Awkward Family Photos - Mike Bender [16]
All of the awkward families who have contributed to our website—you are the heart and soul of AFP, and without you, none of this would be possible; Kevin Mulhern and radio station 94 WHJY in Providence, Rhode Island—you spread the word and we are forever grateful; Mickey Worsnup, for generously giving his time to help build the site; the Hanscom family, for being the first ones brave enough to send in their family photo; the AFP team—Ivana Ma, for always making us sound like we know what we’re doing, and Blaire Bercy, for all her hard work and for the soothing sound of her Charlie’s Angels ring tone; Ryan D’Agostino, for giving us support when we desperately needed it; Justin Laub, for all of his guidance and advice; Sante La Brea restaurant, our surrogate office, for not closing on us the many late nights we spent there; our agents, Rebecca Oliver and Adrianna Alberghetti at WME; our lawyers, Allison Binder and Rick Genow; our awkward manager, Charlie Gogolak at Benderspink; JC Spink; everyone at Three Rivers Press, including Philip Patrick, Campbell Wharton, Dyana Messina, Jay Sones, Maria Elias, and Emily Timberlake; and finally, our amazing editor, Suzanne (aka Susan) O’Neill. We appreciate all of her patience with our neuroses and for believing in this idea from the beginning.
My parents, Jules and Rebecca Bender, for their love, support, and putting up the ski photo that started it all; Chris and Kristi Bender, for always being such good sports; Fran Dyer; my nieces, Emmy and Selma, for being my best audience; my grandparents Selma and Kenny Furst, the funniest people I know, for their inspiration; Aunt Simone, for always being supportive of everything I do; Matt Bijur, for being a great friend and trusted advisor on the site; Tim Loree, for being there from the SAC days; SuChin Pak, for all of her encouragement and enthusiasm despite having to hear about this book every day; all of my friends who trusted me enough to share their awkwardness: Mia Kirshner, Karen Lutz, Jay Karas, Andrew Gurland, and Joel Gallen; China Chow, for always laughing; Din-Din; to all the English teachers who ever marked up my papers with red ink; Richard Brener, for giving me my first break; and finally to failing miserably at the sport of tennis. If it wasn’t for that, I would have never had the motivation to start writing.
My wife, Amy, for her love, encouragement, and understanding that finding a photo of O.J. Simpson crashing a family reunion was a reasonable excuse to cancel dinner plans; my lucky charm, Ravi (born a week before AFP), whose screams in the middle of the night inspired me during those first crazy weeks; my parents, for their love, support, and getting the word out about the site to the entire Tri-State area; my brother, Greg, for having a great sense of humor about himself; my good friends Ben Padnos and Keith Richman, for teaching me how to use the Internet, seriously; and to Mark Bomback, for his contribution to the book and all of his help over the years.
is a screenwriter whose credits include Not Another Teen Movie and the MTV Movie Awards. He had to fish himself out of that white cardigan.
has created and produced television shows for E, Fox Sports, and The Golf Channel. He is still a sucker for gold jewelry and short shorts.