Category: default || By jt3y

I don't often write by name about friends, but forgive me --- this was too good not to share.

When my friend Meghan Holohan (and my new friend, her new hubby, Jarod Boulden) got married, I did something I often do, because I'm sick in the head --- I got them a gag wedding gift.

No, nothing vulgar ... my Victorian-era sense of propriety forbids it. But Meghan, a writer of no mean talent, was fascinated by the downfall of flamboyant Youngstown congressman Jim Traficant, and even tried to interview Jimmy before they sent him up the river. (He never responded. Maybe he was busy combing out his toupees before putting them into storage ... or do you get to wear a rug in the joint?)

Anyway, along with a conventional-type wedding present, I enclosed his 'n hers "Free Traficant" T-shirts.

I always wonder when I do something like that, because some people treat their wedding day as a sacred moment, that must be absolutely, entirely, 100 percent perfect, and no levity of any kind is permitted.

That, happily, is not Meghan and Jarod. Not only did they get a kick out of them ... they wore the T-shirts on their honeymoon to the Bonnaroo art and music festival in Manchester, Tenn., and to some other landmarks in and around Memphis.

Meghan has sent me photos, and with her permission, I'm posting 'em.

Here's Mr. Boulden at Bonnaroo looking decidedly like a Vince Gill fan:




And here he is outside a Beale Street cafe with, inexplicably, a goat used as part of a sculpture:




Finally, here's Mrs. Boulden at the historic Memphis Recording Service, aka "Sun Records," on Union Avenue, where Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, and other legends of early rock and roll cut their first sides under the watchful eyes of Sam Phillips. Meghan doesn't quite have the Elvis lip-curl/sneer down pat, but I think she's got the pose OK:




Jarod and Meghan decided not to wear the T-shirts to some other Memphis landmarks, like the National Civil Rights Museum, located at the former Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

I tend to agree with their decision, though Mr. Traficant's supporters do regard him as a political prisoner of sorts. He is, after all, in jail for allegedly freeing campaign funds from their bondage.

In any event, I'm glad that they were able to spread the word about Mr. Traficant's predicament to the good people of the Volunteer State. I can only hope that he blesses Meghan and Jared with a long and happy marriage.

It was also probably fortunate that they wore those T-shirts on their honeymoon, and not their wedding night.

No offense, but staring at that face would dampen my ... er ... ardor.