Thoughts of a Common Man

Anywhoha... It's been awhile since we touched base. 1). Got a text from a friend of mine when the Marriage Act was altered with the Supreme Court vote. I mentioned that it would not change how I viewed my sexual appetites and that I wasn't arrogant enough to believe that I should be commenting on who another person appears to love. That is a helluva' hot button item though, isn't it? I don't much get it. Discrimination against humans based on how you feel is a tad arrogant, right? 2). The Aaron Hernandez thing really does blow my mind. Now they are thinking he may have known something or had something to do with a double murder from the year before?? This isn't much about football. It's pure, simple evil and if any or all of it is true he's certainly a messed up kid. I hope and pray that he doesn't wiggle free if he is indeed responsible. Because I know people will cheer him again if he does step back on the field. See Ray Lewis - they'r...

You can't stay clear of the Paula Deen story, can you? Supposedly she uttered the magic n-word once in her life, and she admitted it during a deposition. She was fired. She has been skewered in the media. I've listened to her cry and apologize and absolutely butcher the old Popeye theme. "I is what I is," she said. Bad grammar aside I'm not quite sure if what she did was all that offensive. Once in her life she uttered something racist? I'm not sure how many people could lay claim to the fact that they have never said something that might be considered ridiculous when we think of it in rational terms. Have you ever been so angry or so upset that you've said something that you didn't mean? Of course you have. Have you ever called someone something so offensive that you wonder about your own sanity when it was repeated to you? I swear to God one of the funniest shows I've ever seen was a half-hour show by the comedian Louis C.K....

The New England Patriots cut Aaron Hernandez on Wednesday. They didn't wait for the murder charges to be levied. They didn't stand by him at the press conference and tell the world that he's innocent until proven guilty. They didn't make mention of how they would reserve judgement until all the information was in. They dumped his sorry ass. And I suppose that I'm supposed to be politically correct, and here in Buffalo I'm supposed to hate the Patriots, but I really don't. I like that they treat their millionaire stars like they do. How can you preach team concept when someone on the team is upsetting the balance? A bunch of years ago they had a player, Lawyer Milloy who held out in an effort to renegotiate his contract. Milloy was a Pro-Bowl player. He believed he deserved a raise over the pay that he had originally agreed to receive. So he marched in the office and made his demands. They cut him. I loved the story. Right up until the B...

The kidnapped, handicapped, claiming that he caught the clap. I'm not quite sure that Bruce line was rattling around my brain as I walked the streets of New York but it was. There was every sort of person on the streets. The street fair stretched from 32nd street all the way to 42nd street. Just person after person after person. White, black, Asian, Indian, Iranian, Hispanic. Tall people, short people, skinny people, fat people. Ugly people, beautiful people. We were all hot. We were all tired. We all just kept moving. The smells were wide and varied too. The aroma of food from the carts. The odor of urine, and puke, and whatever else you can imagine. People on bikes. People skating. Horses. Sirens. And the car horns. Just blaring. And there was the not-famous guy from North Collins in the middle of it all. Just thinking of love and people and loss and love and the madness that can get you, and love, and loss. And Food! We all can cook. I'...

June 22, 2013 - 02:30 p.m. "I'm not quite sure you know how funny you are," the filmmaker standing in the ballroom said to me as I exited the stage after being a part of the panel discussion about writing on your life. "I was the quiet one in the Fazzolari family," I said. The man howled. "I'm serious," I said. "I told a few Jeff stories up there, but if I told you stories about Corinne, John, Jim, or Carrie you'd be pissing yourself too. And forget about my Mom and Dad!" The man wanted my contact information. "The Fuzzy's!" He howled. "There should be a movie!" "There should be," I said. But truth be known, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The photo above shows a good friend, Dr. Neal Hall, the Philadelphia-based doctor who'd also won a number of awards. The good Doc is brilliant, funny, and more brilliant. He also thinks I'm funny. And I had two goals as a ...

Saturday Morning - June 22, 2103 - 9:23 a.m. You're a long ways from North Collins. My publisher had once said that to me as I signed books in New York with Henry Winkler on my right and Gene Hackman on my left. "No I'm not," I had said. "I never will be." She'd thought I was crazy. I thought of that as I battled the mass of people in the terminal at JFK. I thought of yelling out Fluffy's question again: Don't you people have homes to go to? Instead I just kept walking towards ground transportation. I texted Kathy my usual 'plane landed' type of text: No insurance money. We're on the ground. Once more I thought of it all. The bigger picture. We'd all go one day. Every single person in this terminal. Terminal Don't be whiny. Get busy living. I headed towards the front door and a man came rushing towards me. "Where you going?" he asked in broken English. He wasn't wearing a uniform. ...

If you aren't getting busy living, you're getting busy dying. I spent part of the week thinking about the Bob Dylan original thought and despite the fact that I wasn't sleeping in the same bed on consecutive nights I knew that I had to unpack from Syracuse and immediately put a bag together for New York City so I could stand in front of an audience and announce Jeff's birthday. The book was being honored again. It's not my honor. It's our honor. All of ours. My siblings, my parents, my friends, my readers. The least I can do is show up. So we will begin this little ditty at 8 pm on Friday night: June 21, 2013 - 8 p.m. "I'm dressing casual," I said. "No matter what you wear it's casual," my beautiful wife answered. She was at the computer checking me in for the early morning flight. She was giving great consideration on how I'd get from JFK to the event near Times Square. "Remember when you paid a guy $50 to...