Doctorgrosz

(via mattlodder)

Yeah, I get it… You live in Rochester or Ithaca or any town in Vermont.

If you live in any of these places, odds are you own a four-wheel-drive vehicle. You also have a “big-box” store nearby where you can buy 16 chicken pot pies, an HDTV, a PlayStation, a keg of Sierra Nevada, 100 gallons of bottled water, and a month’s worth of DVDs for well below retail value. All that shit is then forklifted to your car by a smiling white dude. When you get home, you pull your car into a driveway (if not an attached garage) and then you evenly distribute your storm sundries betwixt your main refrigerator and the “beer fridge” in the garage and you hunker down for the weekend.

Tonight, I needed hot sauce, a bottle of vodka, two bottles of tonic water, Ziploc bags, and a jar of peppercorns. I couldn’t locate the peppercorns. The rest of my items required four different locations - the cheapest item was the Ziploc bags at $4.99 - cheaper than the tonic water.

I walked over 16 NYC blocks in terrible weather, slipping and falling numerous times to SIMPLY GET TONIC WATER AND PEPPER.

Oh, and after you’ve hit all these four places? You’re still WALKING home, carrying all of this shit, just so you can sit in your overpriced apartment pretending that you’re erudite and urban after you’ve slipped on your ass and broken the bottle of hot sauce.

Yeah, I get it, South Dakota… You have really fucking abysmal winters. You also have 38lbs of venison curing in your barn. Most of us in NYC can’t buy more than 4 rolls of toilet paper at a time because we have nowhere to store it, much less a way to carry a monolithic construction of double-ply home to our hovel.

POINT: You can’t dis a bitchy New Yorker in winter unless you’ve lived in New York for a winter. Our lives suck even when things are good.

postmodernpost:

hey… that’s me!

To Whom it May Concern at the Boy Scouts of America:

About 17 years ago, I achieved the rank of Eagle Scout through Troop 3 in Old Greenwich, CT. My personal experience with scouting taught me thousands of life-lessons and opened more than a few doors in my professional life.

Admittedly, I was embarrassed in my early 20s to be an Eagle; as a musician in a rock and roll band, it simply wasn’t “cool.” But the knowledge that I learned through scouting helped me lead, manage, mediate conflict, and fix any gear that ever broke down (which it often did).

As I grew older and progressed on my life-path, I began to realize how often the personal and professional skills I learned through scouting were influencing both my life and the lives of people around me. People always seem shocked when they ask, “How did you learn to do THAT?” And I answer: “In the Boy Scouts.” Maybe I simply don’t look the part…

I can still repeat both the Scout Oath, Law, and Motto to this day. And while I may not always adhere to a few of the words in the Scout Law (namely: “cheerful,” “obedient,” “clean,” and “reverent”), I firmly believe in the rest of them.

I am TRUSTWORTHY. If I make a promise to someone, I keep it. Namely, I made a promise to myself long ago that I would speak out for anyone who was being unjustly disenfranchised. I stand by that vow to myself for the sake of the world around me.

I am LOYAL. That includes all of my friends, family, and community - regardless of their sexual orientation.

I am HELPFUL. That’s why I’m writing to you now. I was taught never to discriminate and my experience with the Scouts reinforced that belief. After all, I’m LOYAL to my homosexual friends and family; I can be TRUSTED to write a letter on our collective belief of anti-discrimination if I believe I can make a difference. Most importantly, I TRUST that a young man’s sexual identity does not preclude him from learning the wonderful life-skills that scouting could teach the world - if the B.S.A. could stop being so exclusionary. If the B.S.A. was truly HELPFUL, they’d be offering their knowledge and experience to everyone without judgement or discrimination. (My own sexual orientation does not mean that I’m the only one who should know how to tie a knot, build a fire or in a twist of irony - if you like to believe in stereotypes - weave a basket.)

I am COURTEOUS. I’ve attempted to write you a sensible letter that is devoid of harsh accusation and foul language, despite both being my greatest urges upon this matter.

I am KIND. Are you?

I am BRAVE - as are the young men who have found a way to “come out” at such a young age. In the cruel world of teenage social-politics, I can honestly think of nothing more BRAVE.

It would be a great achievement if an organization like the B.S.A. could cast off their antiquated beliefs and actually start believing in the strongest and most prescient points of their own teachings. 

Unfortunately, the world has always been filled with hate and discrimination. If we are ever to overcome this fact, what better way to find a solution to these problems than to begin with the minds of young men?

I sincerely hope that you will allow any young man to participate in scouting and become a great man of the future.

Brian Grosz

29 January 2013

[UPDATE: if you would like to write to the BSA to express your thoughts, you can and should - nationalsupportcenter@scouting.org]

“sub-genre,” my ass…

(via mattlodder)

• Me: Dave Brubeck - dead at 91.
• Dad: Woulda been 92 tomorrow. RIP. Apparently he was on his way to his cardiologist.
• Me: 91 ain't a bad run.
• Dad: Not unless it's your time that's up. At 91, I might be kicking, crying and screaming "NO" all the way out.
• Me: You'll have to reason with the rest of us to let you live that long first.