The Beginnings of the Educated Derelict

"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of EDUCATED DERELICTS. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

Calvin Coolidge

This quote is engraved on a plaque that used to hang on my bedroom wall. My high school cross country coach gave me the plaque because he was impressed by the fact that I had worked my ass off to become one of the better runners on our team even though I didn't have a lot of natural talent. That was a few months before I drank myself into a blissful coma for the first time. Soon after that, I realized that I liked drinking a hell of a lot better than running ten to fifteen miles every day. So, during my senior year, I dropped off the cross country team to concentrate on partying and screwing around with my friends. As I continued my education through college and law school, my fondness for liquor, gambling and other immoral vices increased to the point that they became my unabashed way of life. But despite the recklessness of my everday existence, I never lost my love for learning. One day I came home for Christmas vacation, looked at the plaque still hanging on my bedroom wall, and realized that I was exactly the type of person old Cal Coolidge had warned me not to become: An Educated Derelict.

Since the world is full of us, I figured that we might as well have our own blog. Here are the things I am passionate about which I will be discussing frequently on this site (in no particular order): politics (mostly of the radical Libertarian variety), good movies (Coen Brothers, etc.),
Texas Hold 'Em poker, booze, just about every kind of music except for Top 40 crap (the Pogues, the Beta Band, Husker Du, Sugar, Hank Williams, David Allan Coe, Thelonious Monk, Chet Baker, Broken Social Scene, the Knife, Band of Horses, the Smiths, Daft Punk, Guided by Voices, Wu Tang Clan, Lil Wayne, Bebel Gilberto, Howlin' Wolf, the Streets, Greatful Dead and the Clash are favorites), freshwater and saltwater fishing, more booze, golf, football (die-hard New England Patriots fan), baseball (Yankees fan - I know it's odd to root for both the Pats and the Yanks but I grew up in Connecticut), Beat Generation and Russian literature, random and useless trivia, poetry that doesn't suck (Baudelaire and Bukowski, e.g.), tales of booze-related debauchery, traveling throughout the U.S. and Europe (hoping to quit my job one day and travel all over the rest of the world), bad reality TV shows (yes, I admit it, I watch "The Hills") and even more booze.

I welcome all of you to submit posts and messages on the things you enjoy too. I don't hate or discrimate against anyone. However, if you are one of those serious, Type-A, non-drinking, go-getters, we probably won't have all that much in common!