I received a letter and bottle of wine from Pop yesterday. Or more accurately it went to my mother's house in Nevada as I am in Latvia. Very kind and classy of him.
A little background. Some may know that I am a writer. I wrote a novel on Latvian history dealing with a family trying to survive both World Wars, the Russian Revolution and the Soviet occupations of the Baltic States. Someone on this site (I need to look up who, and thank them) suggested a few years ago I send a copy of the book to Pop as he was a Soviet Studies major at the Air Force Academy. My book was also endorsed by a former CIA dean, and we all know about "CIA Pop".

So, I sent him a copy of the hardback edition of the novel a year ago when I was back in America helping my sick mother. I used my mom's address as the return address.
Yesterday, a package arrived with a letter from Pop briefly talking about his having read the book, what Putin is doing in Eastern Europe now, and the Air Force Academy (I mentioned in the letter that my father was an academy grad, though he wasn't there at the same time as Pop). The wine was very kind gift, from his Pounding the Rock winery according to mom
Inevitably, this being the internet, some will be sceptical about what I say. I don't really care about that but I'm trying to get my mother to take a picture of the bottle and letter and email it to me. She's not one for technology.
I'll be visiting my mom in mid-april and post the wine pics and transcribe the letter if anyone is interested. I'm a geeky enough Spurs fan that I may have the letters framed.
Pop's a class act. You always hear sportswriters say he's a great guy (unless you're missing rotations or asking dumb questions.) It certainly made my day.
