This is going to be a memorable month for me, which is unfortunate because I’m getting so old I can rarely remember anything. However, here are two things I think are going to happen. On the 4th an enormously long article I wrote about Phoenix Suns basketball star Steve Nash will be the cover story of the Phoenix New Times newspaper. You may well be reading about the article’s explosive contents in your local paper, the Internet and/or hearing about it on national television. I likely will become internationally famous and live a grand life of epic proportions. Or I can just stay right here and continue to be completely delusional.  

Please try raising your ancient hand if you remember Procol Harum’s 1967 enigmatic hit “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”. While that ditty is certainly their signature song, over the years the band created many classic albums that all showcased the soulful, evocative voice of lead singer Gary Brooker, who is now 65. I was a mere lad of 20 and he two years my senior when AWSOP hit the charts and we’ve been great friends ever since. Well, he’s actually been my imaginary friend, but that’s all about to change when Mr. Brooker and I finally meet for the first time on Sunday, November 14th in a little California city I like to call Los Angeles.

I have contemplated  the scene in my head many times over and it always plays out the same way – I tell Gary, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, how thoroughly his singing has entertained and comforted me over the years and he sighs with enormous relief as I’m hauled away by security. But as I leave…and this is the genius part…I endear myself to him forever because Iskip the light fandango and turn cartwheels ‘cross the floor.  No way he’s not going to love that.

So that’s what’s happening…. I’m going to be society’s darling and Gary Brooker and I are going to be doing all kinds of fun stuff together and meanwhile you can look at this blanket that has a great history. It belonged to Charles Ferguson, who was the Pendleton mill foreman from 1901-1906.  During that time, the mill made only round corner blankets, so what’s this? A blanket he acquired after he left Pendleton or a prototype or even the product of another company? I think it’s a Pendleton made between 1908 and 1910 and the pattern is truly one of a kind. I’d continue writing, but I really have to get ready for a big party where witty, beautiful people are all going to make a huge fuss over me.