Carolina,  a city with well over 300 years of history. My mother flew in from New York City and my sister flew in from Washington, D.C. to join us. Our first stop was Fort Sumter, sight of the first shots of the Civil War in 1861. We took a ferry over to the island fortress. It was very interesting and although the fort isn’t very large, I wish they gave us more than an hour to look around. After the tour we checked in to our hotel and walked just a couple of blocks to Market Street in the historic district.

We got our bikes a couple of weeks ago but we were pretty limited on where we could ride. Our neighborhood isn’t very big and it’s all dead ends. And all the roads leading to other neighborhoods are too dangerous to ride on. We needed a bike rack so we could get our bikes someplace else to ride, like to a park. Enter Craig's List . I easily posted a local message (for free) that I was looking for a used bike rack and within a few days somebody contacted me who wanted to sell their’s. We met earlier this evening, I was able to check it out first, and then I purchased it directly from them face to face. Criag’s List rocks.

  Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby   came out on Friday.   As I’ve mentioned before , I had a non-speaking role as Tony the convenience store clerk in a 1976 backstory scene. You can see me in   the official movie trailer . In any case, I finally saw the film today. My scene is in the first few minutes of the film as young Ricky Bobby steals his momma’s car when she comes in to buy a quart of milk from my store. Compared to the trailer, the movie shows an extra 5 seconds – an extra 5 seconds to stare at the bald spot on the back of my head being shown on a 40 foot tall movie screen. I was actually distracted during my scene because Patty turned to absolute strangers in the theater telling them “that’s my husband!” (They didn’t care.) I knew my scene wouldn’t be cut from the movie but the next question everybody always asks me is about the credits. I can now tell everybody that my name is  not  in the credits. The movie was pretty good but nothing...

  Alpha Sigma Phi  National Fraternity is holding it’s bi-annual national convention right here in Charlotte this weekend. Part of the convention featured a minor league baseball game at the Charlotte Knights . Since I’m an Alpha Sig alumnus (Delta Xi ’91), I like baseball, and Knight’s Castle is just a few miles away it was a no-brainer for me to go to the game last night. Patty wasn’t interested in going but I brought Maegan along with me. I met up with some brothers attending the convention. That was pretty cool to chatting with them for a while. Later Maegan and I sat on the grass berm down the right field line. A foul ball went over our heads and Maegan watched a bunch of kids run after the baseball. She asked me if she could get a foul ball and I told her she could try. I’ve been to easily over 100 baseball games and I’ve never gotten a foul ball. I told Maegan that if she wanted to try to get a fould ball she’d have to get right in there with the big kids who would be f...

Today is WAXN-TV’s 10th birthday. The station officially signed-on air on August 4th, 1996. Happy Birthday! For the record this isn’t technically the birthday of “Action 64” because that branding line wasn’t introduced used until September 2nd, 1996.