 I think it's a great place to start when I was a kid growing up in DC thanks to your dad amongst many other people but but certainly helpful from him you know advocating to help so be a jury how did you know about that because I grew up in DC and I'm Jewish probably like held the same signs yes in front of the Soviet Embassy yes yes free Soviet Jews and this was because your your father but I have to do much either the hardest I had to endure was having Soviet Jews sleep on the floor when I'd wake up I'd be my mom would be like here's someone I just had to negotiate around like the neighborhood women terrifying for my adolescence but I couldn't get over there your father was held hostage you know in all the times I've ever done interviews this has never come up before your read your the failings of researchers that you have that's just amazing yeah my dad my dad was held hostage by the Hanafi Muslims in I was in high school in 77 along with about a hundred other people it wasn't just him yeah they took over the neighborhood building where my dad worked the Islamic Center and the DC the district and then we got a picture of him from your website because there's a great story on it that you wrote about his food issues yeah food issues we all what Jews don't my dad my dad he had no palate except for salt so he was the quintessential Jewish eater he could taste salt he could taste two flavors one of them was salt and one of them wasn't and that was him and yeah it was it was a frightening thing and I grew up in that household trying to get to other food groups but the other thing about my dad which about the Hanafi thing was this is a true story I have to tell this now because you brought this up I got to go with it I was in high school I was a junior in high school and that you know how you'd like you know you're I was trying to be the class clan I was acting out there was a girl named Margaret Bernal who had big eyes big traffic light eyes that's the only thing that were big that you noticed what no yeah I was I was pure but I just had a crush on her and it was it was six period English and so we had this substitute teacher and I was like I tortured the substitute you know how that goes you know I could class clown ruining the class for the substitute and I went so far that I knew I would be in trouble the next day I knew this so fifth period I'm in the student newspaper office and the phone rings it's my older sister and she says you gotta I come coming to get you there's something going on at the building dad's been taken hostage turn on the TV I'll be there in 10 minutes and I turn on the TV and sure enough it's on all the DC's channels that they've taken over these buildings and I went to my sixth period class and the head of the English department and the teacher were both there waiting to punish me and I mean I think I was probably suspended I mean it was just they were so furious and I walked into that class and I swear to God they're there at students who will still remember this who went to high school with me I said BCC yeah BCC I said I said Mrs. Galger I'm really sorry my dad's been taking hostage by a group of crazed religious gunmen I have to go so and she she and Mrs. Her they followed me down the hall screaming I mean the kids in the class were like man he's really gone over the anyway I came back on the Monday after obviously on the month everyone knew what happened a few hours later but I came back on the Monday nothing was ever said ever it was yeah were you grateful to him just for getting out hostage I was almost grateful to the terrorists I mean you know it was just I'll never I mean I said it even as I said it I was like you really shouldn't be joking about this but I couldn't help it it was just there and your mom went back to school and while you were in college at the same time and she I understand graduated 5 8 Kappa while you were failing out it took me five years to she beat me out of college she's she went back to school she dropped out a hundred university a hundred college here when she was in her 20s to get married and she went back and she was like taking 9 12 credits a semester and she beat me out of college I took me five years five years in two summer sessions it's kind of humiliating well it's humiliating but it's also humiliating but the education system because at the same time you're getting more bylines than hired writers I believe at the Baltimore Sun you were interning at the Baltimore Sun I find all this research into the esoteric of my life to be unnerving and inappropriate can't we just do the usual like why'd you kill stringer bell shit