“Miscellaneous” says it all, really.

My (Formerly) Secret Life in the Military-Industrial Complex

“Looking up, [Norton] saw one of his assistants, Scott Pearson, walking toward him. A slim man in his early forties, Pearson carried a black leather ledger and was dressed in a well-tailored charcoal-gray suit and maroon loafers, his conservative attire at odds with the long brown hair he wore pulled back into a ponytail. His narrow frameless eyeglasses gave him the appearance of a professor at UC Berkeley. Though Norton usually preferred his senior staff to maintain a more clean-cut appearance, he permitted Pearson a few minor rebellions, owing to the fact that he had—over the years—become his indispensable righthand man.”

Hey, loose lips sink ships, guys. I’ve carefully crafted my persona as a tubby, shabbily dressed guy with a ponytail who is a writer and editor so no one would know I work for shady defense contractors as a slim, well-dressed guy with a ponytail, but now you’ve blown my cover.

So, I guess I have to return the favor. Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore are not a writing team composed of a former U.S. Marine and a writer for Hallmark. They are really a twelve-year-old girl and her blind pet hamster.

I’m not sure which is which.

Leatherheads of the North Media Appearances

Thanks to whichever network this screen cap came from

Chuck Frederick, author of Leatherheads of the North, got to attend the George Clooney and Renee Zellweger press conference in Duluth promoting their film Leatherheads. He gave them a copy of the book, and they showed it off a bit. Now that I’ve edited an X-comm book that’s in Clooney’s, can working on a Clooney screenplay be far behind? Yes. Yes, it can be way far behind.

Lisa Baumann/Pine Journal

Hey, you can even read the title!

X-comm’s first ever TV commercial! Leatherheads of the North gets pitched for the holidays. (QuickTime for Mac or Windows required to view movie.)

Signed LPs

After I copyedited Billy F Gibbons’ book, Rock +Roll Gearhead, he was kind enough to sign the cover of my old LP of their second album. It was done by mail—I never got to meet him in person.

Annie Leibovitz took the original black-and-white photo, which was colored by the album designer. She seemed genuinely surprised and pleased to see the album cover and signed it at a book event in 1991.

I brought this LP to a Cosby book signing in 2003. He was definitely surprised to see a record. My daughter was about five and feeling shy, but the Cos started giving her the rasberries until she gave them back.

Bob Dylan Concerts

I haven’t been a raving Bob Dylan fan for as long as I’ve been a raving Star Trek fan, but while I’ve only attended a few Trek conventions, I’ve been to twenty-one Dylan concerts. (So far!) I first saw Dylan in 1986 at the Metrodome when he toured with the Grateful Dead and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. I had a nosebleed ticket, but the day before the show a friend called and asked if I wanted to buy an extra fourth row ticket he had. What a show! The sound was notoriously bad if you were anywhere but the first couple dozen rows on the floor, but I had been lucky. Since then, I’ve only missed one tour when he’s come through Minnesota, and on one tour I went twice, once in Duluth and once in the Twin Cities.

My daughter Ella has picked up the Dylan bug from me just like she caught the Trek bug. In the picture we’re outside the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum before going in to see “Bob Dylan’s American Journey 1956–1966.” Of course, as dedicated Dylan geeks, we had to wear our matching Dylan concert t-shirts.

Check out the list of all twenty-one concerts, and click on each concert to see that night’s set list. When Bob has said something particularly goofy or memorable at a show, I’ve included the quote.

Dino Hunt

Dino Hunt is a great collectible card game my daughter and I play. Can anyone out there help us out with the cards we’re missing? I’m willing to buy or trade. Here’s the list:

Dinosaur Cards—Alioramus, Allosaurus, Amargasaurus, Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Dryptosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Nanotyrannus, Oviraptor, Pachyrhinosaurus, Supersaurus, and Tylosaurus;

Gold Foil Dinosaur Cards—Albertosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Triceratops, Mosasaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex; and

Special Cards—Camoflauge, Feeding the Babies, and Jet Packs.

Is your life a jumble of arcane trivia?
Tell me about it.

All textual content and photographs copyright Scott Pearson (unless otherwise noted); all cover images copyright their respective publishers.