Not Just A Hat Rack

Happy People, Angry People

Two snippets from my email inbox this week... First guy a little unhappy with the scratch on his bumper after the half marathon on Friday night...

If you would have given me this information in the first place (as the

law requires and as most honest, law-abiding citizens would have), I

could be working on getting my car fixed and not waiting around for you

or your agent to call me. Honesty is always welcome, but has proven

inconvenient in this situation. I hope never to inconvience you, speak

to you, or get hit by you again. I love self-righteous jackasses like

you as much as you love insurance agents like me. Good lord and good

riddance!

Then, this from my editors at Fodor's...

Thanks for doing a great job on the Yellowstone chapter. Attached are my queries (there are a lot, but I most are not very involved). When do you think you could get this back to me? Can you take a look at the queries and then give me an ETA? k. If there's anyway you could get it back this week already, that would be very helpful, but let me know what you think. I know you're working on some Utah chapters, too, so I imagine your schedule is very full. Thanks!
P.S. I was just in Yellowstone last week on a family vacation (my first time to the park), and so it was fun editing this while it was fresh in my mind! :)

I love angry people!

"That's God, You Better Not Argue With That Guy"

The quote of the week comes from Joey Amalfitano during his eulogy of baseball manager Herman Franks, who died this week in Salt Lake City.  In several decades in baseball, he managed the Cubs AND the Giants. He was 95.

Can you name the other four managers who guided both the Giants and Cubs?

My Dad and Pope John Paul II

The St. Helena Star ran this article about two weeks ago about a career diplomat with the U.S. Foreign Service.  I think the lengthy article is a great read about a diplomat's life.  Grandma and Grandpa 'Hat Rack immediately chimed in that the quotes weren't entirely accurate, but even so, I think there's nothing to be ashamed about.  Here's to 25 unforgettable years of service to the United States.  I know I'm proud.

Happy Anniversary

This is what I wrote a year ago tonight.

Life throws curves. Sometimes you were looking fastball. Sometimes you just swing and miss. In my case, they called in a pinch hitter tonight. I'm out. Back in the clubhouse, I'm swigging gatorade and planning my next at-bat. Guess it will be in a different uniform. I guarantee it means more entries in the 'Hat Rack. Peace.

Mrs. 'Hat Rack and I are celebrating with a date tonight.

A lot has transpired in 365 days, including the fact that I haven't set foot on an airplane in that time. I'm pretty proud of that.

All my favorite teams have lost a lot of games, notably the Giants, RSL and Northwestern football & basketball. Mrs. 'Hat Rack completed an IronMan. We're both just weeks away from the Ogden Marathon (marking at least 25 marathons between us!). We're watching people we love battle insidious diseases and trying to do a few little things to make a difference. I write a lot for work and pleasure. I don't read enough. Our boys have learned to ski. Our "princess" has learned to chatter and disperse hundreds of pieces of (fill in the blank here) all over her room and our house. One dog proved she has 9, no, 99+ lives. And we're thankful for friends (like ones who sit through snowstorms to watch U.S. Open Cup games), running friends, cooking friends, kids' friends and family and friends.

And somehow, against all odds I would have predicted last year, we're still here... with the inch of fresh snow on the lawn and the bright/frozen tulips... on 900 South in Salt Lake City (where they really do name streets like that). And life seems perfectly normal.

Welcome Nephew & Presidential Politics

Welcome Josiah Robert D.!

Between yesterday afternoon when I video-skyped (have I invented a word?) with my sister Susan (a shrieking, goofy experience when you give four children and two dogs the opportunity to video-conference call) and tonight when we chatted again, she delivered a healthy, quiet, curious baby boy. Who may or may not be named Josiah. He might be Ethan Robert D. instead. Either way, Robert is my middle name, both his grandfathers' names and his oldest cousin's name. I guess it runs officially runs in the family?

You'd never know from either call that she had delivered a baby in between. She was confident, exuberant, glowingly optimistic, excited and mellow all at once. Susan - I'm proud of you! I think Ethan or Josiah will be a great choice, considering when I wrestled the news out of my parents earlier today, they were under the impression the baby's name would be either Josiah, Ezekiel or Ethria. What can I say, they played the role of nervously excited grandparents for the eighth time and, appropriately, the experience of receiving such joyous news hasn't worn off.

So my nephew (I now have three to go with four nieces) checked in at 6' 6" (that's six pounds, six ounces, not 6-foot-6), 20 1/2 inches with adorable brown hair and a had hardly said a peep. Sounds like his uncle Steve. Everything went so smoothly that before you know it, Susan and I were discussing politics.

With the Texas primary still to be contested, a quick exit poll of the Pastorino-Johnston clans indicates that the presidency is still too close to be called.

Ethan/Josiah's parents are Christian ministers, so it's no surprise they voted for Gov. Mike Huckabee in Washington state. It's been well-documented that the 'Hat Racks voted for Sen. Barack Obama in Utah. Both 'Hat Rack parents split their votes. Gov. Bill Richardson picked up one California vote while Sen. John McCain picked up the other. McCain earned one Arizona vote, where the other vote inexplicably went to Gov. Mitt Romney. Votes from two eligble voters in Illinois have not been recorded yet. The final two eligible votes will be cast next month in Texas. So the voting so far:

Huckabee 2
Obama 2
McCain 2
Richardson 1
Romney 1

More results as they become available.

4 x 10 things About Me Per an Email from My Old Boss :)

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Tent Building, Usher & Ticket Sales for Cirque du Soleil
2. Foot Locker dude in striped shirt
3. Wrote 2008 Fodor’s Pocket Guide to Yellowstone (look for it in July!)
4. Once signed Eddie Pope, Clint Mathis & Freddy Adu to contracts (that worked out well)

Four movies I've watched more than once:
1. Field of Dreams
2. Bull Durham
3. Cinema Paradiso
4. Like Water for Chocolate

Four places I have lived:
1. Svitavy, Czech Republic
2. Hermosillo, Mexico
3. Next door to the Blue Man Group
4. Wrightwood, California

Four T.V. Shows that I watch:
1. Nightline
2. Anything where Barack Obama appears
3. Power Rangers
4. Yo Gabba Gabba

Four places I have not been in the states but would like to go:
1. The Dakotas
2. Hawaii
3. A Northwestern NCAA Tournament Basketball game
4. My Godmother’s house in San Antonio

People who e-mail me (regularly??):
1. Mrs. ‘Hat Rack
2. Barack Obama
3. My friends in SLC writing group
4. My new boss

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Pastorino family raviolis
2. Lou Malnati’s pizza
3. Ice cream
4. Street Tacos outside Sears in SLC

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Lucca, Italy
2. Lodges at Deer Valley
3. St. John, Virgin Islands
4. Meeting my new niece/nephew some time this weekend

Four people I think will respond:
1. Susan Donohue (but it could take awhile)
2. Allison Stafne
3. Kenn Tomasch
4. Homer

Things I am looking forward to this year:
1. My boys’ first ski lessons
2. Seeing my book on store shelves
3. Running the Ogden Marathon for Leukemia Society – with my wife!
4. No sleepless nights leading up to Opening Day

Four places I like to shop:
1. Sam Weller’s Books
2. Molinari Delicatessen in San Francisco
3. Running Stores
4. Big weekend markets overseas where no one speaks English

This and That...

Sir Edmund Hillary passed away yesterday. Ironically, I was working on a 2008 trekking preview for Snow Lion, including an ascent up the "Hillary Route" to Everest Base Camp, when I learned the news. It's safe to say that the company, and the Himalayan trekking industry, would not exist, at least in their present form, if it were not for the gentle 6'5" beekeeper whose humanitarian work on behalf of the Sherpas is immeasurable. "Nothing Venture, Nothing Win" was the book-length biography I read as a teenager and has inspired me to back down from no challenge ever since.

The current issue of Runner's World has a gripping series of stories on the 2007 Chicago and New York Marathons. Two of the largest races in the country, both were marked by tragedy. The magazine took a Newsweek style approach to understanding the factors that led to the cancellation of the Chicago race several hours in, due to extreme heat conditions. Then, editor Amby Burfoot spent several days following up on the death of U.S. marathoning star Ryan Shay at the Olympic Trials in New York City. Good stuff, whether you run or not. Speaking of running, it's Disney Marathon weekend in Orlando. Mrs. 'Hat Rack is going after another personal first. She'll run the Half Marathon on Saturday and the Full Marathon on Sunday (that's 39.3 miles in all) - all in pursuit of a medal shaped liked Goofy. That is goofy. But we love her!

Kevin Sites' In the Hot Zone is worth a read, folks. And not just because we both graduated from Medill, Northwestern's journalism school! He visited 20+ war zones in one calendar year including the obvious ones, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, etc. He also checked in on the Maoist insurgency in Nepal, the tenuous ceasefire in Congo, monks vs the military in Burma/Myanmar, the aftermath of war in Vietnam and Laos, etc. I'm in awe of his dedication to shed light (and hope) on some of the most depressing examples of humankind's dark side. I think I'd have post-traumatic stress disorder. I bought it in the Fall, which makes it's references to events from last July all the more remarkable. You don't get much more current than this in a widely published book these days!

I talked to RSL GM Garth Lagerwey this week in anticipation of my next Salt Lake Tribune column next week, which will be on the MLS SuperDraft... He should be in Florida by now at the Player Combine. Knowing the pressures of the chair in which he sits, its challenges, and the passion that you have to bring to it, I'm rooting for him.

I'm also rooting for the Red Rocks. Utah's nationally ranked women's gymnastics team takes on nemesis and defending NCAA champion Georgia tonight at Huntsman Center. I won't make it, but if you're in the neighborhood and have never attended a meet, don't miss it! Arrive early - this one might sell out. (That's right, 16,000 people at a gymnastics meet. Gotta love it!)

He's a Giovanni!

Samuel Giovanni Lagerquist is the name of my newest first cousin, once removed (or something like that)... He's up in Juneau, AK. Congrats Lisa & Tim - and I love the name. (The Samuel part, too.) Who doesn't miss babies that look like this?

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Did anyone else catch Mark Salzman's lecture at the SLC Library last night? The author of Iron & Silk, which I think I read prior to my China trip in about 1995, combines a brilliant mind with some subconscious physical humor (his hands NEVER stopped gesturing, moving, exclaiming) and an overall exuberance that left me (and the rest of the audience) in hysterics, but also feeling like we were in the presence of a very down-to-earth, only slightly tormented genius.

Salzman knew he wanted to be a Kung Fu master from the moment he saw the David Carradine show pilot when he was 13, but became proficient as a concert cellist first, instead. He dropped music for classical Chinese literature at Yale, later taught in China, fulfilled his martial arts dreams and, along the way, became a Pulitzer Prize nominated writer. It's a great story. And he's a stay-at-home Dad now.

I see pieces of myself in him - the confidence and inner peace that comes with years of martial arts training (although he has many, many more than me); an inquisitiveness for the human process (again - he's WAY smarter than me); self-deprecation, and optimism. Maybe, just maybe, some day, I'll write something half as meaningful as his book to me.

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And speaking of writing, I'm really humbled that my byline graces approximately 480,000 copies of Delta's Sky magazine this month. And, not just once, but five times! My $100,000 journalism degree is finally paying dividends!!

First, there's the Olympic story on page 108 or here: Rings of Glory. Then, there's a story on the (quite controversial) downtown redevelopment of Salt Lake City, where I talk to Brigham Young's great-great grandson, among others. It's here or on page 104.

Articles on SLC's residential housing variety and Sundance Film Festival didn't make it on line, but are on pages 122 and 125 respectively.

If you fly Delta, let me know what you think... PS - grab me an extra copy or two.

Plus, this issue has a feature on Lucca... Italy, not Lucca 'Hat Rack. How cool is that? See it here! or on page 48.

Look out Mark Salzman, here I come.

George Hood Approaches Guinness Record

Seventy-two hours into his attempt to break the Guinness Record for endurance spinning, George Hood has covered more than 800 miles, averaged 12.4 mph, pedaled 79 revolutions/minute (that's 341,280 pedal-strokes if you're counting at home) and burned 21,000 calories.

He is slated to break the World Record of 82 hours at 5pm (Central time) today - and officially break it one hour later.

He's also attempting to raise $30,000 in the process for Twin Lakes Camp, a camp owned and operated by Kiwanis International that serves children and young adults with physical handicaps and crippling diseases.

Spread the word, follow the link or donate a dollar. Ride, George Ride!