Vacationing—or, more specifically, flying on an airplane—affords me opportunities unknown in the remainder of my day-to-day life. From the irrational anxiety I feel if I’m not at the airport at least an hour before my flight, to submitting to a full-body x-ray for some reason, to paying $8 for a blueberry muffin, to being berated by a slightly-higher-than-minimum-wage employee because I didn’t take my shoes off fast enough—air travel offers experiences I just can’t get anywhere else. And thank God for that.
The Litter Kwitter System
One more pleasant example is my perusal of the free SkyMall catalog, a periodical packed with insane products that I wouldn’t contemplate for a moment if I were within 20,000 feet of sea level. Yet, somehow, at altitude, I mull them over. There are dozens of bad ideas for gifts (or good ideas for bad gifts, depending on your perspective), from Justin Bieber singing toothbrushes to “Litter Kwitter,” a potty-training system for your cat.
Yet, of all the zany items listed this year, there was one that exceeded the implausibility of all the others.
No, it wasn’t a life-sized Bigfoot statue, or an irrational numbers wall clock, or even a “disinfection scanner” to kill hotel bed bacteria. No, the item in question was a seemingly innocuous autographed basketball in a glass display case. Continue reading
Seems like just yesterday I was writing SitCombat. It was actually the day before yesterday, thanks to the previously explained 
The Axis of Ego’s second year was a productive one. This is the 105th and final post of the year, which averages out to a hair over two pieces per week. Not a bad clip. As of this writing, the blog has accumulated a little over 31,000 views in 2012, which is good progress. I checked in at about 26,000 last year, and half of that came in a matter of two or three days from 
The last few weeks have provided a veritable cornucopia of off-base commentary and unsophisticated political thought. From David Dow’s call to 
The Axis of Ego 
About That Rumble Thing
I normally use my birthday (1/23) to grant myself a rare indulgence and post something introspective. The truth is, I wrote something lengthy—twice—about certain themes and lessons taught to me in my youth that seem to have been abandoned by young and old alike (but mostly by the young) in more recent years. There was going to be a lot of stuff in there about how winners don’t use drugs, and about how Phil Mickelson’s a hero who doesn’t need to apologize to anyone, and about how entitled young people have become over the last fifteen years, blah, blah, blah.
The 2013 Royal Rumble takes place this Sunday in Phoenix, Arizona. Crowds in the western U. S. are somewhere near the bottom of the wrestling fan pecking order, but the entrance-heavy Royal Rumble usually gets the best pops possible from even a mediocre crowd. Let’s hope that happens. At least it’s not at a huge venue. Nothing is more of a buzzkill for we poor slobs watching from our living rooms than
seeinghearing a live audience that’s largely indifferent to the proceedings. Fingers crossed. Here’s a preview of the PPV:Continue reading →
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