Category Archives: five things

Five affectations I’ve been considering

+ Wearing a monocle
+ Developing and deploying a complex personal gang sign
+ Angrily demanding that people call me “Colonel”
+ Speaking exclusively in terrible cockney rhyming slang
+ Constantly referring to “my novella” Continue reading

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Five terrible fake names for Greg Kihn albums

+ Kihntankerous
+ Kihnjoined Twins
+ Kihn-Tiki
+ Under Kihnstruction
+ Kihntucky Rain Continue reading

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Five words I choose not to recognize as verbs

+ Incentivize
+ Deplane
+ Impact
+ Blog
+ Party Continue reading

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Five things you could win at the carnival (1983)

+ Roach clip with feathers
+ Coarsely grained, oddly hard, stuffed animal
+ Lynyrd Skynyrd coke mirror
+ Another throw
+ Big-ass pink comb Continue reading

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Five articles of clothing that once gave me joy

+ Painters’ pants worn with ‘Mork’ rainbow suspenders and Dallas Cowboys 3/4-sleeve shirt (1979)
+ Red Johnny Bench sneakers (1975)
+ T-shirt airbrushed with the cover of “Wolverine #1” comic book (1982)
+ Hüsker Dü “Metal Circus” t-shirt (1987)
+ Batman halloween costume (1972) Continue reading

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Five great pieces of housecleaning music

+ Metallica / Master of Puppets
+ Sousa / Marches
+ Beastie Boys / Paul’s Boutique
+ Laibach / Life is Life
+ Sonic Youth / Daydream Nation Continue reading

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Five “Brady Bunch” Characters (and what sometimes make me fear I’m a little like each of them)

+ Peter (throws an elaborate party and no one comes; he stands alone, stiffly, wearing a weird double-breasted suit)
+ Greg (screws around reading hot rod magazines when he should be working; loses his Dad’s drawings)
+ Mike (freaks when Natalie Schafer’s guest-starring character wants a factory shaped like a powder puff regardless of how practical it is to build)
+ Cousin Oliver (jinxes the entire family after awkwardly turning up as a tired plot rejuvenator)
+ Davy Jones (clearly not sure why he’s there or what he’s expected to be doing; smiles broadly and plays along anyway wearing inexplicable striped pants) Continue reading

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Five of the best songs Michael Ferguson introduced me to

+ Teenage Fanclub / Everything Flows (1990)
+ Pylon / Crazy (1986)
+ The Fall / Victoria (1988)
+ Drivin’ and Cryin’ / Scarred But Smarter (1987)
+ The Sugarcubes / Birthday (1988) Continue reading

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Five possible reasons there’s a stretch limo parked outside

+ Japanese businessmen are considering a leveraged buyout of the Sunset District
+ Little Laotian man around the corner is secretly a rich, hostile pimp
+ Someone’s about to receive a giant, novelty-sized check from Ed McMahon
+ The 85-year-old man next door is about to get a Queer Eye makeover
+ I’m actually Bon Jovi Continue reading

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Five songs I liked to play on the jukebox at the Pizza Inn (1976-’78)

+ David Soul – Don’t Give up on Us, Baby
+ The Village People – Macho Man
+ John Travolta – Let Her In
+ Alan O’Day – Undercover Angel
+ Meco – Star Wars/Cantina Theme Continue reading

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Five terrible fake names for your new pleasure boat

+ Papa’s Li’l Cry for Help
+ Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Prostates
+ Your Mom’s Not Coming Home IV
+ Better’n a Hairweave, Matey
+ The Boss’s Obsequious Little Bitch Continue reading

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Five items banned in accordance with my junior high handbook

+ Faddish, i.e. *punk* hair-styles
+ Halter tops and/or bare midriff costumes
+ Public Display of Affection (PDA)
+ Shoving, skylarking, and other horseplay
+ Articles of clothing advertising alcohol, drugs or tobacco Continue reading

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Five tattoos it’s probably better that I don’t have (and where each would go)

+ Thompson Twins’ Into the Gap album cover (entire back)
+ Map of Bayonet Point, FL (face, shaved head)
+ Cartoon Calvin peeing joyfully on the staff of Pitchfork (upper left arm)
+ “TALK” & “ROCK” (knuckles of either hand)
+ Hash mark for each time I’ve seen Cheap Trick (back of neck; currently 5) Continue reading

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Five ill-advised giveaway nights at the ballpark

+ Chinese Throwing Star Night
+ Loaded .22 (with scope) Night
+ Guess Your Cholesterol and Get a Free Footlong Night
+ Leaky Bag of Urine Night
+ Nickel Absinthe Night Continue reading

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Five controversial performers coming to your local library

+ Professor Candypants (mime & contortionist)
+ MC Preclear ‘n’ the “Get Audizzited” Crew (evangelical rap crew)
+ Principal Badtouch (tapdancer & close magician)
+ Roofie McSleepytime (clown hypnotist)
+ Whitevan Andy & the Roadtrip Kidz (unspecified travel initiative) Continue reading

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Five ways I tend to feel after speaking with Sprint’s Customer Service

+ Like I was just traded to another inmate for 2 packs of menthol cigarettes
+ Like I’ve been slapped repeatedly with a half-frozen sturgeon
+ Like I’ve accidentally just agreed to finish the homework of every kid in my middle school
+ Like somewhere in a big Sprint building, there’s a fat man with a monocle and a top hat smoking a cigar while dancing a jig and holding a fat bag of five-dollar bills with my bewildered face on it
+ Very, very unclean Continue reading

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Five odd memories of TV

+ Uncomfortable to see Fred McMurray and sons all playing Petula Clark’s “Downtown” on saxaphone (late in the run of My Three Sons)
+ Genuinely saddened when it appeared Fonzie would have to spend Christmas alone in the garage (early episode of Happy Days)
+ Pulling with all of my mental might for the buxom, wisecracking “Team ABC” (every Battle of the Network Stars)
+ Utter years-long frustration at my lack of vocabulary to ask why some TV shows looked “inside” or “shiny” [shot on video] while others were “outside” or “flat” [shot on film] (various)
+ Feeling an awkward but overwhelmingly powerful proto-sexual attraction to Emmy Jo (The New Zoo Revue, early 70s) Continue reading

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Five observations from my first 25 minutes of yoga

+ This Rodney Yee person is in much better physical condition than I am
+ Yoga is not, apparently, a competition; thus, you are discouraged from yelling “In your face!” at your partner/opponent
+ “Downward facing dog” makes me feel a little dirty
+ Lacking a points system, Yoga offers no particular bonus for finishing quickly or making pithy remarks
+ I remain suspicious of activities in which I cannot wear shoes or drink Continue reading

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Five things I only needed to try once

+ All-day reggae festival (1988)
+ Chewing on a fistful of D batteries (1970)
+ Being in a Neil Simon play (1984)
+ Talking to Pete Rose (1976)
+ Lead singer in a execrably bad metal cover band (1985) Continue reading

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Five fake names for a notional magazine about extreme treadmill exercise

+ Goin’ Nowhere
+ Happy Right Here
+ Basement Belters
+ No Vistas
+ In One Place Continue reading

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Five colleges and why I wanted to attend each

– USC – Had that marching band that played on Tusk (1979)
– Florida State – Brochure featured prominent photo of adorable blonde girl dressed like an indian (1984)
– Rollins – Heard classes were easy and underaged drinking was widely tolerated (1983)
– University of Florida – Orange and blue were my favorite colors, plus alligators are cool (1980)
– West Point – Everything seemed so tidy (1978) Continue reading

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Five terrible fake Christmas TV specials

– A Scaled-Down Christmas: Going Through the Motions with Martha Stewart
– The Town That Forgot to Ship Early
– Kazuki Takahashi’s© Yu-Gi-Ohâ„¢ Cardtastical Action Holiday Tournament®
– Rudolph’s Shiny New Prince Albert
– E!’s “Background Noise for Drinking Alone” Marathon Continue reading

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Five things I’d like to teach the world this Christmas

– To sing in perfect harmony (naturally)
– To use their turn signals
– To buy music and t-shirts from bands they like at live shows
– To offer their seats on MUNI to old Chinese ladies
– To give the whole “white hip-hop guy” thing a rest for a while Continue reading

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Five most depressing “Christmas Gifts” for sale at Walgreens

– Fiber Optic Angel (with five-color oscillating ass-wings)
– Celine Dion “Parfums”
– Neon Guitar Wall Art
– Electronic-Eye Santa (joylessly croaking “Ho, ho, ho” when it detects motion)
– Advanced Formula Toe Fungus Cream Continue reading

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Five “celebrities” I need you to stop encouraging

Tom Arnold Tony Danza Kirstie Alley John Walsh All prop comics (except Rip Taylor)

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Five great reasons to buy a Hummer™

You’ve been wanting to buy much wider groceries (but have been stymied by the timid width of your Escalade) You and your make-believe wife were thinking of having 11 or 12 imaginary kids You’re sick of always being the environment’s … Continue reading

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Five things I realized later than I probably should have

My crappy BSR turntable played everything a full step too fast (1984) “If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?” is a dirty play on words (1987) New Order was mostly a disco band … Continue reading

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Five resolutions for the new year

Stop apologizing for drinking at work Undertake some kind of faith-based initiative Start carrying a yoga mat everywhere Spearhead a trucker cap buy-back initiative Begin more publicly referring to myself in the third-person as “Daddy.”

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Five things I probably should not have tried to make on my own

  1. Clove cigarettes (1985)
  2. Spiderman-like web shooters (1977)
  3. Hash (1986)
  4. Fonzie-like hairstyle (using Vaseline Petroleum Jelly) (1976)
  5. Poems (1987)

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Five things I sometimes wish I still had

  1. My Banana Splits cereal bowl
  2. My full set of mid-’60s Batman and Tarzan trading cards
  3. My 7-inch of “Silly Love Songs” by Wings
  4. My 1970 VW camper van
  5. Easy access to Skyline Chili

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