new hood, old friends

I’ve been in Ann Arbor for almost two months now, but I’ve hardly met anyone other than a few people in the neighborhood.
One of the coolest things about blogging, though, is that it can turn out you know more people in more places than you realized. I tend not to think of bloggers in terms of their geographic location, and perhaps for that reason, I had not realized (or remembered) until a couple of weeks ago that one of my very first friends in the blogosphere — the legendary Dean Esmay — lives within driving distance of here, and visits Ann Arbor regularly. So after touching bases by email, we arranged to meet up for a post-lunch coffee today at Mark’s Midtown Coney Island, where I’d never been (I’m still finding my way around), but very much enjoyed.
It was a real honor for me to finally meet Dean after all these years. There aren’t all that many classical liberals, but Dean is one of them, and he’s been an ongoing inspiration to this blog from the very beginning. We might not always reach identical results in our thinking (does anyone?), but we share the same principles, and I wish there were more bloggers like Dean, whose integrity is impeccable, and whose ability to see through bullshit is second to none.
It’s incredibly cool that I’ve moved more or less into Dean’s hood. Having a respected old friend living in the area makes Ann Arbor go up in my estimation.
And speaking of hoods, after we had coffee and talked for a couple of hours, we went outside and posed on the hood! (Of Dean’s car, that is….) There was no one around to take the picture, so I positioned my camera on a USA Today box, and set the timer.
Here are the two troublemakers on the hood:

And if you don’t find that picture enlightening enough, you’ll definitely be enlightened by Dean’s bumper, which has the bumpersticker to end all bumperstickers:

Dean’s own design, of course. Naturally I’m jealous, as they can’t be bought anywhere.
Of course, now that I’ve unleashed Dean’s logically unassailable meme on the world, just watch some leftist whiner design another bumpersticker that says,
“If Bumper Stickers Are the Answer, Then What Was the Question?”
While it’s probably just a coincidence, I see that since our little get-together, Dean has issued a death threat against his readers. (Geez, he seemed so peaceful over coffee….)
Seriously, though, it’s not easy being in a new place, and I’m grateful to Dean for making me feel welcome here. It’s amazing to think that I was lucky enough to have an old friend, right here in my new place.
Another lesson in the magic of the blogosphere.