born 10 August 1970

Alex Michel, Charlottesville, Virginia, the original “The Bachelor”

Brendon Julian, Hamilton, New Zealand, cricketer

Bret Hedican, Saint Paul, Minnesota, hockey player/husband of Kristi Yamaguchi

Ivana Christová, Presov, Miss Czechoslovakia 1989

Jill Nicklaus, birthplace unspecified, American dancer

Lisa Dergan, Corpus Christi, Texas, Playboy playmate/St. Pauli Girl/wife of Scott Podsednik

Matthew Sharp “Matty Fresh” Fera, Dearborn, Michigan, stunt double

Sabine Hollweck, Nuremberg, West Germany, actress

Stuart McDonald, London, England, sound recordist

Tony Whalen, Toronto, Ontario, producer

There is something impossibly magical to me about the notion of “Miss Czechoslovakia 1989”. Just the differentness of the world that contained such a thing, the distance from the world we live in today. Cripes, I went to Prague in early 1996, and it was still a good deal more Communist than modern in look and feel, though it was changing and everyone knew it. I remember the old Palace of Culture, which was like a red Chelsea Piers, only thick with old men and cheap cigarette smoke. I bet that’s where the pageant happened. It may have even been where this picture was taken.