Groundhog day preview
I’m looking forward to today. Although I’m not exceptionally invested in the teams playing in the Superbowl, my wife’s family and my son are huge Pittsburgh Steelers fans. My boy is giddy, running around...
Category: Suburban warrior
Adventures in customer service (Part 1)
I like to produce as much as I like to consume. I think it has something to do with my heretofore unstated need for validation and affection. My insurance doesn’t pay for therapy, so...
Otis miscellany
As most of you know, I’m not a meme guy. As most of you also know, I like talking about myself. So, a meme that asks me to talk about myself invites an embarrassing...
From chilly to Chile
(Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport)–There will come a time, I’m sure, when someone will ask, “So where were you when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States?” I will answer, “San Jose, Costa Rica.”...
The Best of BoCoMo live music 2008
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 years ago, I met a guy named Aaron. He was one of–if not the very first–person I spoke to on the University of Missouri college campus. He was...
Double dipping, as explained by Joe Henfield
(Paradise Island, Bahamas) — You have to imagine the thick Bahamian accent and a guy who looks a little like Jim Brown. That’s Joe Henfield, a private limo driver in Nassau. He doesn’t have...
Year five
(Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport)–I was nervous at this time in 2005. I’d been asked to spend a week in the Bahamas writing about poker. I’d been asked by people that I held in such high...
Rapid Eye Reality’s 2008 superlatives
Let’s just get this out of the way. I wasted 2008. Among my other thirty-something (and forty-something friends), talk of “how fast the year went” has recently become a frequent topic of discussion. For...
Punked
(Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport — Ten minutes ago) I couldn’t tell if the family in front of us was Amish, Mennonite, or some funk southern combination of the two. The wife was dressed in traditional...
Advice from the most honest one in the room
Norman Rockwell was an idealist, or he lived in a time before hyper-consumerism and ease of travel made the holidays one giant reason to drink. Sweating, honking, cursing people fill the streets and malls...
Otis resolved
I don’t like New Year’s resolutions. I think they are a product of the overly-ambitious and the generally lazy. The grand promises are lip service to self betterment that are usually forgotten by the...
Now with an ascot!
Saturday night, I grabbed my iPod and set about chopping up onions and jalapenos while listening to a friend tell me stories. He told me one take about an evil Eastern European woman who...
Getting sharp
I have the old man and Ikea to thank for getting my mise right back en place. The old man sits in the back of a family hardware store on Augusta. He comes in...
The 500 Club Redux
Quite a few of you submitted your choices for your own personal 500 Club, so I guess it’s only fair that I pass on the original list. You can click on the link to...