Late last week, I spent 24 hours in Peoria, Illinois for the annual Illinois Music Educators Association conference. Usually, the conference is blighted by a late-January snowstorm, making transportation from Chicago no better than miserable. This year, unseasonably warm temps had me feeling optimistic. Aside from the gridlock of exiting the Loop, the trip was easy. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t an indicator that things were looking up in central IL.
I love to drink and I do it regularly. But I didn’t have a repressed childhood, I wasn’t in a fraternity, and I’ve never done a keg stand (actually, I’m not even sure exactly what that is). Over the last few years, I’ve just come to the conclusion that, like many fine adult beverages, drinking gets better with age.
Here are FIVE GOOD REASONS that I’m right.
Don’t worry Colts fans, I don’t mean Andrew Luck. But other than Andrew, luck does not exist. This is something I started to realize in my late teens. I think people who truly believe in luck don’t understand the value of preparation, avoid accountability, and seek easy explanations for complicated occurrences. The notion of luck weaves in and out of my life on a frequent basis, and my fiance and I have regular debates about whether we’re “lucky” to have found each other, or if us finding each other was the culmination of a series of informed decisions that each of us made that put us in the best position to find our soul mate (I want some credit for finding her!). I’m going to breakdown several distinct scenarios where luck would commonly be used to explain happenings, and eviscerate the notion in each case.
Herman Cain was the most fascinating (read disastrous) GOP candidate since Sarah Palin’s run at the Vice Presidency. But along with the likes of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, I was really, really sorry to see him drop out of the campaign, especially after the incredible Libya interview. Well done, Herman. It’s no surprise that Colbert is still getting mileage out of your material. (Aside: The first time I heard about Cain’s 9-9-9 economic plan, I thought about this other 9-9-9 plan.) But after watching portions of the most recent debates, I’m starting to think we’re doing just fine without Herman. In fact, he might just have been the opening act to a spectacular main event: Newt, Ron, and Rick.*
I really have no idea why I feel the need to clarify the difference between a “man crush” and a “bromance,” other than the fact that it makes “macho” men uncomfortable, and it gives me a chance to rip Brett Favre. I will highlight some of the key differences, and then provide my top three man crushes, in order from least- to most-crushed.
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I’ve been brewing beer for just over a year. It’s a beautiful combination of two of my favorite hobbies: cooking and drinking. While it’s not all that difficult to make drinkable beer–and you can do it in your kitchen with … Continue reading
I have a secret love that only my closest friends know. I don’t think my parents know. Very few colleagues know. Most people would be very surprised to learn about it; some even shocked. Underneath the business attire, despite the fact that I’m a preacher’s kid, and even after 20+ years and two degrees in classical music, I can’t deny how much I LOVE Outkast.
Yes. I’m about to shout from the rooftops. I love Outkast, the trend setting, boundary pushing, multi Grammy® award-winning hip hop duo from the ATL. Andre Benjamin, aka Andre 3000, and Antwan Patton, aka Big Boi, aka Daddy Fat Sax, aka General Patton. I remember the first time I heard “Player’s Ball” (on a mix tape, I was 15) and buying my first ‘Kast album (ATLiens in 1998). I remember taking the bus to buy Stankonia the day it came out in October 2000 and telling people how “B.O.B.” was different from anything I had heard before, never mind that they were singing about Shock and Awe three years before it actually happened. (Some people think “B.O.B.” was the song of a generation; not quite true. That would come three years later.) I was so excited to find out that I actually grew up in the SWATS that many subsequent screen names and email passwords included the five-letter acronym.
two dope boys in a Cadillac 