Meeting a Friend Who Remembers Spy Magazine–Priceless!

My days are much simpler now, and  it’s amazing how the fog and fear has lifted. I felt positively joyous upon my return from a stellar press trip up in Montreal.  While it might have been all of that endorphin-inducing bike riding through the city streets, I think it was that I was  doing exactly that I love and I was in the company of such bright young writers.  Oh, and I also got to know a man who is closer to my age. I know we’d hit it off when as we were riding together, I mentioned one of what I consider the  all-time greatest magazines ever...Spy.  A guy who loved Spy as much as once I did has a lot going for him.

It went on and on like that. He’d bring up a topic, I’d find myself agreeing whole-heartedly, and in his case, he had so many interesting stories to share. Like being a contestant once  on Jeopardy, or driving a car the length of Italy for a Washington Post magazine story. He took me back to the days of big time old style print journalists, regaling me with great tales but never bragging or acting like a big shot. He simply had had a lot of fun and he was relating it to an interested colleague.

It was also interesting how we agreed on other topics.  I told him the story about when I was about to attend a party wearing a jacket, and my partner at the time scoffed at me, saying that nobody wears jackets like that any more. He said that he always wears a jacket and tie when he takes his wife out, and we agreed that one of the worst fashion statements of all time is the man with his oxford shirt untucked…or even worse if it’s underneath a jacket!

As we pedaled along we found so many things that we men of a certain age agree on, and we found ourselves chuckling at the similarities. One young woman on the trip had never heard of Frank Lloyd Wright–this struck us both as amazing!  And what’s with Lady Gaga, anyway? To us, she’s just recycled early Madonna, with those same infectious beats and naughty outrageous outfits.

When the waiter came to serve us, yes, of course we’d both have a glass of red.  Oh, and after, yes bring us both a small espresso. Yes, sometimes there’s nothing better than being the two old guys on the trip, the guys who sit together and laugh, and truly, get everything the other one is saying.