Miles 1759-1764, Dan and Bev Toon. Thank You!
Regular readers of the Paddy Runs for Haiti blog know that last year Dan was elected to the board of the Dearborn County Public Library. Though he failed in his bid to bring back newspapers on sticks, Dan has been at the forefront of some other very popular initiatives, such as last Friday's "True Brew", which was basically a beer-drinking party. Drinking beer in a library, how cool is that?
Man, times have changed....when I was a kid, the librarians wouldn't even let us chew gum.
The beer was provided by the Great Crescent Brewery, located just down the road in Aurora and author Rita Kohn made an appearance to sign copies of her book, also called True Brew. That way it could be considered a literary event and not just a bunch of people getting loaded. There was food too, and partnering with Dan behind the catering table was fellow Paddy Runs donor Jim Scott.
Perhaps Dan's next proposal should be a regular library happy hour.
Bev, who teaches music at Manchester elementary school, is rehearsing for the school Christmas show. I know what you're thinking..."Christmas? Now? Is this a school or a department store?"
Well, Bev only gets 20 minutes a week with each class, so rehearsals start early. I don't know how they do it, personally. If I had a week between rehearsals, I'd forget everything, lines, blocking and all.
Yesterday's run started off normally. I cruised along and enjoyed the surroundings. Leaves are starting to fall. Passing the Harlem Meer, I said Hi to actor Mark Dold, now appearing in Freud's Last Session. Mark and I worked together on Amadeus a few years ago.
As I climbed the Harlem Hill, a woman on a bike pulled up next to me.
"You're fast!" she said, "It took me forever to catch up with you."
She drifted on but the hill eventually slowed her down and the two of us were huffing up the hill side by side.
"If I were single, I'd flirt with you." she said. These New York women cut right to the chase.
"If I were single....I'd flirt back!"
Either because of the ego boost from that woman or maybe because I'm actually sort of fit, I managed to set a personal record on this run, getting around the Park in 40 minutes and 38 seconds.
