- O.K. So what's with the last name? "JOE" - "HEN" - "GIN" (the card game or the liquor). I also tell people that
it rhymes with "engine" - Johengen. It's German, probably a poor "Americanization" of Gehändchen or the
like. In one branch of the family there were ten different spellings within the same generation! Folks have
had trouble spelling and saying it ever since.
- I'm a native of Collins Center, New York, a little town 30 miles due south of Buffalo.
- I was adopted as a baby, and my birth heritage is Irish; my birth surname was Jordan (County Cork). I was
born on August 16, 1962.
- I have lived in Bath, NY since 2005, where my partner, the Rev. J. Brad Benson, is the rector of St. Thomas
Episcopal Church, Bath, and the vicar of Good Shepherd Church, Savona.
- To see some "family pictures" click here. To see some pictures of our gorgeous chow chow Autumn, click
here.
- I have lots of hobbies and interests, including:
- Crafting, especially working with polymer clay - check out pictures of some of my polymer clay
projects
- Crocheting - below are some pictures of recent projects, or check out my "Flickr" site.
- Paper arts, especially rubber stamping - check out pictures of my stamping projects
- Watching figure skating - I'm a big fan and follow most of the major competitions. My favorite skaters
are Johnny Weir, Yu Na Kim, the retired Chinese pair Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, Alissa Czisny (if
she can land her jumps...)
- Antiques (especially Roseville Pottery)
- Gothic cathedral and Victorian architecture
- Playing cards and doing crossword puzzles, as well as games in general
- Reading and writing poetry - among my favorites are Billy Collins, Carl Dennis, Howard Moss, Robert
Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, A. E. Housman, Thomas Hardy...
almost too many to mention.
- Orchids (see the picture at right of my most recent blooming bonanza)
- One of my on-going "projects" is research into Francesco Borosini, Italian tenor (c.1688-c.1750). Visit my
Francesco Borosini Homepage.
