Greetings! I know, it's been a while since I posted anything.
And even longer since I posted anything good.
I knew this day would come - I'm feeling good and I just don't have the pain that drives great tragedy or the irrational fear that inspires great comedy. I'm becoming boring. In many ways, this is a good thing for me but a bad thing for you, my fearless readers. Honestly, I thought this little blog would keep chugging for a few more months, but unless something awful happens I think my posting will probably be infrequent and boring.
Life is starting to level out. I've got the kids every other week, and I pretty much live for those weeks. There's nothing better than being Superdad. Getting up early to pack lunches and snacks. Wrangling sleepy children out of their beds. Doing my son's homework at the last minute (since he swore he forgot he had homework the night before). Making breakfast every morning and dinner every evening. Wrestling with my daughter and playing catch with my son. Completely embarrassing them at the bus stop when I give them a hug.
Daaaad, not in front of the other kids!
They really are the best thing I've ever done in my life and I'd do just about anything for them.
People occasionally ask me, where did you come up with the name "Quincy." Well, I'm a little ashamed to admit that the apple of my eye, my firstborn son, was named after Jack Klugman's sloppy skirt chasing TV coroner.
How many of you remember Quincy M.E.? To my young eyes Quincy was the coolest man in America. Did you see that beautiful woman on the sailboat?
I'm reasonably sure that wasn't his daughter he was canoodling with.
And you just know the sailboat isn't even his - he was borrowing some rich guys boat to impress the young lady. He was smart, debonair, sexy and scientific. He used logic and deduction to solve crimes. He got the ladies even though he dressed like a slob. I wanted his life.
Quincy M.E. was on in re-runs while I was in college. In year four or five of my six year plan I had scheduled all of my classes for MWF between 10 and 2. I'd get back to my room in the basement of the Phi Kap house around 3:00, just in time for the start. I'd typically share lunch with whichever other fraternity brothers had chosen to skip class or were "under-scheduled" like me.
We'd settle in for the Rockford Files and Quincy M.E., the two coolest slobs on television. Jim Garner and Jack Klugman, my late 70's icons. Ramen noodles, Rockford and Quincy. Those were the days. If I had a second son, I would have been sorely tempted to name him James Rockford Kraus.
There were a lot of great times in that house.
My daughter Cordelia was named for a character in William Shakespeare's "King Lear". In the first act of the play, King Lear decides to abdicate his throne and divide his kingdom between his three daughters: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. Cordelia is the youngest. Lear proclaims that the largest share of the estate will go to the daughter that loves him the most. Goneril and Regan proceed to blow smoke up the old man's ass about how great their love for dad is.
Why are no girls named Goneril any more? It sounds like a VD treatment. "Do you have trouble with itching, burning penile discharge? Choose Goneril!"
When it is Cordelia's turn, she declines. She states that there is nothing to compare her love to. She doesn't disrespect the old man, but she refuses to play his childish game. She realizes that Lear's whole game of flattery is about control. Well, Lear loses his shit and disinherits Cordelia. He takes everything from her and divides it between the other two. Well, Goneril and Regan immediately become a couple of bitches now that they got what they wanted and the old man is powerless. War with the French ensues and in the end only Cordelia supports her father.
Not to ruin it, but pretty much everyone ends up dead in the end. Lear comes off as a complete dick for putting his daughters through the wringer. The daughters are conniving bitches. Their husbands are selfish, power hungry pricks. King Lear goes mad when he realizes that the entire mess was due to his own foolishness.
In the end, Cordelia is the only one of the King's children who supports him. I like that concept - "the faithful daughter".
Cordelia Chase was also a hot piece of work on the TV shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spin off "Angel".
If any of you want to read the text of the full play, you can find it here.
So there you have it, one of my kids is named after a late 70's TV character, the other is named after a character from possibly the greatest play ever written.
What does that say about me?
