Naked Lunch

Yes, the rumors are true. The vaunted Northern Alliance of Blogs did indeed gather yesterday for a luncheon pow-wow with our charismatic Commissioner, Hugh Hewitt. The setting was Billy's Lighthouse in Long Lake, Minnesota, west of Minneapolis.

And the turnout was unprecedented, with all the families blogs, with the exception of Lileks (rumor has it that he finally installed a DVD player in the ice house, and is spending the weekend there watching Wizard of Oz while listening to Dark Side of the Moon) , having a representative on hand. It should be noted that while we missed the physical presence of James, his spirit was evident, as demonstrated by Saint Paul's knowledge of Star Wars characters that bordered on the ridiculous.

Here's a shot of the whole gang. Well, almost the whole gang. Eloise from Spitbull was a little camera shy and elected not to participate. But let it be noted that she was on hand, and that this was not some sort of right wing sausage party (said party will be hosted by Mitch sometime this summer).

To help clarify matters, and to make damn sure that no one mistakes me for one of these other slack jawed yokels, each attendee has been numbered:




1. The Lord High Chamberlain himself

2. Generalissimo Duane

3. Fraters own Saint Paul

4. The soft spoken JB Doubtless, also of Fraters fame

5. King from the SCSU Scholars

6. Scott Johnson (The Big Trunk) from Power Line

7. Ed from Captain's Quarters

8. All the women want him, all the men want to be like him: Atomizer

9. Mitch Berg from Shot In The Dark

10. The Warrior Monk from Spitbull

11. Your humble servant

12. John Hinderacker (Hindrocket) from Power Line

The man much maligned by Hugh (very unfairly I must add), Jay Larson from AM1280 The Patriot was also at the luncheon, and was kind enough to take the group shot for us.

And, as your probably already noticed, no meet up with Hugh could be complete without an appearance by the Hockey Commissioner Hugh action figure.

We had a wide-ranging free-wheeling discussion of many issues, usually steered by Hugh. Of course we did have to correct a few misconceptions that Hugh has picked up about Minnesota (unfortunately it would require weeks to clear up ALL of Hugh's misconceptions about the state), such as his on-air statement that there are "a lot of trailer homes here". As JB Doubtless so succinctly asked, "What, did you see a bunch of trailer homes out on Lake Minnetonka?"

Hugh asked each of us to make predictions for the 2004 Presidential election, and gave us all of ten minutes to decide which way each state would go as well as the net pick up of Senate seats for the GOP. Since Hugh collected all the tallies and is not exactly known for his fair and balanced reporting, let me state for the record that I gave Bush 340 electoral votes, Kerry (or any other Dem) 195, and the GOP a net gain of three Senate seats.

I also had the opportunity to talk with Generalissimo Duane at length, and he had some quite interesting things to say. He was very impressed with the manner in which we ran the 'Hugh's Best Guest' competition, even going so far as to say that he himself could not have done a better job. I believe his exact words were "flawlessly executed".

Duane also confided that this most recent trip to Minnesota has been a revelation to him. He had thought that living in Southern California was paradise, but has come to realize instead, that the North Star State is really his land of milk and honey. This is supposed to be on the QT so don't tell you know Hugh, but Duane is planning on relocating as soon as is feasibly possibly. He even discretely slipped me a couple of his resumes to distribute to local stations.

It was a entertaining and enlightening afternoon, whose only negative aspect was that it had to end all too soon. Hugh was gracious as always, and even went so far as to pry open his cobweb covered, George Costanza-ish ("This...is an organizer, a secretary, and a friend.") wallet and pick up the tab. Now that's what you call leadership.

If you're wondering about the title of the post, my advice is don't ask. I'm still trying to repress images of Hugh on a sled and King in front of his computer that epitomize the term "bad naked".