1096. Welcome to another episode of
You Weren't There. Why weren't you there? Shucks, we don't know. Maybe you were picking up the kids from soccer; maybe you were stuck in traffic; maybe you had other plans; maybe you were plotting to take over the world (same as you do every night). Who knows?
[1] 
The Hawthorne Bridge From Just Outside the Pilsner Room, 7 Nov 2007
Point is, you weren't there. We were. Here's our story.
As the media have reported (and if you're a Mark & Dave cult member or other similarly-connected sort) The Letter That Caused All The Brew-Haha was auctioned off for the KEX Kids Fund and Mark & Dave were going to present the domains they had acquired to Sam Adams (the potential mayor, not the beer).
So convened the Sam Adams Domain Name Transfer Party, with your hosts, Mark Mason and Dave Anderson:
Mark Mason and Dave Anderson tell the tale of The Letter.
Dave's holding the commemorative 1st Amendment Ale tap handle
The tale was told of the bad guys (Boston Brewing, we all by know know who they are) and how the makers of Samuel Adams beer found out our fellahs reserved domain names for The Real Sam Adams™, didn't bother to do any due diligence in actually finding out just who The Real Sam Adams™ was, and set the legal wheels in motion, sending what has gone down in history as The Letter (follow the link to KEX's Brew-Haha page, where the letter is on prominent display).
The Letter was peforce put up to auction on eBay, the proceeeds to generate income for the KEX Kids' Fund, which sees to it that poor kids who need glasses and hearing aids get them. After the bidding was over and the dust had settled, the winner was Jim Hopkins of Accent Verticals, a local window fashions vendor:
Mark Mason, Jim Hopkins, and The Letter.
After setting up the situation and getting the festivities in full swing, the presentations begun. Very Big Checks/Certificates started changing hands. First, Jim Hopkins presented one to Mark and Dave representing the amount of the bid that won him The Letter:
Jim Hopkins presents Mark and Dave with his VBC
That $1475.90 was matched by KEX for a net gain of $2951.80 for the Kids' Fund on the basis of the auction alone. A run of Full Sail Ale was also branded as "Mark & Dave 1st Amendment Ale" for the night, and a special tap handle was made for the occasion, and proceeds from the sale of pints also went into the Fund.
KEX's Dave Anderson with the special Mark & Dave Ale tap handle
As for Samuel Adams Ale, its tap handle was shrouded in black. We wot that Samuel Adams didn't sell very well that night.
After the handing over of Jim Hopkins' VBC to Mark and Dave (and the transfer of ownership of The Letter), came the crest of the evening – Mark and Dave awarding the website samadamsformayor.com to The One True Sam Adams™[2]:
The URL goes to its rightful owner.
The ceremony done, people got down to some of your basic mixing. For the record, I did try the ale, which I rather liked; The Wife™, not so much (she's not an ale fan). At the start of the evening, we felt rather like a fish out of water, but everyone was very friendly and warm, and when we left, we found that we'd had quite a very good time.
Mark and Dave also gave credit to us bloggers who did what we could to publicize or at least speak out on this. Mark mentioned us, Witigonen (who we enjoy reading, and zeppelins), Isaac Laquedem (who links here and I didn't get to meet – sorry, Isaac) and Kari Chisholm was also there (who I did get to meet). I recall that Mark mentioned Rusty, sadly, he didn't make it.
Kari Chisholm discussing something with KPOJ PD Mike Dirckx. No, we don't know what.
Naturally, we met the guest of honor. Here are we, Sam the mayoral candidate, and Sam, the pipsqueak underemployed graphic designer:
(left) Possibly Portland's Next Mayor;
(right) Mark & Dave Cult Member #583
Say whatever you want about his politics, Sam Adams is a pretty decent fellow, and extremely affable in person (now I really wish I could have been at the City Council meeting where they did the jazz hands). The Wife™ made him promise to stay in touch with us. He said he would. And why? "Because we're your constituents" saith The Wife™. Can't argue with that logic, neh?
And The Wife™ got her brush with greatness:
The Wife™ and The Guys
(I don't have to tell you who they are again, do I?)
We're going to treasure these shots – should Sam become mayor, we'll be able to say "We Were There When". This isn't the whole lot; I've posted all of them on my flickr account, and I've made a subalbum on Photobucket (complete with a captioned remix).
That's all for this edition of You Weren't There. We're not sure where we'll be next, but one thing may prove true: we'll be there, and you...well, you might not be.
[1]Apologies to Bob and Ray.
[2]Apologies to The One True b!X
Tags: pdx, Sam Adams, Great Brew-HaHa, KEX, Portland Radio, Portland Media, Portland Politics, Mark Mason, Dave Anderson, Accent Verticals, Jim Hopkins, KEX Kids Fund, Pilsner Room, Samuel John Klein, ZehnKatzen
