Author Archives: Daddy Scratches

World Series on ice

By Daddy Scratches | Published: February 26, 2006

Prior to this weekend, only twice in my life had I been truly euphoric about the outcome of a sporting event. The first time was when the Red Sox came back from an 0-3 deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS—also known as, literally, “The Greatest Comeback in Baseball History.” The second was the team’s World Series victory just days later. A large part of what made those victories mean so much to me was living through the team’s crushing Game 7 defeat in the 2003 ALCS. As you may recall, the Sox were five outs… [read the rest]

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Nine Inch Wiggles

By Daddy Scratches | Published: February 22, 2006

See the guy in the middle up there with the big guns and the buzz cut? That’s Trent Reznor, the mastermind behind the industrial-rock juggernaut known as Nine Inch Nails. I am quite fond of Mr. Reznor and his music. (This is what we in the writing business refer to as “an understatement.”) His first two albums, “Pretty Hate Machine” and “Broken,” were the soundtrack to my early ’90s “Women were created by the Devil and he has instructed them to rip your still-beating heart from your chest, throw it to the floor and dance a little jig on it”… [read the rest]

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Jon’s List of Things Not to Do, Item Nos. 231-233

By Daddy Scratches | Published: February 17, 2006

231.) DO NOT assume that your wife won’t mind you posting on the Internet details about her personal life—such as a sarcastic and mostly unpleasant account of your Valentine’s Day experience. 232.) If you should choose to disregard No. 231, DO NOT include in the sarcastic and mostly unpleasant account of your Valentine’s Day experience a passage in which you cynically describe the act of buying your wife Valentine’s Day cards on behalf of her young children as an exercise in which you and she “pretend” that the children got her cards—especially when you’re writing about the fact that you… [read the rest]

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Greetings from the Arctic Tundra

By Daddy Scratches | Published: February 14, 2006

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, that’s good to hear, because I’m much too tired to write now that all the excitement of good ol’ St. Valentine’s Day has worn me down to a nub. Yes, the air at Maison de Scratches was thick with romance. Highlights included me forgetting yet again that I am supposed to purchase Valentine’s Day cards that my wife and I can pretend are directed to her from our toddler son and infant daughter. Unfortunately, my Cro-Magnon-like brain continues defaulting to the concept that Valentine’s Day is all about wooing your… [read the rest]

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Definition of the word “fanatic”

By Daddy Scratches | Published: February 13, 2006

fa·nat·ic / fəˈnatik/ • n. a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, esp. for an extreme cause. ∎ inf. a person with an obsessive interest in and enthusiasm for something, esp. an activity: a fitness fanatic. 2.) a person (usually a New Englander) for whom the phrase Truck Day actually a.) has specific meaning, and b.) is cause for genuine excitement.… [read the rest]

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