Can you say "flabbergasted"?

I am stunned, bowled over, staggered and, yes, flabbergasted. (And I haven’t even had my first scotch of the day.) I just heard that at last Monday’s dinner-meeting of the Karl Hess Club in Los Angeles, I was awarded the 2006 Samuel Edward Konkin III Memorial Chauntecleer for “meritorious service in the cause of Freedom and advancement of agorism.”

The Chauntecleer Award was created by Sam Konkin in 1995 as a one-time presentation to the late “Chauntecleer” Michael Greene for his many years of freedom-oriented work, including the longtime monthly operation of two separate L.A. libertarian supper clubs (the Albert J. Nock and H.L. Mencken Forums). After Sam died in February 2004, the three remaining Karl Hess Club founders — Kent Hastings, Mike Everling, and Brad Linaweaver — determined to resurrect and rename the award in Sam’s memory “to honor those whose work wakes up a sleeping populace and introduces them to a new day full of the promise of Freedom and prosperity through agorism.” The Chauntecleer Award will be presented annually every March only when “the three members of the award committee agree unanimously on a recipient.” I’m the first recipient, after Greene, of this honor.

Thanks so much, Mike, Kent, and Brad. I'm sorry I was unable to be with you last Monday night, and I only hope Sam, were he still with us, would approve. I promise to continue my efforts to further spread the idea of agorism while keeping green the memory of our colleague Samuel Edward Konkin III.