Category Archives: Life or Something Like It

The term frat boy has a universally negative connotation.

To most people it conjures images of the college-age George W. Bush portrayed by the media when he was running for office—and maybe the reputation is deserved; I have no idea.  That’s not the point of my comment.  The point is that such images produce a bum rap for fraternities.  Fraternities while, associated with drunkenness, bad behavior, and a frivolous approach to life, can serve a very noble purpose for men. Continue reading →

I’m a mutt.  A Heinz 57.  An American Mongrel.

I have no pedigree and we cannot trace my family tree back more than three generations.

This reality has always vexed me to my core.  All of my friends know both their ethnic and historical extraction.  Their ancestors’ country of origin.  When they got off the boat.  Where and why they settled.  The only thing I know is that there are three Native American tribes in my family and I know only one of them for certain.  So when a moment of potential family discovery presented itself in my young adulthood, I seized it like a rabid dog.  Continue reading →

Verbing weirds language.

This brilliant comment from the equally brilliant comic strip Calvin and Hobbes is a reference to the current proverbial bug in my ass, which has to do with the devolution of the language we call English.

I once had a very good friend named Robert who was also my political opponent.  Robert was a very left-wing-leaning intellectual.  I don’t think of myself as intellectual at all, and I’m left-wing averse—but I really liked the conversations we had over multiple glasses of single malt scotch, back when I had money and single malt was still affordable. Continue reading →