December 2008 Archives

I did something I had been meaning to do for a couple years. I finally watched Good Night and Good Luck, about the great Edward R. Murrow and his victory over Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the court of public opinion. The story is bookended with an appearance Murrow made during a tribute in his honor before the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

In it, Murrow was talks about the power, the responsibility and the future of television.

... Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. Good night, and good luck. 

I had already been counting down the days until I make a road trip to D.C. for the Inauguration, and then I read this gem by the Washington Post's David Nakamura about the City Council passing hastily put together legislation enabling bars and nightclubs in the city to remain open 24-hours during the days leading up to and including the Inauguration.

Under emergency legislation approved by the D.C. Council yesterday, any District establishment with a liquor license, including restaurants and nightclubs, will be allowed to serve alcohol until 5 a.m. -- three hours later than usual -- and serve food round-the-clock from Jan. 17 until the morning after Obama's swearing-in on Jan. 20.

This has been a crazy year. Lots of good things happened. Some not-so-good things happened. Among those things included me growing a beard. I grew it out of mocking spite after I had grown tired of hearing people in Boston complain about the heat in the summer up here.

I grew up in the D.C. area, which as many of you have heard me mention before was built on top of a drained swamp. So, the heat and humidity in many other parts of the country are pretty weak in comparison.

So maybe that was a bad reason to grow a beard. And maybe that's why some of the bad things happened.

Maybe that contributed to the Karma that caused a waiter to ask my sister-in-law, who is seven years younger than my wife to ask if we were her parents. That one stung.

I don't know for sure. I am a slightly superstitious person. In 2004 I insisted on leaving the TV on so our "good luck for sports" couch could watch the World Series in Frederick, Md. while Erin and I attended it IN PERSON in Boston, it shouldn't be that surprising that I decided to nix the beard when I started re-tracing a mental timeline.

There was one catch, though. Erin insisted that I leave a mustache, and she was so adamant about it that it honestly kinda freaked me out. No matter, in the end, she was much more freaked out when she saw me.

It really was a wonderful moment. She came home after being out for a couple hours. I was in the same clothes and sitting in at the same spot at the dining room table as when she left. She hadn't yet looked at me when she was talking to me, and started her third sentence before ... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a direct quote.

She couldn't stop laughing/screaming every time she saw it. It was a wonderful moment in our marriage / relationship, which just passed the 5/10 year mark last month. I was so happy to be able to make her day.

OK, I've stalled long enough. Here's the pic. But I was too shy to post this by myself, so I pulled an Obama and am making this public appearance flanked by two "heavyweights."

Stay classy.