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 Popular bartender/former Water Tower star, 37, nearly dies from rare disease
Although Clint Hornberger, 37 (known to his friends as “C.J.”), grew up in Mt. Airy, the Water Tower in Chestnut Hill was his second home. In the 1980s, he had the key hits in so many games for his baseball teams, from Little League to American Legion, that his name appeared in the pages of the Local almost as much as the names of the editors. The athletic localite later coached softball and did field maintenance at Springside School for three years. But in recent months, Clint’s seemingly powerful body — 6 feet tall, 285 pounds (he also played football and baseball for Bishop McDevitt High School) — has been about as powerful as a dead battery. This giant of a man could not summon the strength to pick up a fork, dial a phone number or turn on a light switch. No pregnant pauses allowed for these prospective fathers
While walking the dog a few weeks ago, I bumped into a neighbor whose wife was expecting twins any day. He was wearing a t-shirt with the words “Some Days it’s not Even Worth Trying to Chew Through the Restraints.” Walking the dog is a great way to meet neighbors. We’ve only had our dog, Memphis, for a year, and already I’m on a first-name basis with Nicki, Brendan, Bailey, Lex, Misty and Trinity. For the most part, I have no idea who their corresponding humans are, but on this day, there was some chatting to go along with the posterior sniffing. “My wife insisted she wanted a small wedding,” said the two-legged neighbor, “so I hired a three-foot preacher. But that’s old history. Now I don’t walk too far from the house anymore, and I keep my cell phone handy, just in case.” I really don’t think this guy is going to make a great father. He goes to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every night where they have a $5, two-drink minimum. Once he discovered that I, too, had a pregnant wife, he wanted to know if my wife Kara and I were still getting along as well as we had before passing our pregnancy test. ‘Rags-to-riches’ and a dramatic dining experience
Everybody loves a rags-to-riches story where a truly good guy (or gal) overcomes what seem to be impossible odds. Well, it’s hard to imagine a human interest story that started out with more “rags” and wound up with more riches than this one. After World War II, a Japanese entertainer named Yunosuke Aoki opened a small coffee shop in Tokyo, which had been largely destroyed by Allied bombing and where mere survival was a day-to-day proposition. (Needless to say, there was not much demand for Aoki as an entertainer, which is why he had to find another way to keep himself, his wife and four sons alive.) He called the coffee shop “Benihana” (“red flower” in Japanese) because of the red flowers which grew in abundance in the neighborhood of the coffee shop. There were very few cars left in Tokyo, so Aoki had to ride a bicycle more than 20 miles on a regular basis just to purchase the sugar needed for his coffee shop. Bananas have dysfunctional families and lots of ap-peel It’s that time again. I need to free up my email inbox to make room for more spam, so I’m answering the many questions sent to me by Local readers. Q. Dear Jim, every time I flush my toilet, it says “Thank yooooo.” It’s really freaking me out. Do I need an exorcist? |
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