Album Years

I feel obligated to list the Albums of the Year like peb and otto, so I looked at Wikipedia to get started. Unfortunately, I was overwhelmed looking at the A albums of 1999. I decided I would just list the years I've been alive and give a little commentary.

1972 - born
1973 - don't really remember
1974 - moved from NY to NC
1975 - moved from NC to PA
1976 - the bicentennial. I remember crying b/c my mom said I wouldn't be alive for the tricentennial. I thought the tricentennial was in 1977.
1977 - Yankees win the World Series
1978 - Yankees win the World Series
1979 - Pirates win the World Series
1980 - Phillies win the World Series
1981 - confusion b/c the Mets didn't win the World Series and they were the 4th team that broadcast games to our house. Lesson learned, Mets suck.
1982 - move from PA to NJ
1983 - amazed that other kids can live w/in 9 miles of our house. have a great time.
1984 - Van Halen releases 1984 album. Video for Hot for Teacher plays at video jukebox in Ocean County mall for the rest of the year.
1985 - Hot for Teacher video on jukebox continues.
1986 - start to become jaded
1987 - become convinced that I haven't reached puberty b/c I don't have hair on my back like the Italian kids in the high school locker room.
1988 - look for books on a 2nd stage of puberty where you grow hair on your back
1989 - move from NJ to NC
1990 - finish high school. start counting money I will make statistically.
1991 - allegedly in Chapel Hill. charges never proven
1992 - don't remember
1993 - Tar Heels win national championship while I'm in school. girlfriend doesn't want to go to watch game w/ friends on franklin st (too crowded). break up w/ girlfriend.
1994 - graduate college. promptly put education to use in workforce delivering pizzas.
1995 - watch a lot of the Mary Tyler Moore show. decide I can make it on my own. move to TX. decide I need my family a lot more than I can ever admit. move back to NC.
1996 - start school to become a businessman.
1997 - meet 1st wife.
1998 - become businessman. start working for the man.
1999 - start working for new the man.
2000 - survive Y2k. start eating stockpiled cans of tuna fish and pinto beans.
2001 - have 1st kid.
2002 - somehow keep a kid alive for a whole year.
2003 - finish tuna fish and pinto beans from millennium crisis.
2004 - 2nd kid born.
2005 - somehow keep 2 kids alive for a whole year. pat self on back.
2006 - realize mom was right, I'm not going to see the tricentennial.
2007 - worst year ever.
2008 - make sarcastic lists.

Founding Faith and Knockemstiff

I finished these two books around the same time, so I'll list them together. Founding Faith informs us that people who claim our founding fathers were deists and people who claim our nation was founded as a Christian nation are both wrong. Rational people live in the creamy middle and the founders were rational people. Taking our country to extreme positions on either side is fine, but don't say you have the blessing of James Madison to do so. I have some simple descriptions that will let you know exactly what Knockemstiff is about. If this means anything to you, Titus would recommend this book to you. If that doesn't mean anything to you, it's a collection of fucked up stories about fucked up people doing fucked up things. The blurb on the jacket that says "I had to take a walk after each story to collect my thoughts" is spot on. It's fiction but it seems very, very real.

When You Are Engulfed In Flames

Things are really looking up on the book front. Now not only is my librarian wife bringing books home for me, but her friends are loaning her books that I'm reading too. David Sedaris' new book is, of course, hilarious. However, I'm not sure if I find it reassuring or unnerving that I share some of the same foibles as Mr. Sedaris. On the one hand, it's nice to know that someone else prepares talking points so they don't have to sit in silence w/ other people. Still, I probably shouldn't have confessed that. Oh well. Next time we talk I'll tell you about his theory on what kind of people smoke certain brands of cigarettes.