Two-day-old Anton Ronald Hassler left Abbott Northwestern Hospital Friday in time for granddad and namesake attorney Ron Meshbesher's big Lafayette Club retirement bash.
Anton mostly slept, but big sister Archer Hassler, 3, was the life of the party attended by many of the legal colleagues Meshbesher worked with during a stellar 57-year career.
My arrival was delayed by William Shatner's Wizard World Minneapolis Comic Con autograph session.
"Where were you? We had 300 people here," Meshbesher said, complaining about my tardiness.
"I think it was only about 170," his wife, Kim Meshbesher, told me later.
Peter Dorsey, Diane and Alan Page, Bruce Hartigan, Earl Gray, Donovan Frank, Michael Davis, Joyce and Bill Sieben, Nancy Nelson, Jack Nordby, Steve Schussler and Sunhi Ryan, John Goodman and brother Kenny Meshbesher were among those Kim recalled while running around directing the gala.
Stories were told, some unrepeatable, and Mesbesher's comebacks were especially witty when his Meshbesher & Spence colleague Mark Streed spoke.
At the Saturday PACER Center's after-party, I ran into someone who didn't quite believe I had been invited to Meshbesher's soiree. "You had to be a lawyer or a judge to get an invitation," she said.
Look closely at those names in boldface. There are a few who weren't lawyers, including the parents of Anton and Archer — Jolie and Eric Hassler.
DJ plays small at W
"Dance B----" won't be a cruel taunt Saturday-Sunday when DJ Zen Freeman plays at the W's Living Room.
That's the title of the EDM (electronic dance music) hit that Freeman and Tom Neville produced featuring "Breaking Bad" star Aaron Paul. I knew the song existed but had not heard it until after speaking Monday by phone with Freeman. Paul didn't have to do much heavy lifting for the cut, just periodically yelling, "Dance B----!"
This Twin Cities debut for the native Londoner means, "The promoters for W are getting creative," Freeman told me. "Most of the shows I'm playing at the moment are for 5,000 and 6,000 people in Vegas or billionaire stuff on private yachts or playing massive shows. Last year when I did the Cannes Film Festival, Brad Pitt wanted me to do a party for him up in the villa, which was kind of in association with his movie, and I think the studio paid the bill. And I did a private party for Sean Penn on a yacht, after his amazing fundraiser for Haiti. I played 80,000 people in San Francisco. I do some shows in New York where it's 700, 1,000 people. So this is probably quite an intimate show at the W in Minneapolis."
"The event starts around 10 p.m. and I play from 11:45 p.m. until 2 a.m.," Freeman said.
Pros on the rebound?
Lynx guard Monica Wright has not responded to any of my Twitter chatter trying to flush out the status of her relationship with NBA 2014 MVP Kevin Durant of the OKC Thunder.
It's been a few months since the rampant Internet talk that their romance, said to be an engagement, seemed to be in a timeout. I don't believe they ever confirmed the engagement, but Wright was wearing a big fat ring for a while … and then she wasn't.
Then websites noted that Wright was posting interesting notes, like this one near a selfie showing a naked ring finger: "I can lie to myself all day and night but it ain't long before God reveals the truth and ... let's be real ... [IT'S NOT] PRETTY."
I was hoping these pro basketball stars would work it out. But as one person on Twitter slapped me down: "How do you know she didn't text him. Everything is not our business."
That's true.
But my heart wants to believe that part of the reason Durant was so emotional while accepting his NBA honor Tuesday is that he's bummed to no longer be Wright's MVP.
C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.
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