Monthly Archives: June 2008

(Community Matters) So my new friends from San Francisco to whom I shipped 15#s of Snow’s brisket and I have been following up on the best way to reheat the meat. They’ve been in phone conversation with Kerry, owner of the Texas Monthly #1 BBQ restaurant in Lexington, TX.

Their 15#s came in 4 briskets, sealed tight in plastic and cooked almost completely, but not quite. [I shipped these overnight FedEx in a styrofoam cooler and three frozen ice packs – $240 shipping.] They’ve tried boiling meat in the bag, oven warming the brisket wrapped in foil, and last night they tried placing the brisket unwrapped in a 13qt le creuset on top of a 1″ wire grate with 1/2″ water at 200 for 2.5 hours. The latter the best results so far. We’re going to try to replicate results so as to confirm best practices. I used the 2nd approach with okay but not best results. Drew Valcourt swears Snow’s ribs (I sent him a healthy package of left overs) are the very best in the “whole world.”

(Community Matters) Steven and I hosted our connections group from St. James Episcopal for dinner yesterday. Enjoyed the visit of two dear friends and new friends.

Legendary foodie Ann Clark and I planned to cook every July weekend, serving friends lavish French picnics, champagnes/wines and desserts on Sundays in the courtyard, by the pool. After yesterday, realizing I can’t do this after all.

Finding myself moving into a protective mode. M might get mad at me for this because he isn’t asking, nevertheless, I’m needing to ratchet back focus to helping Michael, being here for the rest of our families, job/team members and the Obama campaign, as well as producing M’s and ST’s plays this winter, next Spring, respectively. I’ll still meet my other community commitments but likely no time beyond this. I need to ask others to understand why I’m unable to do more in the interim.

(Community Matters) Nice column in today’s NYTimes, would Obama be a historical change agent like Reagan or a centrist like Clinton? here

(Community Matters) Lt. Gen. Ann Dunwoody to be first female 4-star general. This is a very cool thing. here

Father, grandfather and great-grandfather graduated from West Point. Father and great-grandfather both 1-star generals. Sister third female helicopter pilot. Niece a fighter pilot.

In the Army (women 14% of active duty personnel): 15 one-star generals, 3 two-stars, 2 three-stars (including Lt. General Dunwoody). Lauren & Paulina, maybe generals?

(Community Matters) Two of our very dearest friends are Joe & Tana Christie. Last night we celebrated Joe’s 75th birthday with his family and a small group of friends.

original pic: AAS

Joe’s a former State Senator from El Paso, Chairman of the State Insurance Commission, US Senate candidate, oil & gas guy, manufacturing entrepreneur and rebel rouser who traveled with Charlie Wilson to Afghanistan. He’s been a dear friend for at least 15 years, as well as a confidant and mentor.

Tana & great nephew, Tiger Woods-to-be Quinlen

Joe’s nephew-in-law David Sparks, daughter Molly Christie Benson and David’s daughter, future Olympic swimmer Delaney

niece and sports entrepreneur, Jenny Sparks

Lily & Chris Fabre

Mark, Pamela & Craig

Tamara, Steven, Robert & Charles

Delaney & Ivy

Very fun granddaughters Lily & Ivy

My parents embedded a spirit of hospitality in me. Joe & Tana reinforce it constantly with their gracious, easy & inclusive ways of hosting.

(Community Matters) She’s been really shy this season, not sure what that’s about. Mostly just hangs in water or along side rocks but off of the deck. Last year we could nearly pet her.

hmm, not sure this will even show. See her head peeking out under the flat rock

(Community Matters) Joe Jervis on gay pride:

A co-worker of mine heard me discussing my Pride plans last weekend and said, “I really don’t understand what it is you are proud about. I mean, you all say that you are born that way, so it’s not like you accomplished anything.” She wasn’t being mean, just genuinely curious, and I think that a lot of gay people probably feel the same way, quite frankly. On this subject, I can only speak for myself.

I’m proud because I’m a middle-aged gay man who has more dead friends than living ones and yet I’m not completely insane. I’ve lived through a personal Holocaust (here we go again) in which my friends and lovers have been mowed down as thoroughly and randomly as the S.S guards moved down the line of Jews. You, dead. You, to the factory. And you, you, you, and you, dead. I am inexplicably alive and I am proud that I keep the memories of my friends alive. I am proud of my people, the ACT-UPers, the Quilt makers, the Larry Kramers, the Harvey Fiersteins. I’m proud that I’m not constantly curled up into a ball on my bed, clutching photo albums and sobbing. And that happens sometimes, believe it.

And outside of my personal experiences, I am proud of my tribe as a group. Sometimes I think that gay people are more creative, more empathic, more intuitive, more generous, and more selfless than anybody else on the planet. Sometimes I think that if an alien culture were surveying our planet from light years away, they might classify gay people as an entirely separate species of humans. It’s easy to spot us because of our better haircuts.

But sometimes I think we are the worst people in the entire world when it comes to standing up for each other. The gay people who’d like to soothe their personal image problems by selectively culling some of our children from Pride events? They disgust me. They appall me. They embarrass me. To them I say: the very road that YOU now have the privilege of swaggering upon was paved by those very queens and leather freaks that you complain about, as you practice your “masculine” and give us butch face. If you want to live in the house that THEY BUILT, you better act like you fucking know it! United we stand, you snide bitches. America’s kulturkampf ain’t gonna be solved by making flamboyant people go away.

(Community Matters) Attended a grave site service in Bastrop for a former business partner, Mary Mooney. Mary was one of the founders of Minco Technology Labs. She died of breast cancer which had metastasized into liver cancer.

Mary retired to a ranch in Bastrop in 2004 where she and her late husband, Truman, raised cattle and lots of pets. She was a motherly, gracious woman who also reminded us to treat each other as family – not that we always did. It was good to see many of the old guard today. Minco had real glory days in the 90s – company spinoffs, European privatizations (or close thereto), a new plant in TN, new product lines. The industry for military and space level product has changed a great deal since the late 90s. Mary was a key founder and contributor to the company’s best days.

(Community Matters) Finally able to fix a kitchen window broken by the hail storm – quite unique: there was just a golf ball-sized hole in the antique glass. Found newly manufactured glass with the waves of antique glass for replacement.

and, Edwin & Will are replacing 300+ screws on the roof of the pool house

Plus, the wall comes uncovered:

busy day around here

(Community Matters) In today’s Washington Post, the story of Princeton Professor Allen’s receipt of an email suggesting Senator Obama was Muslim and her decision to pursue the source of these rumors, which have been widely proven false:

That search showed that the first mention of the e-mail on the Internet had come more than a year earlier. A participant on the conservative Web site FreeRepublic.com posted a copy of the e-mail on Jan. 8, 2007

Allen discovered that theories about Obama’s religious background had circulated for many years on the Internet. And that the man who takes credit for posting the first article to assert that the Illinois senator was a Muslim is Andy Martin. Martin was trying to launch a Senate bid against Obama . . . .

[Most discussion & momentum for the internet rumors appear to have genesis from FreeRepublic.com among conservative & libertarians, called freepers.] Allen counted 23 freepers among those engaging in regular discussions about Obama’s religion, and isolated a handful whom she began to suspect as having a role in the e-mail. Sifting through hundreds of postings, she began to piece together their identities.

(Community Matters) Being raised tonight by an awesome friend, Alexa Wesner. AAS article here

(Community Matters) Story in AAS this morning here about Field Asset Services carrying out mistaken orders to empty a family’s home of all personal belongings because of foreclosure eviction. In fact, the family had just bought the house out of foreclosure. When immediately contacted by Cedar Park police, Field Services supervisor Ashley Niper reportedly told the officer she didn’t understand”what the big deal was.” All of the family’s personal belongings were disposed and FSA did nothing to help recover the assets including their children’s toys, clothes, even a piggy bank. EMC Mortgage Corp., a Lewisville, TX bank which held the original mortgage, issued the orders in error and is also being unresponsive. After over a month, EMC and Field Asset Services have yet to provide any relief.

Field Asset Services is a subsidiary of a public company based out of Ontario, First Services Corporation www.firstservice.com – forwarded article to their Founder/CEO.

EMC Mortgage Corp is a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase. The senior local officers of JP Morgan Chase are friends and outstanding community leaders; JP Morgan Chase, a responsible, community-minded company. I’ve just forwarded the article to them and bet we’ll see relief for the Dickson family.