Jack Romig is poetry editor of CS2.

As someone who’s found this profile in CommonSense 2, you may know our friend Breezy—Alan Brintzenhoff to the tax collector—mostly as a political critter. And Breezy is all of that. With his longtime partner Kathi Ember, he’s a founder of the Kutztown Democratic Club and a stalwart who’s helped to sustain it for years. He’s also a leading instigator among the merry pranksters of the club’s Miscellaneous committee, contributing richly to that gang’s inspired silliness and its serious work for the local party and progressive causes generally.

To know Breezy on those terms, though, is to know him only in part. This month, it’s worthwhile to get acquainted a little more broadly. It will come as news to very few readers that he’s now in a tough fight, confronting in squamous cell lymphoma an adversary at least as nasty and implacable as the McCain campaign.

I claim a special perspective here. It’s been my happy fortune to know our friend Breezy for more than 40 years, ample time to recognize in him one of the best men any of us will ever meet. (Very few people can now remember a shaven Breeze, but I can. What will he look like when we all see him beardless? Based on fuzzy memories dating to the ‘60s, a fairly close model is probably Leonard Nimoy.)

Breezy and I come from similar backgrounds, from families that became predominant English speakers only in recent generations despite having lived in America for two centuries. In Breezy’s case, being raised in the presence of that pungent Pennsylvania German culture seems to have fostered the broadest possible tolerance—and why not? Anyone raised on chow-chow and shoofly has reason to be interested in what other people have on their plates.

Geeky predilections for astronomy and target shooting brought us together as teenagers. We became really close when we both signed up for a quixotic enterprise in the arts. The idea behind Magic Theater was to present Shakespeare in the woods. Too green to realize what a lunatic notion this was, our troupe delivered a surprisingly successful performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream—on the summer solstice, in a natural amphitheater at Yoder’s 88 Acres Farm north of Kutztown. Breezy was an enthusiastic Snout, the tinker, onstage. Behind the scenes he was a yeoman contributor to the hard work of carving a working stage out of a patch of undeveloped forest.

Did this experience make Breezy game to undertake practically anything and conquer it? Or was he like that from the start? Either way, we’ve seen him make an extraordinary series of long- and short-term obsessions completely his own.

We remember him pulling together lasers to assemble his own basement hologram apparatus. And taking temporary charge of the art department at a national magazine. And building a museum-quality collection of World War II relics from the 10^th Mountain Division. And teaching himself an eye-opening skill in trompe l’oeil painting. And acquiring the specialized know-how of a Volvo mechanic. And raising sheep. And on and on.

In none of these things has Breezy been a dilettante. He’s done all of them earnestly and well, some of them brilliantly. This testifies, surely, to his broad talents and singular intelligence. Yet there’s plainly something more going on. Breezy has always been an exceedingly playful soul. To approach even serious matters in a spirit of joy is a gift not given to all of us. Our friend Breezy has this capacity in rare measure, coupled with a willingness to help the rest of us whenever a need arises.

He’s also been lucky enough to find a partner in life who’s similarly favored. Kathi, a most accomplished artist, is another person in whom creative fire and laughter are powerfully mingled. Watch these two together as we have for so long and you’ll recognize the kind of couple that’s considerably more than either person alone. Visit their home, Kutz Farm, and you’ll see a place that’s come to embody their unique, sweet selves. Spend time at one of their barbecues or snowball fights or kimono parties and you’ll feel welcomed and transported.

In writing this profile, I’ve realized that when I think of Breezy, the recollections are not quite like those I treasure of other friends. Here are some scattered snapshots—the focus is sharp but the subject matter always eccentric.

2005: We’re enjoying a few slow drinks in a lounge at the Salt Lake City airport, talking about women and keeping an eye on a bunch of cops who are in town for a convention, evidently the annual meeting of the Guild of Huge Law Enforcement Officers.

1986: The noble ram Rembrandt perishes at Kutz Farm. An ad hoc shovel gang excavates a hole big enough for a piano crate and tilts the hero in before the reek of lanolin and spoiled mutton can dampen the latest party.

1972: Our efforts to dam a slow-moving stream at Sally Ann Park in Bowers support a planned amphibious entrance for the second Magic Theater production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A flood cruelly exposes our limitations as civil engineers.

1983: Breezy directs the volunteer bunny/parade marshals at the latest Adult Easter Egg Hunt. We rig booby-trapped eggs and distribute prizes of incomplete legality. The event earns a mention on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio show.

1975: Steady as ever, Breezy helps lead a party of spelunkers through the depths of a West Virginia cave. We’re soaked, low on light sources, and uncertain of the way—in trouble, really—but one of us is able as usual to make things work, guiding us back to the sunlight.

2009: Breezy phones to say that the 2010 Chinese New Year’s party at the farm will feature a truly special event—that he and Kathi will be married at last.

But that’s enough. The February New Year’s gala is off, the big moment we’ve anticipated on hold. These days our friend Breezy is hearing from a swarm of those who are concerned for perhaps the best-hearted of any of us, and who want to help in any way possible. Understanding his medical situation, we have realistic hopes that things will turn out well. And contemplating his life, we have the strongest reasons to wish it so.

Want to help? Visit www.thebreezyfund.com to contribute to Breezy’s medical care. You can also check in at Breezy Could Use Some Help on facebook to read what other friends have been saying and pick up details on how to assist.

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Editor’s note: This information on Breezy events and contacts came in  just as we were going live with the issue. We are placing it here so that our reader’s are aware of the full gamut of opportunities to participate in the Breezy fund raising effort.

Breezy’s Turn

by Karen Feridun

I was at the Obama office in Kutztown the day that Howard Dean was at the Berks County Democratic Party office in Reading, so I didn’t get to see it firsthand, but, by all accounts, Governor Dean could barely contain himself when he saw the Kutztown Area Democratic Club’s float. It brought to life an illustration that Kathi Ember had done of a donkey roasting an elephant on a skewer with the caption, “Fired Up and Ready to Go”. In the live version that day in Reading, I believe Kathi was the one dancing around in the donkey suit. Breezy and a group called the Miscellaneous Committee built that float. Breezy is one half of the Kutztown institution known as Kathi and Breezy. In this part of the world, if you don’t know Kathi and Breezy, you know someone who does. In conversation, when you’re clarifying which Kathi it is you’re talking about, you say, “You know, Kathi-and-Breezy Kathi.” Honestly, I’ve been acquainted with Kathi and Breezy for over 25 years and I didn’t know their last names for at least half that time. They were among the founding members of the Kutztown Area Democratic Club and have been at the heart of it ever since.

Whenever there are ingenious games to be built for picnics, or booths to be set up at ungodly early hours, or clever political parodies of Christmas carols to be written for holiday parties, or the need for a voice of reason in an argument, we know we can count on Breezy. He was recently diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, so now it’s Breezy’s turn to count on us. He and Kathi are going to need lots of support, including financial support to help with medical and living expenses. We’ve set up a bank account called The Breezy Fund at Sovereign Bank in Kutztown. There’s also a website, www.thebreezyfund.com, where people can find information and make one-time or recurring donations via PayPal, and a Facebook group, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=298796785195&ref=ts, where you can find out more details about upcoming events . The Miscellaneous Committee has already put together the first of many fundraisers, a screening of The Big Lebowski at the Kutztown Strand, followed by a party at the Kutztown Tavern, on February 15th. On April 11th, we’re holding a fundraiser/silent auction and a separate art auction is already in the works. If you would like to volunteer to help organize any or all of these events, please contact me at feridun@ix.netcom.com.

If you’re interested in donating to The Breezy Fund, you can send checks payable to the fund to:

The Breezy Fund
c/o Sovereign Bank
61 Constitution Boulevard
Kutztown, PA 19530

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