Saturday, August 8, 2009

Happy Birthday Ben!

Happy Birthday to our sweet, sensitive, fastidious son, brother, uncle, and cousin Ben! We miss hearing from you more often, Ben, and we've done our best to come up with things that we know you like--or at least used to like! You'll have to visit this blog far more often (like you said you would) and update us! Anyway, know that we love you and are thinking of you today!

Here's some stuff about Ben:

Ben loves singing in barbershop choruses! After stints with groups in Chicago and Salt Lake City, Ben is now with the Great Northern Union Chorus, the group that placed third at the recent nationals in Anaheim, which Ben performed at. Ben's previous groups? They used to be good but now suck. A coincidence? We think not! Congrats, Ben!

Ben is a chef! Really! A Cordon Bleu Cooking School graduate! Move back out west soon! We want dinner ala Ben!



Ben's tastes used to be a bit less high-brow. (I did post a fancied up plate of Ramen here, though.)



Cheese Nips! Further evidence of Ben's humble food beginnings....



SoBe or not SoBe, that is the question....


Ben's a Pepper!


I know Ben has been reading Mary Roach lately! Check out the first of these titles. Is there any doubt he'd love that book?



Younger Ben used to love strange and not-normally-lovable creatures. Who can forget Martin Luther King Snake and Monte Python. Rumor has it, Ben had a tarantula, too.



In Salt Lake, one of Ben's favorite shows was RadioWest with Doug Fabrizio. Ain't Doug handsome?


Another favorite was the Radio From Hell gang at X96. NOT quite so handsome...



Ben was a dungeon master!


Ben is a linguist--he has always been fascinated by languages. You'll have to give us a rundown Ben on how many you know a decent amount of....



Ben loves all things foreign. Cat fondly recalls his foreign money collection!


World citizen Ben loved his English comedies. Monte Python was a favorite...



As was Faulty Towers



Ben is a true Wright with his love of all things Beatles....


Matt recalls his liking another English band: Electric Light Orchestra. Love that Strange Magic, baby...


Night Court. A classic!


Submitted for your approval: Ben loved Twilight Zone

Any doubt he'd be a Trekkie?

How'd we do, Ben? Any of these only things of the past? Please update us! Visit the blog more often!

Love You!!! Kisses!!!!

24 comments:

Emily said...

Happy birthday Ben!!!

Ah, a trip down memory lane right there-- great job Dan on your first Birthday post, primo. It would certainly be fun having you on here more Ben, hope you come around often.

ps, the Night Court thing was my contribution. Hee hee.

Cat said...

Nice job, Dan. It was especially nice to read it while 'Cape Canaveral' was playing! We do love Ben!

Sue said...

Happy Birthday Ben!!!! Hope all is well. Great post Dan. Love the Abbey Road picture.

Visit the blog more Ben and see what your crazy family is up to!

Pops said...

Waytogo, Dan. Great post and I'm really, really glad you did it. I was wondering if any of the sisters would and didn't even think of you. Happy birthday, Ben. I too hope you visit the blog often. Dan, Ben would never make up that nice looking Ramen dish you posted, at least for himself, see the boiled egg in it? Very un-Ben. I forgot or didn't know about some of the other things Ben liked or like. Nice Job!

Sue said...

Just so you know Dad, and so Ben knows. All four of his sisters and Matt, contributed to this posting. Dan started a facebook conversation with us all about a week ago and asked for ideas. I was going to do it, then Dan volunteered.

Emily said...

Nice observation of the Ramen dish dad, definitely not a dish Ben would partake in.

By the way, I am currently reading Stiff. Cool book.

Neaners said...

Yes Happy Birthday Ben! I hope you had a good one. I was camping in Sonoma but remembered. I remember going with you and your mom to a midnight showing of Monte Python and the Holy Grail and definitely eating ramen. I also remember our code language you made up for Amy, you and I and we had to figure it out by spelling each word. Loved languages:)Miss you lots! Hope you are well!

B said...

Happy Birthday Ben! I hope you can make it out for Thanksgiving!

Sue said...

Ben and Top Ramen certainly go together. I remember when I was a kid he put a bunch of spices together and called it "junk". It was really good on Top Ramen. Anyone else remember "junk"?

And Doug Fabrizio is a good looking guy! Most years, well maybe 8 out of the last 10, I've volunteered to answer phones at the local NPR (KUER), fund drive. One year, only a couple of us showed up to answer the phones and Doug Fabrizio and Michael Havey were hosting the fund drive. The phones got so crazy that Doug came out of the studio and sat right next to me and answered the phones for about an hour. He was wearing great, Buddy Holly, type glasses that night. Love his Utah Now show.

Cat said...

Ha Ha! I totally remember junk. I even sometimes do my own version with whatever I have on hand whenever I'm out of soysauce.

Emily said...

I think I remember junk too. Roy Evan's house? We also used to eat the ramen with real Chinese porcelain spoons.

Chef said...

Hey everybody! I finally got around to visiting the blog. I really meant to before. I'm so happy you guys remembered me on my birthday! Thanks to you Dan for that awesome post! I really enjoyed that. I promise to give you all more of an update a little later, it's late and I need to go, but I plan on participating regularly from now on. I love all of you and I can't wait to see you. I plan on coming back sometime around the holidays. The house I'm living in is in foreclosure so it looks like I have to be out by Sept. 29. I"m still seriously looking at coming back to Utah. I'll keep you up to date. Well, I think I'll go make some ramen with junk on it, put on some Beatles and ELO, have a Dr Pepper and practice some barbershop singing. Not really, time for bed. Oh, thank you Dan for the beautiful birthday card. that is one I will keep forever. I promise to keep in touch.

Emily said...

Yay! Ben's here.

Pops said...

Double Yea, Ben's here. I do hope he checks in often. Communication on the blog adds to the family unity thing. It's great how we all seem to get along and laugh together and remember the good times and feelings. Ben should be a part of that along with the new in-laws and add-ons. Welcome all.

Ems: Is Stiff a new Shane Maloney book. I haven't heard of it? Give a little info.

Emily said...

I had to look up who Shane Malony was and saw that he wrote a book that was also entitled "Stiff". The Mary Roach book- the one we are talking about, is a work of non fiction. It's second title is "The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" and it chronicles what bodies go through after we die, practices through the centuries and also just weird scenarios. (The mundane too, which to the average joe, is anything but mundane.) Some examples are bodies donated to science, old practices of body snatching, cannibalism, etc. It kind of has a tongue in cheek kind of attitude to it, or one at least of someone that has a sense of humor.
I received the book as a Christmas present from one of Rob's sisters and was pleased to note that she "gets me" and knew she could pick that book out for me and know I would find it fascinating and enjoy it.

Dan W said...

Excited to have you checking in, Ben! And you're very welcome! It was a privilege to do the post and we had fun in our behind-the-scenes brainstorming about things we remembered and knew currently. Also happy to now have created my first TKWAW post and to know how to do it. I'll just have to do it again soon!

Had a memory of a weird Wright moment as I did a little trash diving today: picking through the dumpster at some fast food restaurant during to try to find someone's retainer (Sue's I think) that had been accidentally tossed out. Am I making this up? Seems like we found it.... Fun times!

Yes, as Em says, Mary Roach is fascinating and also wrights with a neat sense of humor. Very enjoyable. Stiff is very, very interesting--everything from historical tales to various ways they use bodies to advance forensic science today, and even how a guy studies bodies from plane crashes, etc. Ben will have to tell us about Spook. He was in the middle of it when he and I last saw each other.

Sue said...

We did have to go dumpster diving for my retainer! I had wrapped it in a napkin and left it on the plastic tray and threw it away without thinking. I think it was an Artic Circle in Salt Lake. I didn't realize I didn't have it until we got home. A bunch of us went all the way back up to Salt Lake to try and find it. I remember we thought we were in for a long night. The best part was, someone asked me what we should be looking for and I picked up a wadded up napkin and said, it will look like this. And the very wadded up napkin I picked up had the retainer in it!

Cat said...

I swear, Sue that you also threw one of your retainers away at Mapleton Elementary.

Dan W said...

What you describe definitely sounds like what I remembered, Sue. Totally shocked that we found it so quickly! And I think you're right that it was an AC (I think on 7200 South or some main street in the south end of Salt Lake Valley).

Sue said...

Isn't that weird that we remember such details about it? There is an AC at the corner of State and 7200 South. Probably was that one. Weird, that was right down the street from my old house on Ft. Union. I never once thought about that story when I drove past. I also think we went and did something after like go to ice cream or a movie, because mom and dad weren't expecting us for hours.

I don't remember throwing one away at the elementary school, Cat. But I could have. Because I seem to remember the one I threw away at AC was a replacement one, and Dad was quite upset at the prospect of buying a third one.

Dan W said...

YES! I remember some of the drama over the retainer (and our determination to dig through trash all night if we needed to) was due to this being one that was already a replacement for a lost/thrown away one. Wild, too, about that AC being just down the street from you for years and not thinking about it until now. Our minds are something!

Amy said...

It was a very expensive retainer, too. Not just an ordinary one. We went miniature golfing at Trafalga afterward. I totally remember.

Sue said...

Oh yeah Trafalga! I remember that now! And yes, it was the dreaded Frankel retainer, my nemesis.

Pops said...

I remember being totally pissed that you could leave that retainer in a fast food place, Sue. It was a money thing and they were expensive. I couldn't believe you guys found it I remember.