Bloomington, Minnesota Thomas Jefferson Class of 1975 50-Year Reunion

I didn't make it to any of my high school reunion celebrations until our 25th in 2000. Our 50th was last weekend. For our 10th reunion I was so out of the loop that I didn't realize we were having one. I found out about it while watching the Johnny Carson Show from one of Johnny's guests, Teresa Ganzel. Teresa was a regular on his program, and although I recognized her from some appearances she had made in film and on The Tonight Show, I didn't realize she was the same young woman who used to walk past our home on Saturday mornings on her way to drama practice at the high school we both attended. I knew her as Terry Ganzel in high school, but in her professional life as an actress she went by Teresa Ganzel, with a different emphasis placed on the last syllable of her last name. 

Johny asked her what she had done the previous weekend, and she replied that she attended her 10-year high school reunion in Bloomington, Minnesota—a 1975 graduate of Bloomington Jefferson high school, as was I. It clicked for me then that she was a classmate of mine. 

Part of our 50th reunion last weekend was a tour of our high school. I had been there once since graduation, about 15 years ago for a dance competition Rachel was participating in, but I was limited in how much of the inside of the school I could see. I enjoyed the tour very much. Here are a few photos I took.

(I was a mediocre student, never reaching my potential. There was a great education to be had at Jefferson but I was too immature to see that and take advantage of it. I regret that now.)

Saturday evening's reunion was a very nice time. I had several lengthy conversations with classmates which cut into my time for visiting with others, but such is the nature of these gatherings. I stayed until last call and wished I'd had a few more hours to spend chatting. 

Charlie Kirk, podcaster and right-wing provocateur, was shot and killed a few days ago while speaking with students on the campus of Utah Valley University. President Trump took to the airwaves to spew his hate for those who can't get enough of his lies and, without any proof, blamed the killing on "radical leftists." It wasn't. Late yesterday, a 22 year-old man from Utah, steeped in conservative and MAGA politics, confessed to the killing. Apparently, Kirk wasn't conservative enough for him.

And so it goes. 

I don't take pleasure in Kirk's death, but better him—a man who routinely pushed for an armed society, and stated that deaths by guns of innocent people are a price worthy of paying for our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms—than someone like me who would rather we do more to contain this scourge, like the rest of the developed world does. 

Kirk is being memorialized by conservatives as a beacon of virtue. He was not. 

Dan McClellan responding to Charlie Kirk on Christian Nationalism.

The founder of Supertramp, Rick Davies, died one week ago of cancer. Rick was 81. I first heard of Supertramp in the summer of 1974 while driving with my friend John in his Plymouth Duster, listening to Crime of the Century on John's 8-track player. One of my favorite songs of Rick's was Rudy, from Crime of the Century; a masterpiece of an album!

That's all I've got. 

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