Last culminated a number of important events in the Order Knights of Pythias where I hold a number of roles in NewYork. Last Wednesday, our Grand Chancellor, elected at our Grand Convention last month, delivered his message at a special event called the “Pythian Investiture” and I was “invested” as his “Executive Secretary” (see photo at left where I took my oath with the Grand Advocate, Sir Ron Degen).

The Grand Convention included a visit by the Order’s outgoing Supreme Chancellor Bruce Brown. I attend the convention in my role as Chief Grand Tribune of New York; it’s essentially the Pythian Judicial body. 

Between that convention and the investiture, the Supreme Convention saw the “elevation” of my friend fellow Gothamite Craig Shink when he won election as Supreme Inner Guard following his service as Supreme Outer Guard. That likely means a member of Gotham will be Supreme Chancellor a few years from now. Gotham members can congratulate Craig in person if they attend Gotham Queens when it convenes this week.

Shelly and I were not able to attend that out of state gathering; essentially I blame a judge in Ithaca, New York who ordered the Congressional (and State Senate) Primary be held August 23 instead of the June date set by the state legislature; yes, it was more involved because he ordered new district lines but commitments I made based on the June Primary just could not justify spending eight days in Charleston, SC.

The Knights and Gotham get intertwined every baseball season since I run Gotham and my home subordinate Pythian FDR Lodge 613 groups to the same Mets-Yankees game at Citi Field. A week ago Friday, I placed the initial deposit to reserve for each group to attend again in 2023 (date to be determined). The net proceeds from each group supports respectively the Gotham Foundation and the Kings-FDR Tolerance Foundation. I already have reservation for 35% of the Gotham block of tickets (You might want to reserve now to guarantee a spot for you (and where applicable your guest(s)).) and 32% of the FDR block.