Debellare Superbos

So, the wife and I, in an attempt to get me away from the blasted video games and her off the pills, decided to each read the same book and then talk about it at a given point in time. The hardest part was trying to find something that neither of us had read and that didn't suck. I must admit I had highly underestimated the amount of reading that I had done in the past two years.

We did eventually end up settling, not only on a classic, but a seasonal classic. Last night, we both began reading "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. I admit, gentle reader, that I peed just a little while writing this, such is my man crush on old Charlie. Then again, I have had a wicked head cold/sinus infection/the Herpes outbreak of doom for the last three weeks. That's alright though, I am taking antibiotics the size of a equine suppository twice a day. Minor side effects, you ask? Well, the rampant, explosive diarrhea has almost totally abated, but that taste of metal in my mouth and the complete loss of a sense of space and time is really starting to get on my nerves.

But I digress. I read the first ten pages of the work last night in bed, and, loving it, dreamt about simple connections that I had never really thought of. Take this shitty little blog for instance. Do you know who the Portly Gentlemen were? Read "A Christmas Carol." Do you know what is usually kept in Aisle five of your supermarket? Who the fuck knows? Could be canned chicken. Could be the liquor aisle. In my particular grocery, it is the aisle with the "ethnic foods" from such fine manufacturers as LaChoy and Old El Paso. I thought maybe that would put a little spice in the idea of this made up personae floating the electric currents of cyberspace.

Seriously, read "A Christmas Carol." No cheating either. Watch Scrooged or that one version with Patrick Stewart after you read the book. Seriously, it's only 80 pages for God's sake, and it paints a timeless social commentary on the plight of mankind and its willing ignorance to help itself.