I wanted to mention the passing of Barney Frank, the former congressman from Massachusetts. I am not sure if you know of him or if I ever told you the story of how we came to name our Barney after him. Barney Frank the man was the first openly gay member of congress. Came out at the height of AiDS in 1987. A bold move on his part. He had a brief scandal back then when his then live in boyfriend was caught running an escort service out of their home. But Barney was a good guy who did a lot of good things, in particular the Dodd-Frank Act that reformed banking practices after the crashes of 2007. Created better consumer protections. Those acts have since been gutted by the current administration. When we were thinking of getting a dog, I came up with the name Barney. I mentioned it to Carter, and he liked the name and wanted it to be Barney Frank, after the man. Wasn’t what I had in mind, but why not? So, we ran with it. When Barney Frank (the man) announced he was getting married, he became the first member of congress to have a same sex marriage. He also announced his retirement. So, we decided to write him a letter with a photo of our Barney and congratulate him on his long years of service and getting married. Turned out his wedding date was also our little Barney’s birthday. Kismet. We later got a letter from Barney on his congressional letterhead. He thanked us for naming a dog after him that he didn’t have to take care of. I have no idea where that letter is now. And now they are both gone.
