A 1995 Chriskwanzaka gift from partner John!
- “widows overnight” refers to three people who lost husbands that year: John and Bert’s friend René Astudillo (Daniel Scott Strano), Olympic figure skater Ekaterina Gordeeva (Sergei Grinkov), and actress Candice Bergen (Louis Malle), who played the title character on Murphy Brown, a favorite television series of Bert and John.
- The “30-something-brother” is artist Ronald Harris, for whom Bert wrote Dew Locks.
- “Donald” refers to one of Bert’s closest friend, writer and poet Donald Walter Woods.
