HB, Logan!

Chattanooga, TN, late summer 2012 -The bekilted boys of UNC-Ashville’s premier Ultimate Frisbee squad, the Highland Chuggers ‒ sponsored by Highland Brewery and led on the far right by the Birthday Boy himself ‒ sprint “balls-out”** towards the disc in a recent competition.

(**Fortunately for us all, “balls-out” is used here only in the figurative sense, denoting “maximum effort,” and not in the literal Scottish kiltish sense of “maximum exposure.”)

All the Best on Your Big Day, Laddie!

Great gift idea for the kilt-wearer in the family:
This custommade chair makes sitting in a kilt both
comfortable and practical. 

 Hand-crafted from chestnut, naturally.

 

HB, Nicole!

Hidden HackFester Cam shot by JPM

Nicole is well-known in these parts for her epic bike rides from her home in Detroit to her parents' place in A2, a 45+ mile trip that takes some three hours and has her rolling past the not-particularly-photogenic neighboring communities of Dearborn, Taylor, Inkster, Wayne, Romulus,Ypsilanti, et. al..

It is both an arduous ordeal and quite challenging, given the dearth of bike paths along the way and the corresponding overabundance of vehicular traffic making that same commute. 

How does she do it?  Sheer will power to be sure -- not to mention impressive pedal power. Then there's her inventive imagination that, we surmise, allows her to envision herself not slogging along on a common bicycle, but rather driving in Roaring 20's style and comfort in a magnificent Maxwell, the wind threatening to tear her Schiaparelli hat from her head. 

Or not. Whatever your secret is, young lady, we are duly impressed.

All the Very Best on Your Big Day!  

HB, JP!

First tee box, Dearborn Holes Golf Course, a really long time ago.
Note Rouge River coursing in background.  Infamously, together, we
shanked 38 balls into it that day.  Long drive of the day winner, the
 Birthday Boy himself, 81 yards (hooked directly into the woods)

Now that Johnny Boy has reached the profound level of maturity possessed
by his older siblings (with his dear sister boldly leading the way and Mick-Mouse
dragging his feet at the rear), it is fitting to take a brief glance back -- which brings
us to this photo.  It was recently discovered quite by accident in a dusty corner of a
desolate attic at the very bottom of a misplaced antique storage chest underneath
the yellowed, brittle newspaper that lined its bottom. The long-forgotten shot was
taken the first time the brothers ever played golf together...which turned out to be
the last time for decades.

'Tearing up the course' is usually a good thing and suggests a low score as in
'Boy, you really tore it up today!'  However, in this particular case, we literally
tore the place up, young hacks that we were, and having been observed doing
so by the ranger-owner, we were summarily Banned For Life at DHGC
(actually Dearborn Hills, but widely and snidely called Dearborn Holes due
to its unkempt, unruly, unmowed and divot-plagued fairways and greens).

After our abject humiliation, it would be decades before we would regroup on a
 golf course (but, fortunately, have since made up for lost time).  Still, it's always
worth a moment's reflection on that very first time (whatever the category),
however painful such a memory may be.



All the Best on Your Big Day, Johann!

The evolution of a name...

He entered this world at what has to be the most

inconvenient hour ever... 3:21 am.  Due to their

understandable grogginess at the time and the pressure

 to  come up with something on the spot, Martha and

 Bill quickly settled on the name Baby -- brilliant,

 really,  rebecause what was he, if not a baby?

In the morning, after sleeping on it, they came to

 their senses and gave him a proper calling card:

 John Pruitt, an O'Brien-Marion hybrid,

the best of both worlds.

Today, we celebrate the early arrival of little "Baby"

Marion those many years ago.  All the Best on Your Big

Day, Brother Baby (aka, JP).

 .

Baby Marion Himself, in an archival

Harper Hospital photo taken shortly after birth.