Pierce named me as one of them. I wish my working-class parents were alive to hear that I’m an elite anything. They would have loved that.

Alas, I live and write in Cleveland, home of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who captured the NBA championship last year, and the Cleveland Indians, who almost – so close, I swear – won the World Series.

This Midwesterner is grateful to the Herald for running my columns, and to the many readers who find me, via email and social media, all the way here in Cleveland, where the Tribe almost won the World Series. (Have I mentioned that?)

Connie Schultz, columnist Creators Syndicate

Cleveland