| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | I'd say, overall, growing up in a neighborhood full of other kids my age. We played together constantly. In the summer, we played baseball. In the fall we played football. In the winter, we flooded our neighbor's pond and played hockey. It was a great place for a boy to grow up. I'm still friends with many of those guys, and two of them were the best men in my wedding. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | My brother. We're a few years apart in age, but we look identical. Despite our age difference we both spent a lot of time with our father - baseball and hockey games, hunting, fishing, learning to build and fix things - and that really impacted who we are today. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | Honesty. Professionalism (at work). Attention to detail. Sense of humor. Loyalty. Creativity. Compassion. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | Some years ago, a friend and I drove to my cabin to pick up my uncle and grandfather because their car had broke down there. We arrived late on a Friday night, drank a few beers, but went to bed early - the four-hour drive had really zapped us. Around the time the four of us were falling asleep, my uncle's dog began acting funny (pacing, growling, etc.), but we didn't know why. When I turned the lights on in the cabin, we saw a bat zooming around the cabin, looking for a way out. Exhausted as we were, we began hunting this unwelcome intruder. I grabbed a broom, my friend choose his shoe and my uncle brandished an iron skillet. We looked ridiculous. After a few minutes, we subdued the bat, tossed it outside and returned to bed. However, a few minutes later the dog began barking again, because a second bat was loose inside. We grabbed our weapons and returned to battle. Once again, we slayed the winged beast and tossed it outside. During all of this commotion, my grandfather never once woke up. He was thoroughly unaware of the intruding bats. My friend, uncle and I returned to bed for the night, victorious. Only, we weren't. About an hour later, while sleeping on the pull-out sofa bed, I heard the fluttering, leathery wings of terror flying around me. There was yet another bat in the house. I was so unimaginably tired I thought to myself "This isn't that bad, we'll kill it in the morning." Alas, my uncle would have none of this. He roused us all from bed and declared all-out war on this invader. In what I can only describe as our version of Custer's Last Stand, we darted and leaped around my cabin like goofy ninjas, desperately trying to rid the place of this unwanted visitor. FINALLY, I dealt the beast its death blow using a simple kitchen broom. We celebrated with loud wails of primal satisfaction: Three city- dwellers had ventured deep into the American Wilderness, wrestled with Nature's minions, and emerged victorious. It was our Lord of the Flies moment. We celebrated with a round of Manhattans and returned to bed, finally free to sleep the night through. I have never felt so proud, or laughed as long and hard as I did that night. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I would love to visit all of America's National Parks. I would also like to spend time in the Eastern US, retracing some of the events of the American Revolution. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | As far as wisdom goes, I would tell them to be kind to others. It is the most important thing a person can do. Materially, I would pass to them my family cabin. My grandfather built it with his hands in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It is priceless to me and my family. |
