things we forgot
G: We haven't been doing much
this week. But there are a few things to mention.
We forgot to mention in last week's news that we got a rare chance to
visit with John's step sister Mary (who was visiting from out of town
with a friend, Jenny), and less rare, step brother Jamie (and his
girlfriend, Kristen). We met them plus Thom and friend of his, Maureen,
at the Harp and Fiddle in Bethesda one night. We all had a lovely time.
Here are some pictures.
John and I went back to Thom's place and ate a lot of peppers and
tomatoes with hummus and chatted with him and Kathy well into the
night.
Sunday evening Joey and Renata came over to have a bicycle maintenance
party. Mostly Joey fixed up an old bike that is to be the spare for
Franklin's rides, or Lori's bike if she wants to ride. John helped and
they all drank beer, I got ready to do some but decided there wasn't
anything to do really so I went inside to watch the Emmy awards. I
don't watch any TV shows but I love Conan O'Brien, and I also love Jon
Stewart and Stephen Colbert. So it was fun to see them.
Monday night John said, "Let's go out and do something fun." I didn't
feel like doing much so I decided we should try out a restaurant that
we'd never been to. I got out my
VEG DC
guide and that helped me
remember that there is a vegetarian Indian restaurant very close to
Udupi Palace, our favorite vegetarian Indian restaurant. It's called
Woodlands and it's in the shopping plaza diagonally across the
intersection from Udupi. We went there and liked our food, and it was a
bit less expensive than Udupi too. But of course, especially since I've
been eating a low fat diet, the food seemed quite oily. Are there any
Indian restaurants that cook low fat?
We also forgot to mention last week that John's brother Frank just
became a father again, twice more this time. His wife Shawn, who is a
twin herself, had twin boys! Frank had an accident when he
was driving to the hospital to see his newborns, but came out
unscathed. His truck lost a tire
and wrapped itself around a tree. Frank and family are all together now.
johnny depp pulled my plug
J: Around 1990, Baltimore City--
there I was, minding my own business in the backyard of someone's large
old row house. I had ridden my motorcycle about 40 miles to a party to
meet with some friends. I was sitting on the grassy lawn next to my
helmet and leathers, chatting with my friend Maria.
Suddenly it seemed that everyone else in the yard (perhaps 30 to 40
people) received some silent yet inexorable signal. Everyone's head
turned toward the back door of the house, then, like monarch
butterflies taking off in unison, everyone except me and Maria made a
mad dash for the doorway, and somehow all of them squeezed through it.
Within seconds, Maria and I were alone.
I had a brief moment of panic. Had I missed someone pointing out a
sniper? Were Maria and I the only targets left at the party? Maria
looked unconcerned.
I looked around quickly and said, "What the hell was that all about?"
Maria said, "Oh, Johnny Depp was supposed to show up to this party. I
guess he's here."
I had a brief vision of Johnny "21 Jump Street" Depp, struggling to
relive his not-so-famous past for a few hours, only to wade through the
usual mass of fans occluding his friends and the the keg. Or maybe he
enjoyed the attention, I don't know. I certainly didn't want to be part
of the feeding frenzy.
Maria said, "You want to go in there?"
I said "Uh uh, no thanks, you go ahead." She declined and we sat on the
lawn having good small talk about nothing much.
As it turned out Johnny didn't stay long; I guess he was just pulling a
cameo, or maybe the party was too, um, suffocating. We could tell that
he was gone though. The party returned to normal density clusters, now
that the small neutron star had safely passed through the neighborhood.
Much later I walked through the house and out the front door, where my
motorcycle was happily waiting for me about three steps away from the
porch, on the sidewalk. Good old Baltimore. They don't call it Charm
City for nothing. You can safely park your scoot on the sidewalk. Not
like DC. Park on a sidewalk in DC and you'll be lucky to get a ticket
if your bike isn't stolen first.
I sat down comfortably on my scoot, a BMW GS1000 boxer. I was eager to
enjoy possibly the best part of the evening (not counting Maria's
company, of course): the long, fast, cool ride home.
I turned the key, bumped the Beemer forward off its center stand,
checked to see it was in neutral gear, pulled in the clutch and pressed
the ignition button. My Beemer shuddered to life with a thump thump
thump thump thump... This was unusual. Two cylinder boxers don't
usually sound like one cylinder thumpers.
While the bike thumped and shook, I bent down to look at my cylinder
heads, and checked my spark plug wires. The wire on the right cylinder
had been pulled off its plug, and was just hanging loose. "Very funny,"
I mumbled, but I smiled to myself at the little prank someone had
pulled on me. Someone who knew bikes was saying hi, in a mischievous
way. I killed the ignition, popped the socket back on, started the bike
and, satisfied with its characteristic rumble, I drove off into the
night.
It was only much, much later, years later, that I started putting the
pieces together: Johnny Depp (a motorcyclist himself and an occasional
practical joker) visits Charm City to film Cry-Baby, where he plays a
biker and gang leader. Johnny gets invited to a party where he's
absolutely swamped by fans and has to leave early. But on his way out
he sees a
GS1000,
a really big, beautiful, odd bike. like most motorcyclists, Johnny just
has to check it out. Perhaps he sits on it for a few seconds,
checking out the saddle, pegs, and bars. The temptation to play a
practical biker-joke is just too great, so he quickly pulls the spark
plug socket and walks off, chuckling and wondering how long it'll take
the rider to figure that one out.
Or—more likely—one of my friends popped the plug wire.
But blaming it on Johnny Depp feels so much more satisfying. Face it—
getting your plug pulled by Johnny Depp (euphemisms aside) is much
better than an autograph. Plus, I get to pretend that my magical
motorbike helped him forget the madding masses. By pulling an anonymous
prank, Johnny became anonymous himself, if only for one person.
So, thanks for the good memories, Johnny! I owe you a beer!
PS - I heard you're playing Syd Barrett (our hero of the month this
month) in an upcoming movie about Pink Floyd. I know you'll do a
wonderful job. Keep up the good work.
:-j
