Six truths and four lies about Charles:
1. Charles can speak five languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian.
2. Charles worked his way through law school as a bartender, and is a former member of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, Local 1.
3. Charles’ great-grandfather, Julius Hafner, was the General Counsel of F.W. Rueckheim & Bro. in Chicago, the inventors and original sellers of Cracker Jack.
4. In his late teens and early twenties, Charles was ranked among the top ten pinball players in the United States by the International Flipper Pinball Association.
5. Charles’ mother was born in Pizzone, Italy, a tiny little town in the mountains east of Rome, and did not immigrate to the U.S. until she was 5 years old.
6. Charles has published two short collections of poems, under a pen name.
7. In middle school, Charles won several regional spelling bees, which landed him a spot in the Chicago Tribune Spelling Bee, where he eventually went out after failing to correctly spell “logorrhea” (adj. – an excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness).
8. Charles is an experienced forklift operator and was formerly licensed to operate other heavy machinery like bulldozers and backhoes.
9. As an undergraduate, Charles played trumpet in the Northwestern University Marching Band and marched in the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 1996.
10. Charles has visited 46 of the 50 states – the four left on his list are Alaska, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.