Worlds Colliding

My friend Lew is one interesting cat. He grew up in Northern Virginia, attended Mary Washington College (now the U of MW), and landed here in Norfolk after marrying one of the best friends of one of my wives. (Still not one of my favorite expressions.) The dude's occupation, if you had to nail it down... inventor.

He's worked for tech companies and done lots of jobs. He's got patents on various devices, including a cool man-overboard device from a decade or so ago. In his spare time he distills whiskey, enjoys papal ballots and the Ip Man film series, goes to shows of various kinds (he loves GWAR and Phish), and generally is one of the more interesting people with whom I can hang out around this town.

I used to hang out with Lew more, but busy schedules and divorces often get in the way. His in-laws are super-Greek and own one of the best sports bars/Athenian restaurants in town, and I used to spend Greek Easter at their place enjoying lamb, Ouzo, lamb, Mythos, and lamb. Seriously... out back of the house they have an attached brick rotisserie where the lamb was on a spit, and for an appetizer we had lamb chops. Opa!

We do still get to hang out on occasion and get after it... it's been long enough since D2 that his wife and I are friendly again and he and I can be idiots shotgunning beers on the beach or enjoying gelatinous party favors whilst manning the fire pit in out buddy's back yard.

I used to go to concerts with Lew a bunch as well. Back when people did such things. We would see Pink Talking Fish, Umphrey's McGee, The Cult, or whoever was playing at either the Norva or the Portsmouth amphitheater. 

What was most fun was when he would drive his spare vehicle to the shows. I remember a Phish show and a few others where he would dust off his baby: a 1965 Land Rover 109 Series IIA Dormobile. Awesome, bumpy, open air fun.

I titled this post what I did because I just saw a social media post of his that says: "I'm going to miss having a vehicle with a hand crank, but hopefully another family can have just as much fun as we did with the Dormobile." 

And now it's up at Bring a Trailer.

No Reserve: 1965 Land Rover 109 Series IIA Dormobile

I can drive it to you if you buy it! (I think.)

GheorgheFest: A Story in Pictures

Gheorghe Muresan is 7'7" and 340 pounds. It's hard to imagine what that means until you actually see the man in person. And thanks to the Washington Wizards' dismal season and a well-placed FoG:TB, we got to do just that this weekend.

Worlds collided in a most improbably excellent way, as the far-flung G:TB community came together in the presence of Gheorghe: The Man for an evening of hilarity and unabashed fanboy glee. The sad sack Wizards recently offered deep discounts on luxury suites, kicking in a hefty food and beverage credit, free hats, and a visit from team ambassador Gheorghe Muresan. Our Doofus Overlord's pending nuptials gave us ample excuse for a gathering, and our friend and contributor Shlara reached out to her connections with the Wizards' management to nail the final details.

I confess to a degree of nervousness about the whole affair. I wasn't worried about anything we would do - despite our frequent bluster, we're a generally harmless bunch (the bouncer at Iron Horse may dispute this in the case of Marls). More to the point, though, I didn't want to ruin the image of Gheorghe I'd built up in my head over the years. The entire point of this blog has been to celebrate the joy and silliness in sports and life, based on our perception of a guy we'd seen on television. Shlara's known the big man for a long time, and I trusted her when she told us that he's a prince, but what if we got him on an off night? What if he disappointed us? What if Gheorghe was a standoffish dick? I really didn't want to rename this space Bryce: The Blog, or come up with a new slogan.

In the end, though, those worries were more than unfounded; they were absurd. From the moment Gheorghe entered our suite (and Oh. My. God. He is a mountainous human, broad in addition to tall, as the pictures in this post attest.) he was gracious, funny, kind, and generous. He patiently answered our questions about things serious and goofy, he cracked wise about his skill and grace, he talked about the game, his children, and all manner of other things. He seemed genuinely amused by our fondness for him (and took pictures of both the "GheorgheFest" banner Shlara made for the occasion and the cupcakes emblazoned with '77' that Teejay's fiance baked for us). He's a massive, enormous, prince of a guy.

As a result of combination of our age and the volumes of alcohol we consumed over an evening that didn't end for some of us until 3:30 in the morning, there are a few parts of the evening that we won't likely remember all that well. The 30 some-odd minutes we spent with Gheorghe are something we won't likely ever forget.

"No, Dave, you can't try to post me up."

Stairsteps

Yes, that shirt does read "now back to your regularly scheduled dipshittery"

 

Shlara and Ghita

Can't wait for GheorgheFest II.

Special Bonus Dipshittery:

Gheorghe wasn't the only celebrity we hung out with last night. To wit: