Thoughts of a Common Man

A pretty easy choice this week. Ray Rice is a football player for the Baltimore Ravens. You know, one of the clueless, mindless guys who carries a ball for a living so therefore deserves to be treated like royalty. My dog can carry a ball for a long way and is actually really elusive when you chase her. Yet Rice, despite the fact that he knocked his girlfriend absolutely unconscious with a punch, and then, on videotape, guided her knocked out body out of an elevator by dragging her by the hair, is not the D.B. of the week. (And by D.B. you can either go with 'Dopey Bastard' or 'Douche Bag' - you choose). Ray Rice didn't win this week! His coach - John Harbaugh does. There's a nod to Roger Goodell as well. Because, you see, the National Felony League suspended Rice for a grand total of 2 games for his knockout punch. (Do you know that the NFL doesn't pay taxes or their cheerleaders? They also hold communities hostage and black-out games if ...

Was on another demolition job recently and as usual there was a safe in the center of the room. The safe was not open and really couldn't be opened by anyone there on the demolition crew, but a few of the guys were taking a crack at the combination while on break. "What would you do if you got it open and there was a quarter mil in there?" I asked the boss. "Really? You need to ask?" "You wouldn't give it to the owner or call your boss?" I asked. He laughed. "You'd turn it in?" And I don't suppose that I would. I imagine that I'd stuff all the cash into my pockets and make a run for the car, but it begs the question of finding lost money and actually turning it in. A few years ago a friend of ours found an envelope in a shopping cart in the Wal-Mart parking lot. She headed back into the store and turned, the better then $2,000 haul, over to the girl behind the glass in the store. "You dumb ass," I re...

I went golfing at a country club. I texted a buddy and told him that I felt a bit like Jed Clampett. Before I even arrived at the course my beautiful wife had to go out and get me clothes that were actually ALLOWED TO BE WORN ON THE COURSE. So, I was a little tense when I arrived. I started really slowly. My feet are still really hurting, but if I can put them in work boots, I can put them in golf shoes. And I spent a bit of time loosening up. The hip, the back, the feet were all barking. But I was still so tense. Because I felt like I didn't belong. The rough is like the usual fairways I golf on. The fairways are so nice that I felt bad taking a swing. I learned really quickly that I needed to pour something out of a bottle on our cart on the holes. I needed to fix ball marks on the green. I had to wait my turn. My f-bombs would most likely be frowned upon...and God help me if I threw a club. So...I settled down quickly. I kept looking at the beautiful image...

During the last few weeks I've received messages from old friends who were once part of my every day life. We all have friends like that. People we really, really liked...or loved...who by circumstance fell out of our lives. Perhaps we switched jobs. Maybe we got married and those friends just sort of drifted to the background. Whatever the reason...they aren't around anymore...but they pop back in. I have a buddy who was a huge fan of The Who . Every single time I hear a Who song I think of him. Sometimes I'll just send the name of the song to him in a text: Another Tricky Day And he'll answer: We should get together! And you might want to, but you won't. Yet you have the memories. I saw another guy at a party this past weekend. When we were kids we used to grab a case of beer and ride around listening to music. At the party we were both drinking water. "Hey, I read your last book," he said. "Couldn't believe I was pi...

In many ways Waldorf & Juli was my most disappointing book. Not because of the writing! I actually really thought I figured some things out with this one. The back story. After Eye in the Sky I was doing a couple of really good things. I was writing a lot, and I was talking with an agent out of Pittsburgh. My agent was telling me to slow it all down. "Make sure you write a good book, first," she said. "The rest will sort itself out." So I was working on a book I was calling Desperation Explodes Into Pain. That book was a monster and it was inspired by Grapes of Wrath and the Mellencamp song Jackie Brown . I was living alone in New Haven, Connecticut. I was down in the dumps a little and poverty really saddened me. So I was working on Desperation ....and I was sort of living like that too. I needed to laugh a little. So I also started writing a funny book...it was a book about a guy who meets a girl. Then I imagined what it might be like ...

My college buddy Mike Palmer turned 50 years old on Friday. That, obviously, is an old photo. 32+ years old to be exact. Funny story, but when I arrived at Gannon University in August, 1982 I was a little scared. I was leaving North Collins where I had graduated high school just a couple of months before and I was going to really miss high school because I had a lot of great, close friends. I didn't know more than one person who was heading to Gannon...the one guy I did know was Chris Miller...and I didn't even like him! So I was lonely. The first guy I met, other than my goofy roommate, was Mike Palmer. The second guy I met was Fluffy and the 3rd was Gag. We've all remained friends for over 30 years. And it's a truly easy friendship. We grew to know another so well that there isn't a single thing that happens that I don't know what my three buddies are thinking. When Rosie sent me the above photo of the two of us a whole bunch of things went ...

It's that time of year, folks! The 4th annual tournament to celebrate Jeff. As you can see in the above photo that's me and my buddy Jeff Renaldo...and while I never would have imagined living all of these days without my brother... ...it's guys like Jeffy who get me through. And that's how it feels for the entire Fuzzy family. Our cousins come from miles and miles away. Our friends gather and play ball. Wif feeds me SPAM at every turn. Larry Bowman provides the peppers that Pops stuffs to perfection. We have epic donations from all over Western New York and we have what is really needed... ...every day... love and laughter. I really hope that you can all make the trip to Marion Fricano North Collins Town Park on August 10 at 10:30 a.m. We'll be playing softball. We will have some peppers and a few beverages. We'll be celebrating the life of an outstanding human being... ...and giving a little bit of comfort to Johnny, Farrah and Roc...