Word? Holder's from the 'Hurst!

I just received the latest issue of TIME Magazine in the mail today and learned something very, very inspiring, as is usually the case when I pick up a copy of TIME.

Eric Holder, the first black Attorney General, is from East Elmhurst, NY.

That's my hometown!

In an article entitled "The Prosecutor," Michael Weisskopf writes:

Eric Holder Jr. was trained long ago in crime and punishment. He grew up in the East Elmhurst section of Queens, N.Y. -- so populated by cops and firefighters that rush hour looked like the shift change at a station house. A popular teen prank was setting off the red fire-alarm box near his modest brick house on 101st Street. Nearly everyone tried it once, but not Eric, the churchgoing Boy Scout who knew the consequence of disobeying the rules.

Before this discovery, I found the coolest thing about Holder, absent his Ivy League education (a bachelor's and law degree from Columbia University), of course, was that he resembled Oprah's longtime love, Stedman Graham. Now that I know he and I are from the same stomping grounds, however, I not only have a newfound respect for him, but I also take some degree of personal pride in his accomplishments.

Mr. Holder, way to hold it down!