A tribute to the Arts.

The two biggest influences in my life were both named Art.

My dad was named Art and so was my first wife's father.

I never met anyone who didn't like my dad. When people would learn that I was Art Koch's son, I invariably got a big smile from the other person and an almost automatic reaction of what a great guy he is, was. I could go on and on about my dad.

Art Havens, my first wife's father, was also like my dad in as much as he was also much liked and admired. In addition, Art Havens was a successful businessman. Art owned a refractory, firebrick, business. Art and his company sold and constructed boiler settings and industrial furnaces. In Cleveland, in the 1950s, that was pretty big business with all of the steel mills and foundry s etc. Art was born in Canada of American parents so in 1939 went off into the RCAF. In 1942 when the USA got into Roosevelt's War, he was transfered into the US Army Air Corps as a gunner in a B17. He was stationed in England and came back as one major Anglophile. Art loved everything English. It seems he also loved a lot of English girls while on his tour in the UK.

The reason I bring this up is last night I prepared a traditional Christmas feast for my two sons and their wives. It consisted of a prime rib roasted in a Weber barbecue with lots of Mesquite smoke. We also had creamed spinach, glazed carrots, and lots of gravy to pour over the Yorkshire pudding. Art introduced me to Yorkshire or batter puddin'. He showed me how it was made in Merry Old England, and as he explained he would don his Cockney accent. It was a riot. To this day, I can't make batter puddin and not hear Art's voice in the back of my head. Whisking away and talking up a storm.

Last night, as I was raising my Claret to my lips, I was silently toasting the two Arts. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you both. They are probably both together in some old guy's club in Heaven checking out the action. Hoorah!!!