Hail to the T-Shirt Guy

Bill Clinton and I both attended the 1997 game between the Wizards and Seattle SuperSonics that opened the building now known as Verizon Center. The president sat in owner Abe Pollin’s suite. My butt filled a seat upstairs, somewhere around Row Z.

During a break in the game, people withT-shirt cannons ran onto the court and shot garments into the grandstands, one at a time. I noticed all the shirts were being shot to one side of the arena—the side opposite Clinton.

I’d heard at the time that the one-sidedness was a result of the Secret Service asking that nobody aim their T-shirt shooters at the prez. And I remember thinking that such a request would be silly. I mean, how dangerous could a T-shirt cannon be?  (Hot Shot)

Add t-shirt launchers to the list of things that makes the Secret Service nervous, along with balloon drops and The Ford Theater.

This article is a good read on how some are always out to build a bigger, more powerful mousetrap.

–Cudo