Hearty congratulations and much love goes out to my cousin (2nd cousin actually) Samuel Bennett, who just moments ago was named Florida State Teacher of the Year for 2006!

Sam (pictured to the right in his classroom) teaches Fifth Grade at Garner Elementary School in Winter Haven, Florida and was one of five finalists for the Florida Department of Education /Macy’s Teacher of the Year program. To read more about Sam and his amazing work, check out this article: “Polk Man Is Finalist For Teacher of Year.”

Cousin Sam — who began his career as a police officer (if I recall family lore correctly) and is an ordained minister — gave credit to God, his wife, and his parents, my Great Aunt Sue and Uncle Luke, according to the Orlando Sentinel:

Calling the award a “tremendous and humbling honor,” Bennett gave credit to God for instilling a love of teaching; and to his wife, Debbie, for being his best friend. He credited his mother with teaching him to look for the good in everyone and, when he finds it, to nurture it; and his father, who died in 1990, with tenacity.

Please join the rest of the Everett and Bennett clans in congratulating Sam and his family, and wishing him continued success as he uses this position as Teacher of the Year to encourage great people to take up teaching, and to encourage great teachers to become even better!

Update: Here’s the official FL Department of Education press release.

My father sent me an interesting item from AOL this morning. (Unfortunately it’s buried on the AOL proprietary service so I can’t give you a URL.) But it was a fun little write up about one of the menu items at famous St. Louis eatery, the Crown Candy Kitchen. An institution in one of the decrepit corners of St. Louis (which could well be seeing a renaissance by now — I haven’t been there in almost a decade :( ), Crown is known for great homemade candy, but especially for one of the best bowls of chili in the Midwest.

When I was a teenager, I lived for two years in the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin. (Go Parkway South Patriots!) Sometimes when my Dad had work to do on weekends, he would take my brother and me downtown to his office, and after he was done with work we’d try out different lunch places. Crown was a favorite, along with Dooley’s, an odd little pub and burger joint where the outstanding burgers are topped with a huge dollop of whipped processed cheddar cheese (the orange blob in the picture).

Ah… good times! Thanks Dad for a blast from the past, and for introducing us to these great institutions in the first place.

It’s weekends like this that remind us why we live in this crazy place.

It was just an absolutely breathtaking weekend here in Northern California. Cloudless skies, warm sunshine, and cool ocean breezes all conspired to create a gorgeous outing today. And what’s more… all the idiots seemed to have stayed home today! All too often, the drive down 101 and then over to the Monterey area can be bumper-to-bumper, but it was smooth and remarkably traffic-free. We even had no trouble finding parking in the usually-packed hamlet of Carmel-by-the-Sea. And even 17-Mile Drive was practically deserted.

We went with a friend of ours who isn’t from around here, and it was fun to see him experience for the first time what we so often forget is so close, yet sometimes impossible to fit into our crazy schedules. But the areas around Big Sur, Carmel, and Pebble Beach, are among the most beautiful places anywhere on this planet. So, if you’ve not been, give yourself a wonderful treat and come for a visit. Here’s a tip: try doing it on a weekday when the traffic is less crazy… And, for heaven’s sake, please don’t drive like an idiot… It’s a lot more enjoyable for everybody if there are fewer people shaking their fists at you. :-)

For a few more pictures, you can visit my Moblog at http://ray.textamerica.com. I hope to have my Moblogging integrated into this site soon, but I haven’t figured out the best way to do that in WordPress. But I’ve got some good leads.

CNET reporter Paul Festa mentioned in his blog entry for today about Justin’s appearance today at the Flashforward 2005 conference.

On tonight’s David Lawrence Show, I coach David on the finer points of being an annoyed gay man, in preparation for his audition for the role of Mark Bingham’s boyfriend Matt Hall. Bingham was one of the heroes of Flight 93, who fought back against the hijackers on September 11, 2001, and prevented them from crashing into the Capitol or the White House (or wherever they were headed). We also talked about the differences between privacy and anonymity.

Later in the show, my Internet Privacy for Dummies co-author, Gregg Stebben, joins David to talk health and technology. Please spend the 25¢ and listen to Gregg’s segment too!

Too cheap to pay that? Well try David’s new Podcast for free!