Jamie Parke described our beautiful evening together as serendipitous. Through the glory of social media my wife knew that Jamie and his wife were in the Syracuse area and happened to dine at the exact restaurant we had reservations for this evening just the night before. In fact Jamie’s parents live around the corner from said restaurant so as a gambling man I was laying monster odds that signature #3 was going down this evening. ‘Excited’ would have been an understatement. I hadn’t seen more than 5 human beings in person since March 15th!
Oh yeah it’s on!
Jamie Parke’s player profile includes numerous MTG accolades. Aside from being a founding member of Team Sped and Best Magic Team Sped, Jamie is a fringe MTG Hall of Famer. He’s played in 35 Pro Tours ( 3 Top 8s), has 4 GP Top 8s, has 2 Worlds Top 8s including a second place finish, and even took a year off of work to focus on MTG after a lengthy hiatus. He of course Q’d for for Pro Tour Journey into Nyx that year and lost in the top 8 to eventual winner Patrick Chapin. Oh yeah, and he made a rap about it: Jamie’s PT Rap. Mise Tings Gas, Dude!
Known Aliases: J Piz, Piz, BBOYSTYLE4LIFE, Parke, Parkemon.
Other: Best break dancer Team Sped. Best Orb Flipper Team Sped
While no Magic was played on the evening of Signature #3 it was magical nonetheless. Magical Surprise #1: Team Sped member Lyle Cohen was also at Jamie’s parents’ house and greeted us at the door. Here’s what you need to know about Lyle Cohen.
Known Aliases: Cohen, Lock, ‘Lil, YODUDEKART, Volatile Lyle
Team Afiliation: Sped (founding member)
Accolades: Karplusen Forest, Wild Dogs, Go (on the play).
Other: Best N64 Kart Team Sped, Best Buffalo Bills fan Team Sped, loves cinnamon buns but hates cinnamon rolls, loves crab but hates lobster, loves rib eye but hates filet, loves Whoppers but hates Big Macs (etc. etc. etc.), once ordered 20 Budweisers and a NY Strip at a restaurant, 6th possibly 7th best Magic Team Sped, owner of Jumbo Imp original art (Volatile Lyle’s favorite card in the BD). Lock is also best rabble Team Sped (i.e. prone to engage in a debate about nearly any matter, big or small. In fact I’m sure there will be some rabbling about this blog post).
Magical Surprise #2: Jamie took us on a Magical Boat ride around the lake after dinner. One highlight included Volatile Lyle splashing my wife aggressively while trying to shoo a spider away with lake water.
Magical Surprise #3: The restaurant made me Lobster Fra Diavolo even though it wasn’t on that night’s menu!
Magical Surprise #4: Jamie and his wife gifted us a very cool sign for our camp, which they bought just the very night before not knowing they would see us the next day!
At this point I would generally try to force this list to #8 to complete the Team Sped Inside Joke and then we all laugh, high five!
But I can’t think of anything remotely interesting enough to take it that far so let me spare us all a little pain and get on with the signing.
67 signatures to go! Stay well! Peace and love. – Jeff
Quest for the Shark 
I love Jeff White!!!
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