IMAGINE HAVING TO WORK WITH HIM

I remember vividly, about a year ago, going into the kitchen during a pledge night, and Miguel Otero was in a frenzy (a calm frenzy, if there’s such a thing), getting ready for the phone bank volunteers, setting food out on the table and baking cookies. The smell of fresh-baked cookies is irresistible, of course, and I reached for one. “Those are for the volunteers,” he said — charmingly but pointedly. That was all he needed to say. I didn’t put up fight, or attempt to argue that I too, as an employee who had been working since that morning and would be in front of the camera that night, deserved a warm, fresh and delicious cookie. I walked away, wondering about the strange power that Miguel has over all of us. Now that he’s made the Nashville Scene’s Lust List, I understand.