Families for Obama fundraiser....and smoky bars

Tonight, the Gordons were part of the "volunteer staff" for a Families for Obama fundraiser at the Hayes-Taylor YMCA on E. Market St.in Greensboro. We got there at 5:30pm to help set up the rooms, decorate, prepare the dinner, and just all around be workhorses. The program was from 7p-9p with a high school choir, elementary school dance steppers, a jazz band, a county commissioner dignitary, an Obama DVD, and an auction. (We now have the BEST water bottle and poster money can buy!!!)


Kimberly helped in the "toddler room" much to her chagrin with her (our) cases of small child distaste. Luckily, there were more chaperones than kids, so she was able to bail and help Chris serve dinner to the 100+ people there tonight.


It was a lot of fun.


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After we broke the room down and cleaned up, we went downtown to a smoky martini/cigar/liquor bar Churchill's on Elm Street because Jaybird (of greasy spoon Fincastle's fame) and his band "Soul Central" were playing.

So now it's 1:15am on a work night and Chris is blogging in a stench of smoke while Kimberly takes a slightly drunken shower. Good night! Tomorrow it's work from 8a-4p for Chris (actually 3p to get outta town a touch early) and then a 7-hour drive up to Duke's in Mount Vernon, OH for Opening Day weekend at Jacobs, er, Progressive Field for our annual fraternity brother get-together.

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Official Guilford County organizational meeting tonight for Obama

Tonight saw the Gordons make their way over to Bennett College here in Greensboro for a 7:00pm meeting with official Obama campaign organizers to plan the next few weeks before our May 6th North Carolina Primary. The Obama office in Greensboro will open this coming Monday and the organizers and office holders are coming in from all over the country. Instead of a "top down" approach, this is a "bottom up" organization where the big shots ask us for our local ideas and then guide us to achieve our goals. It is impressive just how grassroots this whole campaign is. Really.

As you can see from the photo, many many many people came out to volunteer and work the pavement to get the good senator elected. It was yet another inspiring get-together of voters and folks who yearn for positive change.

The deadline to register to vote in the May 6th Primary is April 11th, so our main focus these next two weeks is REGISTERING PEOPLE TO VOTE. The Gordons will be hitting the ground running with voter registration forms to make sure people's voices will be heard, whatever their political affiliation.

These are truly exciting times.

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"The Beer Hunter" would have been 66.

From an email received tonight from The Brickskeller in Washington, DC:

I'm sure most of you know who Michael Jackson, the BeerHunter, is. Perhaps you may not know today, March 27, 2008, would have been his 66th birthday. Michael was a great friend of the Brickskeller and one Diane and I are honored to have considered a good friend personally for 25 years.

I respectfully suggest you go to your favorite pub tonight and raise a glass of good beer to his honored memory. Understanding the short notice, if this is not possible I suggest you respect this as a special enough occasion to warrant the popping of a favorite top you've been stashing in your vault. I Emailed this to DCbeer this afternoon but for some reason it has not as yet been posted.

While Michael may have passed, his contributions to the world of beer and the foundation his writings laid for all writers to build upon and all brewers to aspire to will live and grow forever.

Happy Birthday Michael you are still dearly missed.

Dave and Diane Alexander, Brickskeller / RFD

The news of his death from last year can be found online here. Methinks a fine Trappistes Rochefort-10 will do nicely tonight in his honor; or, as he would say, his "honour". Cheers!

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Enormous hands as soft as a baby's bottom

Hey wait, who's that stunning gentleman in the gray sweatshirt underneath the 'O' logo? Is that?... Hmmm...

But first, the story:

This past Sunday night, the leader of Triad (East) for Obama calls us to tell us that something big will be at Guilford County Democratic Headquarters Monday morning. Big. Barack Obama is confirmed to come to Greensboro and there will be a total of 2,000 tickets given away. By 9:15am Monday we have our tickets in hand:





Chris is off, and Kimberly works until 11am Wednesday. So the plan is this: Kimberly's seats down in Columbia were rather far away; Chris's seats up in Beckley were right up front. So, to be fair, Chris was to get to the Auditorium early and nab a close seat. Once Kimberly entered the Auditorium, she would take Chris's seat so she can see Barack up close. Then Chris would retire to the rear and watch the Town Hall from there. (There is no seat saving for these things, so that idea is right out in case you're wondering.)

Doors open at 11:00, so Chris gets there by 9:30 and is surprisingly about 350 people behind.


At least it's better than the line forming behind him, wrapping around the Coliseum:



And by the way, is it frowned upon to take a clandestine photo of a sniper?



Anyhoo, by 11:10 or so the line begins to move. Kimberly calls at 11:20 to say she is leaving the hospital. It appears that, regardless of ticket in hand, she may in fact NOT get in by the time she gets here (40 minutes or so) as the line is enormous.

Chris makes it through security, and as he is getting his phone, camera, and keys back into his pockets and his campaign buttons back on his "Hope" sweatshirt, he overhears, "Oooh, that guy in the sweatshirt. He looks like a good one!"

Crap. What now? A woman briskly walks up to Chris, presumably a reporter of some sort to get a sound bite of a "man on the street" quote.

"May I bother you, sir?"

- Sure.

"What is your name?"

- Chris.

"Would you like to sit onstage behind Senator Obama?"

- HOLY CRAP, WOULD I?!?!?!?!? Lead the way, fair maiden!

She walks me past the line to get in, down a side entrance and down the aisle. It feels like royalty. The upper crust bypassing the minions. In a matter of minutes, Chris is onstage behind the podium.

Freakin' SWEET!!!


Needless to say, a call was made to Kimberly to inform her that we would in fact NOT be trading seats. She did in fact make it in. She witnessed some who did not. But her seat was the third row from the top in the balcony. JUST made it. But at least it was closer than her seat in Columbia, SC.

It was absolutely AWESOME. It's funny how the seating occurs behind a candidate. Not only were people picked to get a good balance of demographics, but our actual seating in those three rows of seats were meticulously selected to maximize photo ops from any angle. Every picture view was to get the proper amount of whites, blacks, young, and old. Fascinating.

We had EXPLICIT instructions while onstage. No picture taking while he was talking. Do not shield your eyes from the hot bright lights. Do not cover your face. Do not look sad. They did not want any photo op to include a stage person with their faces covered. Interesting.

So now, Senator Obama comes out, and shakes the hands of the first two rows of folks. Hey wait! Chris is in the THIRD row! Hold on here!



Pardon the bluriness. Between his quick moves and Chris's nervousness, the camera was not cooperating with me.

Here's a better photo from online. (Notice the smashing fellow to the immediately right of the Senator's left knee.)

He spoke for about 35 minutes, and took questions for about an hour. Incredible.



So then, as he exits, he returns to the 3 rows of seats on stage and says, "I got the first two rows coming in. Now I owe the last row."

"I owe the last row." Are you kidding me? Chris is speechless and stammering like a little girl. The Senator takes Chris's hand and Chris virtually tearfully exclaims "Thank you, sir. THANK YOU for all you do." It was thrilling. Exhiliarating. Numbing.

(By the way, not to be a stalker, but he has enormous hands that are baby soft and smell like cocoa butter and baby oil.)

Unreal. Surreal. Life-altering. To personally shake the hand of someone who could conceivably be President of the United States.

Awe-inspiring.

So then, in thinking that afterward he may hit a "greasy spoon" to get a feel for the populace, we hit Fincastle's downtown for a greasy burger, greasy onion rings, delicious fries, and the popular concoction "Green Drink".


To no avail, no candidate sighting at our favorite greasy spoon diner. Damn.

In closing, check out this video on YouTube, especially at the 2 minute 17 second mark:

Wow. Just, wow.

[edit: We found more videos of the Town Hall, in three parts.]

Part one (with props to the best volunteer group of them all, "Triad for Obama"):

Part two:

Part three:

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Sadly, the conversion is complete.

From this:


To this:


And I am sad.

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Happy 100th birthday, Katie Casey!

The year was 1908, and lyricist Jack Norworth scribbles a song onto a napkin during a train ride into New York City. The rest, as they say, is history. Ironically, Mr. Norworth does not go to his first baseball game until 1940 at age 69. Odd that.

So to ring in the new year of baseball glory, enjoy:

Katie Casey was base ball mad.
Had the fever and had it bad;
Just to root for the home town crew,
Ev'ry sou Katie blew.
On a Saturday, her young beau
Called to see if she'd like to go,
To see a show but Miss Kate said,
"No, I'll tell you what you can do."

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."

Katie Casey saw all the games,
Knew the players by their first names;
Told the umpire he was wrong,
All along good and strong.
When the score was just two to two,
Katie Casey knew what to do,
Just to cheer up the boys she knew,
She made the gang sing this song:

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."

(By the way, the term "sou" was defined during that era as a low-denomination coin. Carly Simon's version in the Ken Burns 1994 documentary Baseball, reads "Ev'ry cent / Katie spent".)

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Opening Day!

6:00am Tuesday morning, the defending champion Boston Red Sox take on the Oakland Athletics in baseball Opening Day festivities. 6:00am, you ask? Why's that?

They are playing in Japan.

We pony up the coin to have the MLB Extra Innings package on the dish, and Chris has to get up early anyway to take the Jeep in for some expensive A.C. compressor replacement, so the game will in fact be ON in The House of Gordon at that time.

Another year of hope begins.

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Come on over next Sunday!

Enjoy the front and back of a flyer that is about to be tacked to everybody's mailbox in our development:

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More bloomage

Ahhh....NC springtime. The crabapple tree in the front yard is a-bloomin' now. Enjoy your cold weather wherever you may be.

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