A great cause, and an Alton photo-op

I have a long and tortuous history getting a good picture with Alton Brown. I've seen the man twice before, and each time it seems that something goes wrong. My first shot (at a book signing) was overexposed, my second (as an extra on Good Eats) was underexposed and blurry. This time I finally got it right.

Let me back up. Jenny and I attended a Chinese New Year party to raise funds and awareness for Heifer International's Chuxin Hilly Area Livestock Development project in China. If you've never heard of Heifer, you should find out more.

I don't push many charities on this blog. Maybe I should. Heifer is one of my favorites, focusing on sustainable community development. They don't just give support to the needy, they help them develop their communities through agricultural and economic initiatives.

Those are a lot of big words. Basically they don't just give them a fish, they teach them to catch their own.

This is important in this day and age where the concern isn't just poverty and need, but the unbreakable cycle that so many around the world find themselves in. While I'd love to wipe out world hunger and strife with a quick fix, I feel that grassroots development in small communities is more effective and ultimately much more important.

Enter Alton as the guest speaker at the party. His production company has been helping Heifer for several years, and in his speech he recalled Heifer's guiding principles and discussed how they mirrored his own.

Afterwards he hung out and signed autographs. I used this opportunity to apologize to AB for being rude during the filming of our Good Eats episode. He said that my paparazzi-style snapshot "wasn't so much rude, as it was dorky."

Well put, good man. Well put.

Anyway, he's a classy dude, and we had a great time hanging out and learning more about the great things one organization can do.

P.S. - So the truth must be heard. My photo op with Alton at the party went all wrong. My shirt was messed up and my eyes were closed, and immediately afterwards AB had to run to talk to reporters. Here's the original shot. So in desperation, I got my buddy Josh to take this picture, and I photoshopped the two together. You'd have done the same too, if you're as big a dork as I am.