I'm sitting here doing some work at Vancouver Intl Airport. I'm waiting for my 8 buddies to arrive for our annual ski trip. This year we chose Whistler. You probably know and accept that I am a poptard. I'm clueless about pop culture, although I've made some progress by sneaking dirty little peeks at Rebecca's People and Star magazines. I've been travelling regularly for almost five years, and have never recognized a single celebrity in the airport. Once I ran into John's fiance Sara randomly at OHare, which is notable. Put it this way: I was in Reagan National airport in Washington DC 2x/week for 2 years and never recognized a congressperson. So I'm typing away and some parents are encouraging their son to run down a blond guy who is walking past the small table I'm camped out at. "Can I have your autograph?" The guy uses the other half of MY table to write the autograph (oh yes, I was just tingles all over). He was really nice to the little kid, but I didn't really recognize him. I think they talked about Clint Eastwood, but I didn't (and don't) really understand the context. Kid: "Do you live in BC?" Dude: "No, I'm just up here filming a show." Kid: "What's it called?" Dude: "It's called Tin Man" Me: <browser address bar>, "imdb", <Ctrl-Enter>, "tin man 2007" <enter> So the face that I recognize and is now on my screen turns out to be this guy I used to HATE because in Guatemala, they featured advertisements for a show called "Medical Investigation". The premise was, "Jerry Bruckheimer succeeded by pushing the cheesy envelope with CSI Miami and CSI NY. How can we put this in a medical setting and give it such hackneyed one-liners that it would actually induce vomiting in David Caruso himself?" I remembered that the very guy in front of me would be featured prominently in the ads. He was Dr. Stephen Connor. A building would explode. Children are crying for their mothers. Oh no, the mothers are all trapped under rubble. Nurse Linda is puking in the corner - oh, the horror. Dr. Connor is the only one keeping his head. He Is A Leader. He commands the viewer (and the camera twists slightly and zooms in on his head),

"We MUST get the mothers out - or we're all dead."

End of ad. The Guatemalan announcer would drive it home in his Spanish accent with the title line, pronuonced such that the first and last syllable were of a medium tenor, but the entire string of middle syllables was an escalating pitchhike. Me-di-cal In-ves-ti-ga-tion. According to his IMDB page, he's actually been in a lot of recognizable titles, and I started to recognize more of his roles. I asked him if he would sign the blog post I was about to write but I don't think he heard me.

I have some really exciting news. Rebecca was accepted to BOTH Harvard and Stanford for graduate programs in School Leadership/Education Administration! I am so incredibly proud of my baby. Makes me want to dance every time I think of it. Now I just have to hold up my end of the bargain and be accepted somewhere.