Comedy, Politics, Naps
Comedy - I'm driving Jordan, my little brother through Big Brothers Big Sisters, home after the BBBS Christmas Party tonight, and we somehow get on the subject of comedy. He brings up Dane Cook. He's a fan.
"I probably wouldn't listen to Dane Cook with you in the room," I say. "He gets a little raunchy."
"It's not bad," Jordan said. "He's funny."
Treading on dangerous ground, I start talking about my favorite stand-ups: Wright, Black, Poundstone and Carlin. He's never heard of George Carlin. I realize I'm a mentor and have to be a forthright, decent influence on this young man's life, but damn it some things need to be rectified.
"Have you ever heard of the 7 words you can't say on TV?"
"The 7 dirty words? Yeah, I know that."
"George Carlin did that."
I then launch into a(n edited) bit about the English language I memorized for my stand-up show in August. Jordan chuckles a bit and promises to look him up.
It's strange, but I feel like I've made more a difference bringing the idea of George Carlin into Jordan's life than I normally do. Then, there's an e-mail I got from a friend of mine last week which talks about a jury she served on that decided the fate of a man accused of murder. Mentoring was brought up at one point - how this man could have taken a different road that didn't end in incarceration if he had a positive male influence in his life.
I ask you, is there a better positive male roll model than George Carlin? Kidding. It just felt kind of good being the guy with the experience and sharing it with the kid who had the enthusiasm. I might get the hand of this mentoring thing yet.
Politics - Over the past day or so I've read a lot about the two debates for Republican and Democratic presidential candidates and have learned about 4 things from the national media.
1. The Des Moines register format sucked.
2. The "spin room" was small.
3. Alan Keys is from another planet.
4. Nothing of substance happened.
Not terribly thoughtful analysis, but I'm pretty sure without watching either debate that the media didn't have a lot to work with. What I wish, sincerely, is for a way for debates to actually help people make up their mind or an abolition of the process. Right now it seems like a colossal waste of time. Kind of like a few of the campaigns at this point.
Naps - No sleep. Again. It's starting to take it's toll and the caffeine isn't keeping up. The biggest manifestation today: I fell asleep on my couch after sitting down for about 20 seconds. My butt hit the cushion and my body effectively said "OK, we're shutting down now." I woke up five minutes later to my oldest daughter saying "Dad, are you listening to me?" No, sweetheart, I wasn't.
On the upside, the baby and I watched "The Elephant Man" last night while she wasn't sleeping. What a fantastic movie.
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