Andy Ayers is 30 years old. He's a native of Guilderland, New York, home to the second-biggest mall in the United States, as well as the Karner blue butterfly, which was discovered and named by Vladimir Nabokov. After surviving nine years at the Albany Academy for Boys , where he was demoted for not taking marching practice seriously enough, and wandering through three years at Guilderland Central High School, where he was known for posting flyers containing non sequiturs about fish, he headed off to Vassar College, and then to India and Nepal for a year.

Once he got home, Andy spent three years working as a flunky at Human Rights Watch and living in Brooklyn. Then he moved to DC, went to Georgetown law school, and then to work for some wonderful federal judges in New York City. Andy has been married to Emily Mitchell (now Ayers) for eight years, for which her parents appear to have forgiven him. He has no street cred.

Andy used to play in a band called the Clinkers, with Mike Miller, Dave Selmer and Dave Wallace. Before that the band was called Trout, and Dan Carr was in it. Trout started playing shortly after Andy met Emily, in 1992.

Somewhat incongruously, Andy also spent two years as the Chairman of the Board of Students for a Free Tibet, an organization to which you should give lots of money immediately.

Andy also recommends you send money to the House Rabbit Society, which rescues abandoned rabbits and finds them good homes. Please don't mess with rabbits -- their lives are hard enough as it is.