A Shout Out to My Nigga Ned

I like to use this blog for bitching and ranting and thundering against assholes. So today we’re gonna change the tone a little bit and praise somebody.
I got a good buddy across the street — let’s call him Ned. Ned is one of the most generous people I know — almost pathologically generous. He seems happiest when his house is full of his friends from the ‘hood, eating and drinking and talking shit and enjoying themselves. And he regularly hosts informal, quasi-spontaneous gatherings of this kind. In cold weather Ned’s parties are indoors. In warm weather we like to stoop it on his stoop, and we barbecue. Where a lot of us just talk about how we’d really like to host a get-together some time soon, Ned just does it. And does it and does it.
He also is skilled at producing great amounts of good food on short notice. Dinner for ten people in two hours? No problem.
Ned is like the hub of the social network we call community. He’s the glue that helps make it all cohere. Here’s to Ned.