Get ready, little lady. Hell is coming to breakfast.
Let’s talk about age statements. In whisky, age is all important. It takes three years in an oak barrel to call a spirit a scotch, but not many people are interested until it’s much older. Eight years might elicit some interest, ten a bit more, but it’s not until a whisky hits its teens that…
Last February, I got a text late at night. “Dave, call me as soon as you can.” The moment I saw it, I sat down in the hall where I was walking. That’s not a good message. Not at that time of night. It was never going to be good news. Bad news carries immediacy.…
Let’s get something straight upfront. Boy Scout camp, at least the one I attend, is no glitzy affair. The food in the mess hall, where they feed each camper for a couple of bucks a day, isn’t very good. The outhouses sometimes blanket the campsites with a low-hanging layer of stench that can be quite…
I wrote this piece for Wired’s GeekDad. I struggled with it quite a bit for a couple of reasons. Foremost, it’s intensely personal. I am writing about the Christians and their troubles and, while they are quite open about their experience, it still felt like I was intruding. Secondly, my kids are the same age as Ryan.…
One hundred years ago this week, Arthur Eldred of Troop 1 in Oceanside, New York became the first to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, a short two years after the Boy Scouts were established in America. Since then, about 2.1 million boys have gone on to earn the Eagle Scout rank, the highest rank…
Today, I sat in a crowded hotel ballroom and ate a surprisingly tasty chicken and noodle lunch while listening to Scott Waddle talk about his career. Waddle was a genuinely nice guy and upbeat about his life, which is surprising, considering he was responsible for the deaths of nine people, including four kids. Waddle had…
The Walking Dead is, arguably, the best comic book being published these days. With 69 issues out, this long running story is nearly seven years old. The book’s creators, Robert Kirkland and Charlie Adlard take an overdone genre – the zombie apocalypse – and give it an incredibly fresh take that results in a dramatic…
That bastion of hard-hitting journalism, The Sun, ran a story about how total fucking idiots proud new parents are naming their children after characters in the movie Avatar. So, one day, your kids will be going to school – not with Michaels and Susies – but Neytiris and Toruks. (I have no idea what those…
This story took place in November 1998. My wife and I had been trying to have kids for a while, but with no success. Due to her family history, the doctors were pretty sure the problem was in my wife’s girl parts, but they wanted to rule me out. The following is what has become…
One of my first sports memories was in 1978 or 1979. I was about 10 at the time and I’d been invited by a friend to see the Royals play the Yankees in the playoffs. This was back when baseball was still competitive and the pinstripes were hated rivals. Our seats were high in the…