By definition, Northwest Wine Report is focused on the wines and wineries of the Pacific Northwest. It has never been my goal to make myself a central part of this site, except when doing so can better inform what I am trying to express.
However, in the interests of openness and lending perspective, I’m taking a moment today to write about something that I normally would not: myself. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to make a habit of it.
Here are five things you might not know about me.
1. I am partially blind.
I had a stroke in 2015 that left me blind from the mid-line left in both eyes. There were no other impacts. The condition is called homonymous hemianopsia and is a 50% loss of visual field. This has had a profound impact on my life. It makes some things, like crossing a busy street, challenging. It makes others, such as driving, impossible. I have not driven a car in over 10 years. I do my best to help other people with this condition and to advocate for increased awareness of hemianopsia specifically and for people with invisible disabilities generally.
2. My mother recently died of Alzheimer’s Disease.
A little over a year ago, my mother died from Alzheimer’s Disease. A native of Massachusetts, she spent the last five of and a half years of her life living in Seattle. It was one of the most challenging times of my life and of hers, and the time since her passing has been difficult too. Personally, I have never seen anything as unrelenting and as horrific as Alzheimer’s Disease. It robs a person of their autonomy, memory, and dignity. My intention is to spend significant time going forward helping people who have loved ones with this disease, advocating for greater awareness, and working to increase funding for research. People out there who have/had friends and family members with Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias, I see you.
3. Northwest Wine Report is not my only website.
I am an avid Beatles fan and have been essentially since I was born. I ruined two copies of The Beatles’ Abbey Road by the time I was five years old. Over the last two years, I’ve done a great deal of research about John Lennon’s song ‘Grow Old With Me,’ released posthumously. I’ve subsequently compiled that research onto a website, growoldwithme.org, that I launched earlier this year. Recently, on the blog of that site, I’ve been writing about the Beatles Anthology period. Oh, and for you holiday movie fans out there, I also have a website that is an essay about religious symbolism in the Christmas movie Home Alone. (Yes, really.)
4. I was an M.D.-Ph.D student in another life.
When I was in college, my goal was to become a medical researcher. After college, I spent six years doing social science, clinical science, and basic science research. I subsequently completed my first two years of medical school and the first year of graduate school, focusing on neuroscience. I ultimately decided to leave the program and move out to Seattle, Washington, where I had spent several summers and lived from 1996 to 1997. My background in science very much informs my thinking about wine and also how I approach tasting, reviewing, and writing.
5. I used to be a hardcore mountain climber. Now you’re more likely to find me on the water.
One of my principal motivations for moving out to Seattle in 2000 was to climb mountains. Over a 17-year period, I climbed many of Washington’s major peaks, including Mount Rainier on a number of occasions – in fact twice in seven days. Over the years, I did a great deal of glacier and rock climbing and even some ice climbing. It was my principal hobby. I taught basic and intermediate climbing with the Mountaineers from 2003 to 2017. While I’ve hung up my ice axe, I’ve turned my attention to kayaking in recent years.
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Sean, Thanks for sharing this information. I found it very interesting, and in part, underscores why you are such an outstanding wine expert. As someone who spent my career In health care associations, working with doctors, nurses and scientists, your MD, PhD, training further illuminates your outstanding synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of wines. Further, your clear and unambiguous writing style showcases a very disciplined mind, one who writes with clarity and precision. Very much appreciated!
Good piece, Sean. I recall the stroke. Didn’t know about your Beatles obsession.
Ky, obsession? Moi? Never.
Aloha Sean,
Thanks for sharing!
Like so much of your writing, you paint a clearer picture of your subject. Even when it is yourself! So many follow up questions come to mind!
Wishing you the best during the holiday season.
Mahalo,
R&J
Sean, thanks for sharing!
Hey Sean, thanks for being so open.
Have you been to the Beatles Museum in Eger Hungary? I went there for the wine and accidentally found the museum. It’s excellent and run by rabid Beatles fans.
Thank you for sharing yourself, Sean. Sharing trials and tribulations requires a lot of trust and confidence. My father taught MD-PhD students and he had a lot of respect for them; he also had a love of wine and the community it creates.
I fell down the rabbit hole of Paul is Dead because my uncle had a ton of articles from a college newspaper on the subject. It was a fascinating read when I was a kid, but seems really relevant now.
And may your mother’s memory be a blessing.
Thanks for sharing these notes about yourself, Sean. I still remember watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. It was a watershed moment for me. I love talking about Beatles memorabilia with people, even though it’s been over 50 years since they were a band.
So fun to share all that non-wine stuff. Thanks!☺️