25 Things About Me

• I was circumsized twice.
• At age 8, I appeared on a live tv morning show in Philadelphia...and gagged on a dry roasted peanut during a game celebrating George Washington Carver's birthday....and threw up on the air.
• I won several Punt, Pass & Kick trophies between the ages of 8 and 12 in black neighborhoods around Philadelphia, because somehow my mother knew that black kids couldn't punt or kick.
• There was a plane crash two blocks from my childhood home, in the schoolyard of my elementary school... that killed Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz.
• My grandfather played professional basketball for the SPHAS (South Philadelphia Hebrew Association) in the American Basketball League, the precursor to the NBA.
• The girl I took to my High School prom was later suspended when she was caught giving oral sex to a guy in an empty classroom. I received no such gift.
• As a teenager, I worked for Billie Jean King and her Philadelphia Freedoms World Team Tennis franchise. In that job, I drove Elton John around for a day (inspiring him to write a song) ... and presented him a team jersey as a gift.... and then bought that jersey on eBay 30 years later.
• I rowed crew for an entire season in high school and didn't finish ahead of a single boat.... until the City Championships, which I won.
• I lost my first cousin Ricky to Cystic Fibrosis at age 9.
• My parents took me to see Janis Joplin at the Atlantic City Pop Festival in 1967. I also saw Bruce Springsteen at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr (with about 150 other people) in 1975. And I was at the Talking Heads show at the Pantages in 1984 that became the movie STOP MAKING SENSE.
• I fawned over my wife in college, but didn't "close the deal" until we met up again 15 years later while waiting in line with our kids for balloon animals at Universal CityWalk.
• I'm comfortable enough with my heterosexuality to admit I saw Falsettoland 15 times.
• I went thru my entire 4 year college career at Northwestern (attending nearly every home game) without our football team winning a single game... the longest such streak ever.
• I own over 300 pairs of sneakers.
• I was "detained" by police in Philadelphia for selling bootleg t-shirts at a Yes / Peter Frampton concert.
• I was the President of my High School.
• I've won a fantasy baseball league in each of the last 3 years.
• I've seen baseball games in 16 of 30 major league stadiums, and my wife and I will spend our retirement traveling the country in an RV seeing the rest.
• I had a Facebook account before either of my teenage children.
• I've been robbed at gunpoint.
• I consult with the Angels to book the Opening Day and post-season anthem singers.
• I ran over Patrick Swayze's dog (who had fallen asleep under my car) after pre-interviewing him and scouting his house for a tv show. The dog was not hurt... and I hid in the production truck for the remainder of the show.
• I produced 2 of TV GUIDE'S 50 Worst TV Shows of all time... #4 WOOPS... and #46 THE WILTON NORTH REPORT... the only Producer so honored, twice!
• My wife and step-daughter converted to Judaism. Woody converted too, lured by the refreshing swim in the mikva.
• My son, despite being non-verbal, is the most expressive (and inspirational) person I know
• My wife and kids will tell you that the happiest moment of my life was watching Scott Spiezio's 3 run HR in the bottom of the 7th in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series. I say that just to piss them off.