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Pop quiz hot shot:  Who is that man in that picture there on the right?  I’ll give you a few seconds and come back to it. 

But first, the Carolina Traveler team shot an incredible story about a camp for autistic children.  It’s actually a surfing camp where professional surfers take the kids out to ride the waves.  Believe me there’s a lot more to it.   There were incredible moments of humanity and the raw emotions of the fear and joy of the parents made it truly inspiring.

I was going to write about it but then I just read Mike Redding’s journal for the week.  Once again I realized he is the writer in the CT duo.  On my best day I can’t top him.  He is looking for the deeper meaning in things and knows how to articulate them.  Me, I’m good for a few good wisecracks.  I also have been blessed to be able to complete sentences write in.  See, I need to stick to the wisecracks. 

I’m not sure if Mike will write about the camp, but the story is going to be a home run.  It hasn’t been written or edited, but I can tell it’s going to be one of our best ever.  It will be airing when our new big stories start rolling out in November.

That still leaves me in search of a topic to write about.  Well, our drive home from the beach provided one.  We had lunch with an old friend, Dubrava Pocheptsov, a Russian immigrant whose story we aired on CT a few years back.  She is the mother of the art prodigy Georgie Pocheptsov.  He’s known as the “Little Picasso”.  He started painting at age six and while he’s only fourteen now, his painting sell for $40,000 and up.  The family was so nice and their story so intriguing we’ve stayed in touch.

Georgie was in school so we didn’t get to see him.  His mom told us all about their adventures since we last saw them a few years ago.  Now keep in mind this kid is a big time artist.  He has been commissioned to do paintings from everyone from the Clinton family to Oprah Winfrey to Michael Jordan.  Yeah, it kind of makes my celebrity run-ins pale in comparison.

Well, mom and son were recently unveiling some of Georgie’s new work at a Washington, D.C. art gallery.  Dubrava told us of a man who bought two of Georgie’s paintings and stopped to talk with them for a few minutes.  It seemed he was a “lawyer type” in DC, which fascinated young Georgie.

  It seems he has a growing interest in the law.  Mom says her little boy is a big “Judge Judy” fan.

Dubrava continued her story about the lawyer man who said he argued in front of “the big US court” as she put it.  “He is sort of some judge” she said in her still thick Russian accent.  “He said his name was Robert or something.”  So my mind started doing some quick thinking and I put one and one together.

Back to the pop quiz:  Figure out who the guy in the picture is?  It’s the man Dubrava and Georgie spoke with.  It’s alright if you don’t know.  They hadn’t heard of him but I knew who they meant. 

My jaw dropped and I blurted out, “You were with the John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court?”  “Yes,” said Dubrava, “That’s his name, thank you.”

Now that is when you know you’ve officially made it.  When you let the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has his picture taken with you!

Soon after, we finished up lunch and hit the road back home.  As Mike drove through the rain storm, I spent the four hours reminding myself that while we shoot some great stories and meet some remarkable, sometimes famous people, I’ve got a long way to go before I’m any sort of big shot.

So now I have a new goal.  I someday want to be in the room with the Supreme Court Justice of the United States and have somebody say, “Hey,who’s that with Andy Benton?”

Hey, it’s my shallow world and I need motivation in any form.

See you Saturdays at 7:30pm.

Andy Benton

Carolina Traveler Sidekick