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Seriously. I got an e-mail yesterday from someone I hadn't spoken to in a while. He found the agency through one of those social networking sites (ack!). A somewhat awkward exchange followed. He was all (subtly), "You moved to San Francisco for dudes?" and I was all (subtly), "Nope! Still sleeping with chicks!" He had a point. Even when I'm not writing about gay marriage, I'm writing about fruit.

In no particular order (and certainly not all at once): Booze, sports, and rock music.

The three greatest sporting events I've attended are easy to pick out. First: July 13, 1999, Fenway Park. The 1999 All-Star Game was out of control. Ted Williams was there. Pete Rose was there. Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Warren Spahn, and Bob Feller were there. From my seats along the first-base line, I saw the fly-over materialize over the Green Monster a split second before it was past us. Later, friends in Somerville told me they thought we'd had an earthquake.

Oh yeah. Pedro Martinez struck out five of the National League's first six batters in the most incredible pitching performance I have ever seen. I saw Dwight Gooden in his prime; that night, Doctor K was a chump.

Two: October 16, 2000, Shea Stadium. Mike Hampton shuts down the Cardinals, and the Mets win the NLCS for the first time since 1986. Forget the embarrassment that followed in the World Series. If you haven't heard 55,000 people singing along to "Who Let the Dogs Out?" you won't be well prepared for the rapture. Robin Ventura's grand-slam single, earlier that postseason, would have made the list. If I hadn't had to leave after the twelfth to catch a flight.

Three: March 14, 1998, Maples Pavilion. No. 16 seed Harvard makes history, upsetting No. 1 seed Stanford in the first round of the NCAA women's basketball tournament. Before there was pizza and beer with the Leland Stanford, Junior, University Marching Band. Afterwards I danced with a dude in a tree suit. In between, the biggest upset in the history of tournament basketball. I didn't sit the entire game.

I took the most pleasure in the triumphs at these games. But I couldn't help taking pleasure in Stanford's loss. Not because I felt any ill will towards them, but because they were so good. It's painful to watch a weak team get beat up; it's awesome to see the mighty fall.

If you missed the Stanford men in their stunning win over Arizona last week, you missed a great college basketball game. These guys are undefeated, and there's not a lot of season left. Saturday night they play at Cal, and we have tickets. I'm looking forward to seeing someone cry.