So Long, PJ O'Rourke

 

Huffington Post

A funny guy, keen wit; I recall him from the old National Lampoon Magazine and Rolling Stone. Rest in humorous pieces.

A Pressing Question re. Trans Men

 Comic Ryan Long explores the fairness of trans men entering female contests.

Ryan Long

A Thought for February 8

 

I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man wearing Crocs.

— Ling Carter

A Thought for February 5

 

Live Science

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

 - Albert Einstein

Prostate Cancer Real Talk: Episode 9

 Don't wait until it's too late. Early testing for prostate cancer is a game-changer.

Prostate Cancer: Real Talk

Racist Carrot: Morning Oddness From Salvatore Ganacci

Language warnings for this insight into a surreal corporate world.

Salvatore Ganacci

A Thought for January 31

 

Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

White Gentrification Fail

Rylan Long shows how realtors can help stop the yogaizing of neighborhoods. 

Ryan Long

Why I Fail at Setting Goals

Cleaning out some old papers, I found my writing goals for 2013. Intense, detailed, with follow-ups. Yet by year's end I'd accomplished only a tiny fraction. Joseph Tan explains why.

Joseph Tan

MCRD 50 Years Later

 

USMC League

MCRD San Diego Back in the Day

Everything must begin somewhere. And in the United States Marine Corps, my enlisted tour commenced with yellow footprints. Drawn on the asphalt of the recruit depot with heels close together and toes angled out to 45 degrees, they are where I, along with seven other guys from our suburban Chicago neighborhood, stood to begin military service. Then we marched somewhere, boxed up our clothes and mailed them home, coming to the realization that our new life would be different from drinking beer behind a bowling alley.

The Vietnam War was winding down, at least for the United States, though the North Vietnamese would launch a huge attack against South Vietnam toward the end of March as we conducted infantry training at Camp Pendlelton. (In September, now a Private First Class, I would find myself in an Army hospital called Camp Kue on Okinawa, sharing  a ward with American advisors who'd been wounded helping the South Vietnamese forces stop the communists.)

In 1991, I visited the footprints on a vacation to San Diego with my girlfriend. (Now My Fine Wife or MFW.)

In 2002, I stood on a hill in Vietnam called Con Thien with a Vietnamese guide who told me about the obliteration of his village by B52s, bombing the NVA advance.

In 2008, I was back at MCRD finishing up a marathon with Team in Training.

But on a Friday night, January 14, 1972, I stood on yellow footprints. Oh, right before we boxed up our clothes, this happened:
(The following scene is rather accurate, except there's no C&W music. Just buzzzzzzz.)

h/t: amp1776

Note 2020:

On this 48th anniversary of my enlistment, I pay my respects to Tom Poto and Steve Lovell, two of my comrades who are no longer with us. RIP, bros. Hard to believe we were once young together.

Note: 2021

Yikes! 49 years ago; one removed from a half-century. I'll write no more on the subject.

Note: 2022

NOW 50 years have passed. I remember being hung over with a shaving cut on my right cheek that bled most of the day. Grisly forshadowing. Ah, well. 
    

Prostate Cancer: Real Talk Episode 8

 Listen to how prostate cancer survivor Jim Schraidt battled from suicidal depression to helping other survivors deal with anger and other mental health issues.   

Prostate Cancer: Real Talk