Stefan.

Jaaack Stephan!



My grade school friend Fred used to repeat the line from this classic LA area commercial every time he came across this tall white kid named Stefan.

My first memory of Stefan was him singing "oh bladee oh bladdah..." Every time I encountered him, he would be full of these noises; I always thought it was weird, but nifty.

He was the older brother of one of my grade school classmates, and I kept thinking that if I was his height, I'd surely be on my way to basketball stardom.

I later would go to the same all-boys Catholic high school that he went to. High school being a place of hierarchies and cliquey associations, we didn't talk much, but he was always a reminder of a slice of home.

Every once in a while I see him at our elementary school's functions, and we chat it up a little. He's been a winner on jeopardy. He worked as a video game tester. Occasionally, he checks my grammar on Facebook.

But if there's one thing I know this guy for, it'll usually come back to this man's talent for soundmaking: