When you first heard about Proust, it had nothing to do with Madeleines and everything to do with your Uncle Ned.

How can you best describe Ned to someone who doesn’t know him?

Ned may be more myth than man. The closest thing to Paul Bunyan you will ever meet. He drinks vodka out of glass skulls and loves Infinite Jest. He does something in advertising that warrants a Manhattan corner office. A bucket list item, someday, would be a weekday martini lunch in a steakhouse with Ned. (You both, accordi...