Birthday Boys
The Lincoln Highway, Old Ebbitt Grill, David Garfield, Julius Erving, Scrapped Santa
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. I hope you enjoy the picks and pics.
Fave Five 6: Birthday Boys. Modern mythology (The Lincoln Highway), the oldest saloon in Washington (Old Ebbitt Grill), Missouri Music Maker (David Garfield), the Doctor is in (Julius Erving), and a Scrapped Santa.
November is full of birthdays of close friends and family members:
3rd: Robin Mueller (our music friend in Georgetown, TX)
5th: Don Alles (our music friend in Roseville, MN)
6th: Barb Hayes (my darling wife) and Jeff Stoner (our neighborhood friend in Northville, MI)
8th: Kieran Garfield (our second grandson, pictured above)
9th: John Hovell (my knowledge management friend in Washington, DC)
13th: Barbara Osher (our friend in Franklin, MI) and Denise Feikema (our music friend in Bradenton, FL)
15th: Janelle Monney (our friend in Mill Valley, CA)
25th: The late Steve Carter (our dear friend from Northville, MI)
26th: John Bommarito (our music friend in Plymouth, MI)
30th: Julian Kahlscheuer (our first grandson), Nick Robins (our Clayton High School classmate in San Francisco), Harlan Luxenberg (our nephew) and his twin sister Rebecca Luxenberg (our niece)
Barb and I celebrated her birthday in New York City with our friends Bill and Cora Sterling and in Silver Spring, Maryland with our son and his family. Today we will celebrate Kieran’s first birthday with his parents, Roger and Cristi, and his sister, Sommer. On John Hovell’s birthday tomorrow I will dine with him at the Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington, DC, featured below. We will also celebrate the publication this week of his new book, Creating Conversational Leadership.
Book Best Bet
The Lincoln Highway: A Novel by Amor Towles
We drove to New York last week, but not on the Lincoln Highway. New York City is where much of the action in this book takes place. I liked it, but not quite as much as two of his others, A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility. I thought that the plot and the characters were implausible. Nonetheless, the fine storytelling propelled me through its nearly 600 pages. In discussing the book with my sister Joan, she thought that Towles intended to tell a modern myth of the hero’s journey, and this makes sense. I recommend this book along with the other two listed above.
From Amazon: In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York.
Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.
Welcome to the enormous pleasure that is The Lincoln Highway, a big book of camaraderie and adventure in which the miles fly by and the pages turn fast. Set over the course of ten riveting days, the story of these four boys unfolds, refolds, tears, and is taped back together. When you aren’t actually reading the book, you’ll be worrying about the characters, so you might as well stay in your chair and keep reading. — Ann Patchett
I have been a fan of Amor Towles for a few years now and his recent novel The Lincoln Highway is fantastic. Set in 1954, he uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope. —Bill Gates
Restaurant Recommendation
Old Ebbitt Grill 675 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
I am at the KMWorld Conference in Washington, DC. Tomorrow I will dine at this legendary eatery with another birthday boy, John Hovell, and four other knowledge management colleagues. The extensive menu features jumbo lump crab cakes, oysters, and burgers.
This is where Barb and I first met Cristi’s parents, Gina and Jim Farrell, five years ago:
Barb, Roger, and I had a memorable brunch there eight years ago:
I had the catfish po’ boy, now replaced by the Chesapeake Bay Blue Catfish Sandwich (cornmeal crusted, lettuce, tomato, Cajun remoulade, coleslaw, potato bun).
The Old Ebbitt Grill, Washington's oldest saloon, was founded in 1856 when, according to legend, innkeeper William E. Ebbitt bought a boarding house. Today, no one can pinpoint the house’s exact location, but it was most likely on the edge of present-day Chinatown.
As a boarding house, the Ebbitt guest list read like a Who's Who of American History. President McKinley is said to have lived there during his tenure in Congress, and Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt and Warren Harding supposedly refreshed themselves at its stand-around bar.
Marvelous Musician
My brother David was also in New York this past weekend. Last Thursday he returned to the St. Louis-area high school from which we both graduated, Clayton High School. He shared his insights and experiences and answered young musicians’ questions in an exclusive Masterclass in An Evening with David Garfield: Insights from a Hall of Fame Musician.
I am David’s biggest fan. Here we are at my daughter Tracy’s wedding five years ago:
David was inducted into the Clayton High School Alumni Hall of Fame on April 23, 2022:
David regularly performs livestream concerts from his home in Los Angeles. Here is the most recent one from October 29, 2022 with Steve Ferrone, Jimmy Earl, and Keith Fiddmont:
David was the long-time musical director for George Benson. He has recorded with George Benson, Smokey Robinson, Cher, Larry Carlton, Steve Lukather, Spinal Tap, The Manhattan Transfer, Eros Ramazzotti, David Sanborn, and The Rippingtons. He has performed with Freddie Hubbard, Boz Scaggs, Earl Klugh, Oleta Adams, Brenda Russell, Natalie Cole, Michael Bolton, Willie Bobo, Larry Coryell, Tom Scott, and Alex Ligertwood. David is a founding member of Karizma and Los Lobotomys. His production and arrangement of Al Green's “Let’s Stay Together” from his CD Tribute to Jeff featured the singing of Michael McDonald, Don Henley, Richard Marx, Bill Champlin, and David Pack.
David was ahead of me in appreciating pop, rock, and jazz. In 1964 he would listen to The Beatles on KXOK in St. Louis on his tiny transistor radio under the covers when we were supposed to be asleep. In 1967 I caught up with him, and we listened to pop and rock on Top 40 AM stations WABC and WMCA and the new and cool WOR-FM in New York. We bought albums and listened to them together, played drums along to the records, and operated radio stations together.
David helped Barb's brother Buzz Hayes compose and arrange the music for the 1972 Clayton High School Talent Show, and co-led this for the 1973 show. He attended Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and this was a very meaningful experience for him. After graduating from high school in 1974, he and his friend Richard Tokatz moved to Los Angeles. After passing the hat for a while, he caught on with Willie Bobo and then Freddie Hubbard.
I first saw David play with Freddie in the 1970s at Ratso's in Chicago and Bunky's in Madison, Wisconsin. This is when I realized that he was a very talented pianist and that I liked jazz. At Bunky's, a couple told me they had come early to sit right in front of the piano because the pianist was the best part of the show. I was beaming with pride, and have continued to be proud ever since.
I asked David to provide the dance music when Barb and I were married in 1981. He got Randy Holmes and some other local St. Louis musicians to perform with him at our wedding reception at Le Chateau Village, including "The Last Time I Felt Like This" and a special mystery song, "Renata," that was my favorite. Over the years I have seen him perform dozens of times throughout the U.S. One highlight was seeing him play with George Benson and Earl Klugh in November, 1987 at The Detroit Masonic Temple. In June, 2007, David played a house concert in our home along with Richard Tokatz on percussion and the late Donald Mayberry on upright bass.
He helped plan and performed at my surprise 60th birthday party with Alex Ligertwood and musicians from Detroit and Cleveland. I was thrilled when David co-wrote and recorded the song "Sea of Truth" with Ari Hest, who is another favorite performer. Here are 75 songs from his catalog to enjoy:
Sports Star
Today is my grandson Kieran’s first birthday. His full name is Kieran Julius Garfield — the middle name is for my grandfather, Julius Garfield. But it is also for my favorite basketball player, Julius Erving, also known as “The Doctor” and “Dr. J.” Kieran’s father, Roger, played basketball at Kalamazoo College and currently is an assistant coach at Gonzaga College High School, and shares my love of basketball.
I was fortunate to see Julius play during his prime. For the last two seasons of the ABA (American Basketball Association) in 1974-76, I worked for the Spirits of St. Louis. As a statistician, I sat courtside next to the visiting team’s bench. I remember how excited I was the first time the New York Nets came to town, because that was my first chance to see The Doctor operate up close. He was as spectacular as advertised, dominating every game both offensively and defensively. The recurring play I recall best is Julius stealing the ball at center court and quickly dribbling to the hoop, powerfully dunking over a hapless defender, and getting an and-1. The defender was left in a heap on the floor after being called for the foul.
Julius won three championships — two with the Nets of the ABA (1974 and 1976) and one with 76ers of the NBA (1983). He won four Most Valuable Player awards, and three scoring titles with the ABA's Virginia Squires and New York Nets (now the NBA's Brooklyn Nets) and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. During his 16 seasons as a player, none of his teams ever missed the postseason. He is the eighth-highest scorer in ABA/NBA history with 30,026 points (NBA and ABA combined). He was well known for slam dunking from the free-throw line in Slam Dunk Contests and was the only player voted Most Valuable Player in both the ABA and the NBA. The basketball slang of being posterized was first coined to describe his moves. In 1993, Erving was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
In the first round of the 1975 ABA playoffs, the Spirits faced the defending champion New York Nets. The Nets had won all 11 of the regular season games and were expected to sweep the first round series. They did win the first game, but it was close. The Spirits won Game 2 at the Commack Arena on Long Island and returned home tied at one game apiece. Game 3 was a classic, featuring an epic back-and-forth shootout between Julius and the late Marvin Barnes, the Spirits’ rookie star forward. The Spirits won a thriller and went on to win the next two games as well. This was one of the most surprising upsets in sports history. Julius committed an atypical turnover in the deciding Game 5, leading to Freddie Lewis’s buzzer-beater to win the game and the series. For my friend Tom Marcus and me, there is no better sports memory.
Picture Pun
Can’t hold a candle to the one they bought to replace him.
