So the other day I was in Lucille Ball Memorial Park in Celoron, NY, and I took a picture of the statue of Lucy and posted it on Facebook.
But as the days passed, I felt a niggling. A tiny creeping feeling of guilt.
Then it occurred to me: the source of this feeling was that there are two Lucys in Lucille Ball Memorial Park, and I had completely ignored one of them.
One of the Lucy statues is far more popular than the other.

I wondered what caused me to totally ignore the less popular Lucy.
Am I just a shallow self-centered jerk? Of course I am–but I don’t think that was reason for my callous dismissal of the other Lucy.
Maybe it was time for some introspection. Maybe it was time I delved into the deepest recesses of my brain to find out what’s going on in there.
So that’s what I did.
Honestly, it more than a little unsettling…there were way more spiders in there than I would have anticipated.
I came to realization that I have far more in common with the unpopular Lucy than I would like to admit.

I’m practically living her life!
What Should I do about this revelation?
I can either buckle down and focus on making changes to better myself, or I can avoid Lucille Ball Memorial Park.
I guess I’ll be seeing less of the park.
Wouldn’t life be easier if we all just told the truth?
Wouldn’t it be better if we didn’t sugarcoat things?
Wouldn’t it be better if we just accepted things as they are?
Imagine a world where we didn’t have to censor ourselves; a world where people didn’t get their shorts all twisted up in a bunch over every little thing you say.
Example:
Easily Offended Individual: don’t you think my baby is beautiful?
You: what do you mean–for a lizard?
Easily Offended Individual: I mean beautiful for a baby.
You: a baby lizard?
Easily Offended Individual: for a baby person!
You: your baby looks like a lizard.
Easily Offended Individual: people say the baby takes after me!
You: you have lizard eyes.
Easily Offended Individual: you’re an ass!
You: but I’m an ass with normal eyes.
Easily Offended Individual: you can go to Hell!
See. If people would just accept the fact that they have a creepy lizard baby, everything would be easier and there would be a lot less occurrences of people who were only being honest being punched in the face by angry people who are most likely suffering from the trauma of having lizard eyes.
I’m just saying.
Evidently certain people weren’t paying attention.
Certain people who are either dull-witted or recalcitrant.
People who are dull-witted, recalcitrant, or compulsively boorish.
And in some cases, people who possess all three traits.
People who insist–regardless of how vehemently I protest–on showing me pictures of their children.
The ugly truth: I don’t like your children. In fact, I don’t like your children almost as much as I don’t you.
Note: it is my solemn pledge to the readers of this blog, at no point will it ever be heartwarming.
Don’t show me a picture of your grandchild and say, “she has her fathers eyes, isn’t it amazing?”
No, it’s not amazing at all; it’s pretty much how genetics work.
Your grandchild is bald, pudgy, toothless, prone to drooling, and screams at the top of her lungs when she wants something. If she had a tramp stamp, she be the spitting image of her mother–now that’s amazing.
I don’t want to see the following progression of photos:
It was annoying just having to read that wasn’t it?
It pissed me off having to write it.
Just imagine having to sit through six months worth of those photos. Forget waterboarding, that would crack the most hardened terrorist.
Here’s the only progressions of photos I need to see:
That’s it. That’s all I need.
Do you know what’s just as bad? Endless photos of your child’s birthday party.
And now, thanks to modern technology, the boorish photo purveyor doesn’t need to haul around a bunch of photographs, they can cram literally thousands of photos onto her phone. Thousands of mind-numbing soul-sucking photos.
Note: the first two dozen photos are of the cake. It’s a freaking cake, not a Rodin sculpture.
Imagine this conversation:
Boorish photo purveyor: would you like to see pictures of my child’s birthday party?
You: I’d rather be stabbed in the face with a bayonet.
Boorish photo purveyor: let me get my phone.
You: I hope your phone has an app that turns it into a bayonet.
Boorish photo purveyor: do you want to see a picture of the cake?
You: only if it has a bayonet in it.
Boorish photo purveyor: I have hundreds of pictures.
You: Arrgh (you feign a fatal heart attack, and lie motionless until the boorish photo purveyor, sensing the awkwardness of the moment, walks away).
But the worst place to be cornered by a boorish photo purveyor is on an airplane. You’re trapped, you have only four options:
Did you notice how each option was worse than it’s predecessor?
Note: in the old days you could dissuade fellow passengers from engaging you by fondling a blood stained machete, and repeatedly mumbling about your manifesto. Now you can’t even bring your machete on the plane, bloodstained or otherwise. You can’t do anything on a plane anymore; thanks for nothing terrorists. When you’re done being waterboarded, I’ve got some baby pictures for you.
Retaliation is the only solution. The next time someone asks me if I want to see pictures of their child, I’ll respond: “yes, but first you must see the 500 photos I have of my pet Sea-Monkeys; they’re so precious.”
That ought to work.

Dear loudmouth,
Purveyor of unwanted opinions,
It is absolutely adorable that you believe I care what you think.
I don’t.
I don’t care at all–not even a little.
I view your opinions as gnats buzzing around my head; irritants to be swatted away and if possible, crushed.
It’s not the sheer stupidity and ignorance contained within your opinions that I find so objectionable. It’s more the level of arrogance and brazenness in which you disseminate your opinions.
I would listen to virtually anyone’s opinion before I would listen to yours. If there are 7.7 billion people in the world, yours would be the 7.7 billionth opinion to which I would listen.
I would even listen to opinions in languages I don’t understand, (which frequently includes English) before I would listen to your opinion. Even if a person spoke in a language that consisted of nothing but clicks and whistles, I would sit and listen with an empathetic countenance, nodding, and adding an occasional, “that’s a good point,” to the mix.
I would listen to the opinions of parrots before I would listen to yours. At least when a parrot says something birdbrained, it’s because it has the brain of a bird. What’s your excuse?
Or one of those howler monkeys. Even if that howler monkey was hurling its feces at me as it was howling its opinion, I would find it preferable to your opinion. I would rather be hit in the face with monkey crap than listen to your opinion.
You remind me of Bluto from the Popeye cartoons, but without the couth. Bluto is couther than you. A loud-mouthed cartoon blowhard has more couth than you. That’s crazy.
Olive Oyl will always choose Popeye over Bluto and Popeye isn’t exactly a golden-throated charmer.
I’m sure you have opinions about this post…I don’t care.
It’s my hope that my stance on the matter has been made sufficiently clear.
Thank you for your time.
Erie, Pennsylvania–A man was jailed in the City of Erie, Pennsylvania after being arrested for suspicious behavior and what the responding officer referred to as, prowling around like a weirdo.
The man who has been identified as a Mr. T. Fairy was allegedly trying to gain entry to the residence of the Rizzo family. “He claims to have had business there,” the arresting officer said.
The man was discovered carrying a satchel of silver dollars and what appeared to be a bag filled with children’s teeth. “A bag of children’s teeth,” said the officer. “How sinister is that?”
The man claims to be the famed Tooth Fairy, but the police have their doubts. “I imagined the Tooth Fairy to be less masculine,” the officer admitted, “and definitely less tattooed.”
“Everybody just assumes the Tooth Fairy is some petite little woman,” Mr. Fairy said, “but that’s just sexist.”
The Investigation has uncovered that little Jay Rizzo had lost a tooth earlier in the day when on a dare, he tried to eat a brick. “Jay is pretty stupid,” his father confirmed.
Adding intrigue to the situation and weight to the man’s story: he was discovered to have wings. “We were fingerprinting him when all of a sudden these wings go fluttering up behind him,” the processing officer said, “that doesn’t normally happen.”
Mr. Fairy is being charged with trespassing and with a little used statute involving activity deemed to be more than a little icky.
“Well, the tooth will come out in the end,” Mr. Fairy said with a chuckle.
Little Jay’s lost tooth remains under his pillow, waiting for the Tooth Fairy to make bail.
In 1910 there was an organization in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania called The Anti-Automobile Society of Pennsylvania and they really hated automobiles.
They complained automobiles traveled too fast, frightened their livestock, ran over their chickens, and that Pennsylvania motorists were inexplicably unable to properly use a turn signal.
Note: I made up the part about the turn signal, the Anti-Automobile Society of Pennsylvania didn’t say anything about the turn signal, but I’m saying it. Use your damn turn signal!
The point is: The Anti-Automobile Society of Pennsylvania really hated automobiles, almost as much as I hate mimes, other peoples children, and any TV show with the words the real housewives of in the title.
They developed a set of guidelines for automobiles operating in rural areas of Pennsylvania:
I’m not making that up.
Admittedly, they had very little to say about the fact that automobiles don’t leave disease spreading horse crap everywhere, but no system is perfect.
After a recent trip to the DMV, I have become convinced that the Anti-automobile Society of Pennsylvania was deeply involved with the development and current state of the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles. Their grubby little fingerprints are all over it.
The current procedures of Pennsylvania DMV are only slightly less convoluted, but they still involve rockets and horse crap.
I leave you with a photo of a 1910 automobile offender.
What the hell is wrong with you people?
And more importantly: what’s wrong with me that those search terms direct people to this blog?
I was recently reminded of an event from my past; an event that was buried deeply in the recesses of my mind.
Dredging things from the deep recesses of my mind is not an easy task. It’s dark and scary in there, it smells like rotting pinecones and there are spiders.
Anyway, the memory (recovered at great cost of life) was of an event that occurred during my senior class trip to Toronto, Canada.
On our way to Toronto we stopped at Niagara Falls to ride the Maid of the Mist.
We took the tram down to the area where you board the boats, which at the time was basically just a big cement slab. There was nothing down there, including restrooms.
We waited there. Then waited some more. Then we waited a little longer.
It’s important to note: during the ninety minute bus ride from our little village of Westfield, NY to Niagara Falls, there were coolers containing cans of pop placed about the bus. I availed myself multiple times.
“I kind of have to pee,” I remarked innocently to my friends as we stood waiting.
We finally boarded one of the boats, donned our rain coats and departed for the falls.
I believe I can write without fear of contradiction: the base of Niagara Falls is without question, the worst place on the face of the Earth to be if you need to pee.
My situation rapidly escalated from kind of having to pee, to into having to pee worse than I ever had in my life.
If you’ve never been on the Maid of the Mist, the boat lurches up and down and you are constantly blasted in the face by dense mist.
And because the Horseshoe Falls are a curve, literally half of your horizon is a 180ft wall of water crashing down at a rate of over 75,000 gallons per second.
I was in agony–it felt like my bladder was filled with tiny wolverines trying to claw their way out.
I genuinely considered peeing off the side of the boat.
But it was not my desire to be forever known as the guy who got sent home two hours into the senior trip for peeing off the Maid of the Mist and causing an international incident.
As I was bent over in misery, my friends taunted me mercilessly and told others I was seasick.
I wasn’t seasick.
We finally made it back to shore, but the only way back up the street was by the tram and there were a lot of people in line ahead of us. A lot!
It was then I did something I wasn’t proud of; I shoved my way to the front of the line.
I literally shoved my way past the elderly and small children.
After reaching the top of the hill, I ran (which is ridiculously hard to do when you really have to pee) and made it to the restroom with no time to spare. I peed for what felt like fifteen minutes–it was glorious.
I made it through the entire senior trip without causing a single international incident. Collectively as a group, we were all a little surprised.