More Better in Theory . . .
(Originally appeared in Esquire, July 1 2006.
Written with Ted Travelstead.)
Bjork
A sponge-bath from the “overnight” nurse
Licking the alphabet “down there”
Home golf simulators
An SNL Digital Short
Hearing a neighbor couple “get it on”
Ripping up a parking ticket
Titty cams
Homemade sausage
The “Casual Encounters” section on Craigslist
Rick Rubin-produced comebacks
“Outsider” art
A weekend at the paintball tourney, just you and your co-workers
Sex instruction books written by cast members of “Sex & The City”
Selling all of your earthly possessions to make a “statement”
Pub crawlin’ your way through the suburbs
Summer camp reunions
Steely Dan
Herbal cures for erectile dysfunction
Remaining friends
Apple butter
Your favorite T-shirt that reads “Free Mustache Rides”
Good old-fashioned Southern hospitality
All gym memberships
“Quick toasting” your bread over a gas burner
Any Bond with the exception of Sean Connery
The “Salsa & Fixins” bar
A Ping-Pong table in lieu of “traditional” furniture
The thesaurus
Abandoning the life of royalty to marry a commoner
Danny Elfman’s “whimsical” movie scores
“Word-a-Day” calendars
That nighttime sniffling, sneezing, so you can rest medicine
Riding your bike to work
Convincing a stripper that you’re “different from the rest”
The two-hundred-dollar waffle maker
Anything by Norah Jones as your “wedding song”
Microwavable bacon
Taking up darts
Night courses on how to pick up women
Spending “700 Sundays” with Billy Crystal
Owning a pet snake
Joining the office softball team to meet that cute girl in accounting
Working with Phil Spector after 1970
The category “Potent Potables”
Pamela Anderson’s saline-bag-stuffed tits
Being serenaded by steel drummers
The back-story to Tupac’s deep-seated rage
Any kid, any Spielberg movie
Earning $100 from a Morning Zoo DJ for a stunt that can only bring shame to you and your entire family
“Destination” weddings
Puppets who talk dirty
Meals made “table side”
Learning to play guitar in “three easy lessons”
Your “dream job”
HBO documentaries on middle-aged swingers
The cacophony of children’s laughter
Flying Hooters Air
Chimps who act surprisingly human
Slo-jams
Martinis for dessert
Bad-ass scooter helmets
Skits on rap CDs
Desperate housewives, the real ones
Emotycoms in break-up emails
Seizing the day
Paris Hilton, vertical
Screen-savers that feature your frat bros
Premium flavored popcorn
“Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel
The edible “bread bowl” at T.G.I. Friday’s
Animal bloopers
A “Sundance Favorite”
Season 3 of any television show on DVD
Wilford Brimley’s integrity as a spokesperson
A week at Burning Man, just you and your pup tent
A Halloween costume that involves secondary sex characteristics
Telling off your boss because it was “long overdue”
Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Self-diagnosing a serious medical condition with a little help from Wikipedia
Mockumentaries
A commencement speech delivered by Bono
Experimenting with sex positions you’ve learned about on Maxim.com
Trophy walls
Arriving at your high school reunion in a stretch SUV
Sleeping ‘neath the stars
“Exclusive” interviews with Robert De Niro
First dates at a piano bar
The initially inaccessible but ultimately rewarding oeuvre of Thom Yorke
Upscale boutique T-shirts
The “Do Unto Others” commandment
Families that consist of more than fifteen adopted children
Penning a love song for that “very special someone”
The nudity on the Lifetime Channel birthing documentaries
“Onion Loafs”
Jokingly outbidding everyone at the celebrity charity auction to win a “day of fun” with Larry King
The “too-dangerous-for-the-mainstream” theories of Noam Chomsky
The mind-bending plot of “Donnie Darko”
Every “humorist” who’s ever appeared on NPR’s “This American Life”
–with Ted Travelstead