Syllabus #16

The most cheerful of gauntlets

Anybody else feel like after the age of 30, your life became one endless loop of that Talking Heads song?  You just look up and keep asking yourself, for better or for worse, how did I get here?  How is it time for another weekly Syllabus post?  How is it that next week I have to go back to work already?  Didn't summer just officially start a month ago?

I don't know how people who aren't tied to the temporal ebb and flow of the school year conceptualize time.  I feel like I have to be acutely aware of seasons and celebrations, and yet the passage of time continues to surprise me, like I'm a baby without a developed sense of object permanence and life is constantly pulling the got-your-nose trick (which, btw, is some bull.  shit.).

At any rate, here's what has delighted, inspired, or provoked me over the last week:

I was avoiding FaceApp out of vanity, but now I feel validated.  I don't need to sell my soul to nefarious Russian cyber-lords to appreciate the toll the coming years will exact on my face.  I have a mirror, I'm good.

I stumbled on this podcast episode that talks about Jim Varney and the origins of the Ernest P. Worrell character.  The Ernest conversation picks up around the 1 hour mark.  I heard parts of Ernest Scared Stupid were filmed in East Nashville, but I didn't know the Ernest character was originally developed by an ad agency and used in TV commercials in Nashville.  Apparently Jim Varney was a native of the area and big fixture in the comedy scene here in the 70s and 80s.  It will probably not surprise you (but might make you feel slightly uncomfortable) to learn that around roughly 1991, I had a movie poster of Ernest Goes to Jail hanging over my bed that I would kiss every night.

Speaking of National Treasures, Terry Gross interviewed musical satirist Randy Rainbow, who writes and performs musical theater parodies about our lunatic executive branch.  What a brilliant lyricist.


There are so few sincerely delightful, uncynical things existing in the world at this moment in time.  Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers is the hero America needs right now.  He's far, far greater than the hero we deserve, which is something more akin to a drunk uncle who bails you out of jail when you're arrested for passing too many bad checks.


This Nashville Mural Tour video.  Wanting to see the murals, I completely understand.  I support one's desire to take pictures of them.  Where you start to lose me is the obsession with having your picture taken in front of the murals, and you can just GTFO if you think Imma wait. in. line. for the privilege.  Hard no.


I love this jawn.


Cheapskate/OCD hobby alert.


I just started reading Howard Stern Comes Again.  I will admit I've never really listened to his radio show and my car has about as much Sirius XM capability as a rotary phone has for sending dick pics.  That being said, I've always had a vague respect for him as a fellow aficionado of shock value.  I'm thoroughly enjoying the book so far, and this excerpt from his interview with Jerry Seinfeld really resonates with me:

Howard:  Do you ever dream of the day where you could go with your wife to a Chinese restaurant and sit there and not think about the chopsticks?

Jerry:  As long as I shoot myself in the mouth with a bullet.  What fun is life if I'm not making jokes all the time?  It's a torture I love.

That's it for this week!  May all your days be filled with whatever kind of torture you love.