Five terrible fake names for your new pleasure boat

January 9th, 2004
  1. Papa’s Li’l Cry for Help
  2. Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Prostates
  3. Your Mom’s Not Coming Home IV
  4. Better’n a Hairweave, Matey
  5. The Boss’s Obsequious Little Bitch

Five items banned in accordance with my junior high handbook

January 9th, 2004
  1. Faddish, i.e. punk hair-styles
  2. Halter tops and/or bare midriff costumes
  3. Public Display of Affection (PDA)
  4. Shoving, skylarking, and other horseplay
  5. Articles of clothing advertising alcohol, drugs or tobacco

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

January 9th, 2004
  1. Thompson Twins’ Into the Gap album cover (entire back)
  2. Map of Bayonet Point, FL (face, shaved head)
  3. Cartoon Calvin peeing joyfully on the staff of Pitchfork (upper left arm)
  4. “TALK” & “ROCK” (knuckles of either hand)
  5. Hash mark for each time I’ve seen Cheap Trick (back of neck; currently 5)

Five ill-advised giveaway nights at the ballpark

January 9th, 2004
  1. Chinese Throwing Star Night
  2. Loaded .22 (with scope) Night
  3. Guess Your Cholesterol and Get a Free Footlong Night
  4. Leaky Bag of Urine Night
  5. Nickel Absinthe Night

Five controversial performers coming to your local library

January 9th, 2004
  1. Professor Candypants (mime & contortionist)
  2. MC Preclear ‘n’ the “Get Audizzited” Crew (evangelical rap crew)
  3. Principal Badtouch (tapdancer & close magician)
  4. Roofie McSleepytime (clown hypnotist)
  5. Whitevan Andy & the Roadtrip Kidz (unspecified travel initiative)

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

January 9th, 2004
  1. Like I was just traded to another inmate for 2 packs of menthol cigarettes
  2. Like I’ve been slapped repeatedly with a half-frozen sturgeon
  3. Like I’ve accidentally just agreed to finish the homework of every kid in my middle school
  4. 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
  5. Very, very unclean

Five odd memories of TV

January 9th, 2004
  1. Uncomfortable to see Fred McMurray and sons all playing Petula Clark’s “Downtown” on saxaphone (late in the run of My Three Sons)
  2. Genuinely saddened when it appeared Fonzie would have to spend Christmas alone in the garage (early episode of Happy Days)
  3. Pulling with all of my mental might for the buxom, wisecracking “Team ABC” (every Battle of the Network Stars)
  4. 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)
  5. Feeling an awkward but overwhelmingly powerful proto-sexual attraction to Emmy Jo (The New Zoo Revue, early 70s)

Five observations from my first 25 minutes of yoga

January 8th, 2004
  1. This Rodney Yee person is in much better physical condition than I am
  2. Yoga is not, apparently, a competition; thus, you are discouraged from yelling “In your face!” at your partner/opponent
  3. “Downward facing dog” makes me feel a little dirty
  4. Lacking a points system, Yoga offers no particular bonus for finishing quickly or making pithy remarks
  5. I remain suspicious of activities in which I cannot wear shoes or drink

Five things I only needed to try once

January 1st, 2004
  1. All-day reggae festival (1988)
  2. Chewing on a fistful of D batteries (1970)
  3. Being in a Neil Simon play (1984)
  4. Talking to Pete Rose (1976)
  5. Lead singer in a execrably bad metal cover band (1985)

Five fake names for a notional magazine about extreme treadmill exercise

December 29th, 2003
  1. Goin’ Nowhere
  2. Happy Right Here
  3. Basement Belters
  4. No Vistas
  5. In One Place

Five colleges and why I wanted to attend each

December 26th, 2003
  1. USC - Had that marching band that played on Tusk (1979)
  2. Florida State - Brochure featured prominent photo of adorable blonde girl dressed like an indian (1984)
  3. Rollins - Heard classes were easy and underaged drinking was widely tolerated (1983)
  4. University of Florida - Orange and blue were my favorite colors, plus alligators are cool (1980)
  5. West Point - Everything seemed so tidy (1978)

Five Terrible Fake Christmas TV Specials

December 24th, 2003
  1. A Scaled-Down Christmas: Going Through the Motions with Martha Stewart
  2. The Town That Forgot to Ship Early
  3. Kazuki Takahashi’s© Yu-Gi-Oh™ Cardtastical Action Holiday Tournament®
  4. Rudolph’s Shiny New Prince Albert
  5. E!’s “Background Noise for Drinking Alone” Marathon

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

December 24th, 2003
  1. To sing in perfect harmony (naturally)
  2. To use their turn signals
  3. To buy music and t-shirts from bands they like at live shows
  4. To offer their seats on MUNI to old Chinese ladies
  5. To give the whole “white hip-hop guy” thing a rest for a while

Five most depressing “Christmas Gifts” for sale at Walgreens

December 24th, 2003
  1. Fiber Optic Angel (with five-color oscillating ass-wings)
  2. Celine Dion “Parfums”
  3. Neon Guitar Wall Art
  4. Electronic-Eye Santa (joylessly croaking “Ho, ho, ho” when it detects motion)
  5. Advanced Formula Toe Fungus Cream

Five “celebrities” I need you to stop encouraging

December 21st, 2003
  1. Tom Arnold
  2. Tony Danza
  3. Kirstie Alley
  4. John Walsh
  5. All prop comics (except Rip Taylor)

Five great reasons to buy a Hummer™

December 21st, 2003
  1. You’ve been wanting to buy much wider groceries (but have been stymied by the timid width of your Escalade)
  2. You and your make-believe wife were thinking of having 11 or 12 imaginary kids
  3. You’re sick of always being the environment’s goddamned bitch
  4. You could totally put a keg back there and just drive around and shit
  5. They were all out of penises

Five things I realized later than I probably should have

December 21st, 2003
  1. My crappy BSR turntable played everything a full step too fast (1984)
  2. “If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?” is a dirty play on words (1987)
  3. New Order was mostly a disco band who stood very still (1989)
  4. “Expendable” apparently does not mean the same thing as “flexible” (1980)
  5. “Seals & Croft” and “Sid and Marty Krofft” have nothing in particular to do with one other (1978)

Five resolutions for the new year

December 17th, 2003
  1. Stop apologizing for drinking at work
  2. Undertake some kind of faith-based initiative
  3. Start carrying a yoga mat everywhere
  4. Spearhead a trucker cap buy-back initiative
  5. Begin more publicly referring to myself in the third-person as “Daddy.”

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

October 29th, 2003
  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)

Five things I sometimes wish I still had

October 13th, 2003
  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