1. I hadn’t yet consumed enough caffeine to counteract last night’s Piper-Heidsieck, or
2. Mr. Carson did a little post-posting editing.

No problem. Glad to oblige. Just send the kids out of the room!

1.) I believe that a curse was put on me by one of my high school math teachers that I should have to make my living with numbers and logic, which I have done now since approximately 1983. I hated math, barely making it though my classes. I even went for the option of “Bachelor of Fine Arts” in college so as to eliminate any math requirements for my degree. I could probably name the teacher that put the curse on me, but I don’t remember the name of a single one of them (except for Mr. Curran, 10th grade Geometry).

2.) My first car was a Volkswagen Squareback that had been assembled out of parts of other totaled Volkswagens. The assembler then painted the car a uniform color of U.S. Marine issue flat green paint (acquired from a surplus store). The motif was completed with irregular spray-paint shapes of gray, brown, and black primer for a camouflage effect. With my ponytail, mutton-chop sideburns, and full-length pea-coat, I was quite the little Hippy in college.

3.) I was in a 10-second television commercial at age 10. The client was Interstate Bakeries, which baked bread under regional brand names like “Weber’s” and “Butternut” (it had blue gingham-patterned packaging). It was the mid 1960′s, and the ad was for the first plastic resealable bags for bread (previously bread came in waxed paper wrappers, kids). I took the last five slices out of a bag, blew it up, and popped it. Gary Owens (of Laugh-In and radio fame) did the voice-over.

4.) As is the case with LearningNerd, I attended a private high school in the greater Los Angeles area. No movie stars were there at the time, although Joan Crawford had sent her daughter there when she wasn’t yelling at her for using wire hangers. One of my classmates went on to moderate fame at the helm of an 80′s dance band called Nu Shooz.

5.) When I went to work at Starbucks in 1992, I met Howard Schultz in adjoining urinals in the men’s room. It was cordial, but we didn’t shake… hands.