Tweet Love

Every year thousands of people visit New York to attend the US Open. They see great tennis in a small patch of Queens.

I've lived in New York for over a decade and haven't yet visited the small patch of Queens that is the U.S. Open. Although I have played tennis and enjoyed it, it isn't something I have done recently. I was someone who would like to go to the US Open, but wasn't sufficiently motivated to spend the money on a ticket.

Then, Twitter changed its format and added a "suggested friend" window in the home page. The day this happened, I got a note that my friends were following the Beer Baron of Baltimore, and maybe I should too.

It was easy to click yes, and I did.

About two minutes later the Beer Baron of Baltimore sent me an invitation to the US Open. He had an extra all day pass and it was free.

The Beer Baron is a friend of a friend I have known since I was a teenager. We are not close, but each time I see him I like him a lot. He is a defense attorney with a great sense of humor who ran for Congress in Maryland. Now he is the liquor commissioner for the state. He dated my former best friend from high school for several years. Now he is married and has a two year old.

I hadn't seen him in about 10 years, so it could have been strange. Instead it was wonderful. We instantly bonded and had a great time. He is an enthusiast who had prepared an itinerary of all of the games he wanted to see. I had no agenda, and was eager to see what he thought would be good games. All day we manically bounced around from venue to venue in brutal 90 degree F heat to watch game after game.

It was fantastic! We caught up and shared stories. We laughed over the continual feed of liquor board emails he received from disgruntled constituents and bar owners. When they bought an apartment next to a bar did they think they had a right to close it down? Does a parent complaining about a bar sign with "ass" in it marvel about the propriety of taking their kid to a bar? What part of the liquor laws leads people to think they can expand their business to a public sidewalk after 2am?

The Beer Baron planned to go back to his hotel by 8pm, but we had so much fun we stayed through to the end.

Who knew a twitter following could go so right?