Three best compliments ever

The first came on January 1, 1988. I was sixteen years old. I was standing on a bridge in California, strapped to a bass drum, ready to march in the Rose Bowl Parade. Two teenage girls were sitting on the curb nearby, waiting for the parade to start. After giggling a bit, they managed to get my attention and tell me that I looked a lot like Tom Cruise.

I was clearly better looking in 1988, and Tom Cruise had not yet lost his mind.

About three years later, I was spending a week in Weir's...