There is a genre in literature called the "Coming of Age" story. Joyce, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, among others, made it literary. Rock and Roll is the coming of age music of America. Therefore "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meat Loaf must be the greatest Rock anthem of all time.

A fun party game is to open your Pandora account and set up new categories and try to guess what will be the first two songs played. The first song will be what Pandora considers typical for the chosen artist and the second one will be what the Music Genome Project identified as similar in style. The results are not as predictable as you might think.

Anne, did you notice that all of your songs are by male artists?  I can understand that "I am Woman" by Helen Reddy is not on your list but you need to consider the blues of Billie Holliday, the raucous anger of Janis Joplin and the bittersweet wisdom of Bonnie Raitt.

I usually try to forget what I have posted here so the system works well for me.

The scholars who have influenced me give Twain and Steinbeck considerable due credit. Especially Twain. 

Rachel. The suckiness of the characters (particularly Tom and Daisy) is what makes the novel great. Turning a hit and run accident into a microcosm of twentieth century life was genius. It would work as an understated noir film but I am skeptical of the Hollywood spectacle.

I am also reminded of that scene in The Big Chill where the Jeff Goldblum character tells the William Hurt character that rationalization was more important than sex and when Hurt tries to scoff, Goldblum retorts, "Have you ever tried to go through one day without at least one juicy rationalization?"

I don't know if I am truly a born pessimist. That nature/nurture argument continues to mystify me. I do know that we always try to justify or reinforce the life defining decisions we make. I also have learned that growing old is a humbling experience but that is not a bad thing.

It is easy to criticize the novel because its acclaim has exceeded what any novel could honestly claim as its worth. I think most literary scholars would consider it the greatest American novel and worthy of discussion with the great novels of the world. I enjoy it immensely each time I read it because the language is so accessible and the themes so timeless. It is the quintessential coming of age novel. It is the coming of age story of America. The movie will probably suck.

I am sure there are many on the left who would try to argue that if only abortion was more readily accessible, Castro would not have had to beat the unborn fetuses to death.

Now for Mother's Day this year, I have this planned. I will pick up Mrs. Pessimist at the airport tonight and sometime after she gets home, she will look out at the yard and say, "I thought you were going to plant some flowers in the yard this week." I will reply that I was too busy but will get right on it soon. Sunday morning I will bring in a very large load of flowers and plants that are hiding in the garage and ask her where she wants me to plant them. I only hope that my sons have better ideas for pampering her. Brunch is out of the question.

Mother's Day has been a contentious holiday throughout the Pessimists' marriage. Mrs. Pessimist never bought the argument that  "You aren't my Mother." One of the lowest moments of our married life was on a Mother's Day when we tried to  have a family brunch at a restaurant without making reservations ahead of time. As we went from one restaurant to another and then wept at the line outside of the waffle house, my frustration and my wife's patience were very close to a collision course with divorce. I am a Scrooge at Christmas. There is no name for what I become at Mother's Day. Now, that said, I have no problem with Father's Day. I like to fire up the grill and no one goes out to eat for Father's Day.

I was quite worried that Sandford would lose this race for all of the obvious reasons and also because there was unusual enthusiasm among the local liberals. After watching the only debate, I was somewhat more optimistic because in the debate it was obvious that her brother pretends to be a conservative blow-hard far more effectively than Colbert-Busch.For those who are worried that he will be a distraction to the conservative cause or his hubris will emerge as a problem again, I would say that there are few conservatives in DC that can match his understanding of the problems we face and explain practical solutions better. Away from the campaign stump he is as engaged in policy and solutions like no other politician this side of Paul Ryan.

Doc Jay, I doubt if this is true, but I had an attending once say that when he was on an OB rotation he admitted a massively obese woman into the delivery service who was delivering her twelfth child. He quietly said to the nurse beside him that this woman was so fat that he didn't see how she could have gotten pregnant once much less 12 times. Apparently she overheard his quiet remark and said, " You are the second short d..k white doctor that has said that."

Years ago our next door neighbor was a very vivacious but delightfully scatter-brained young woman. She attended a funeral reception for a friend who had died far too young. As she greeted the grieving husband who was a just a casual acquaintance, she thought he said to her, " How about a kiss." As she was grabbing his head to plant a big smacker on his lips she realized he had actually asked her, "How are your kids?"

One of my friends from high school attended dental school at the same time and place that I went to medical school. A few years after he set up his dental practice, there was a woman in his chair who said, "We went to high school together." He looked at her and overestimated her age by a decade or two and said, "No way that could be true."