In that little talk referenced by PaperDoll, I told the crowd that the last time I was the only boy in the room was in high school typing class a hundred years ago ... causing the sweetheart Juliet Macur to ask, "And you were there only to learn to type?"....
Well, sorta ... and I was sorta in Dallas to do my little talk about why I love what we do ... I was really there because I've been an AWSM member 15 years, I believe AWSM is important to our business, and I wanted to say out loud what I've believed for a long time: that three of the best sportswriters I've ever known are women: Betty Cuniberti, Jane Leavy, and Joan Ryan. More important, I wanted to say I admire and respect them so much because they write complex ideas simply while getting to the heart of the issue and their subjects.
Besides, what's bad about going to dinner with 100 of the best looking sportswriters in America, all in little black dresses? (Sportswriter spouse Dave Barry and I were an under-dressed matched pair in the standard male banquet uniform of blazer, tie, khakis, loafers)....
It was worth the trip to be there when the four founders of AWSM took to the banquet microphone to explain how, 20 years ago, they came to create the association that will be their legacy to the business. Their names are Christine Brennan, Michelle Himmelberg, Kristin Huckshorn, and Tracy Dodds. To quote the giddy Huckshorn, it happened this way: "We got drunk!" Good to learn that the women operate in the same way men do.
And what a hotel, the Hilton Anatole .... gorgeous, elegant, filled with sculpture (elephants! Will Rogers on a horse!), Asian art (statues of Buddha and/or Whitlock, I couldn't tell which)....AWSM does it up right....
