The Owners' Manual | Issue 20 | Winter 2021

A few years ago, I was on a ski trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany when unbeknownst to me the FIS women’s downhill ski race was on my last weekend in town. I had to check out of my apartment before the race, but I took a chance and bought a grandstand ticket anyway. It turns out that though he travels a lot for work, a friend who lives in Garmisch happened to be in town so I was able to leave my luggage at his apartment after checking out, and he joined me for the race. It’s all about Mikaela Shiffrin now, but back then I ran into (not literally) LindsayVonn after her practice run a few days before the race. I’m not a proficient selfie-taker (I cut myself off, need more practice), but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Lindsay won first place!What else I didn’t know until she gave a little speech after the race: though she has a pronounced accent, Lindsay speaks German incredibly well – her grammar and vocabulary were almost as good as her skiing…

Pete Schirmer, Meriden

I went to aYankees – Mariners game as a kid. Ken Griffey Jr was my all-time favorite player, and as luck would have it, he happened to be getting out of a car to enter the stadium just as we were walking by on the other side of the fence. I snapped a couple of quick pictures with the disposable camera I brought with me (good old 1990s technology) and couldn’t wait to see how they came out when I got home.All the pictures on the film came out great… except the 2 I took of Junior, which got double exposed on each other! That was the closest I ever got to an encounter with one of my childhood heroes.

Ian McPhillips, Melville

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