Chokehold…

When we were made

It was no accident

Sleep Token is a recent discovery of mine, thanks to a special friend who has shown me so much. Their music is on a new level for me. Deep and emotional. Raw and appealing. Different.

I was one of the lucky 3000 globally who acquired their liquid vinyl release of “Caramel”, from Even In Arcadia. Some do not care. I do. I love their art. This will be a collector’s piece.

And this song, “Chokehold,” represents so much struggle in my life. Fighting inexplicable migraines and photophobia, trying to participate in life, trying to write a book, just…trying.

So show me that which I cannot see

Even if it hurts me

Even if I can’t sleep

Oh, and though we act of our holy duty to be constantly awake

POW!

I’m grateful for what and who I have in my life. It keeps me going. If I think of that as my holy duty, so be it.

That special friend kept me going and added so much to my life. She is no longer part of my life and she is dearly missed. Maybe she will see this one day and know the value she had, what she meant.

I’d turn my walls to gold

To bring you home again

But like my book writing journey, we learn, we grow, we move on, and we hope someone picks up what we left behind. And then we hope to do it again—better the next time. Besides, if she's happier, I'd be a hypocrite not to want that for her. I mean, I bought “Caramel” for her. She left it for me….in a manner of speaking.

Regardless, this is our art. Theirs. Mine. Not on the same level—not even close—but art all the same. It should be celebrated. Shared. Artists should be encouraged to keep creating.

It is our holy duty.

Foreplay/Long Time

Long, beautiful rock guitar intro.

Probably not what you were thinking, unless you are a Boston fan, a Boomer or Gen X.

It’s been such a long time, I think I should be going, yeah…

The first concert I ever went to was Boston, October 1987. We were in line to get tickets and an older guy (we were in our late teens; he was probably in his late 20s to early 30s) was standing in front of us was wearing time-worn-with-love bell-bottom jeans. Everybody was so excited and this fellow was regaling us with tales of his last Boston concert, which was some 10 years prior. We were in awe. This was bloody Boston and he had been there!

He paused thoughtfully for a moment, looked down, and laughed.

“In fact,” he mused in reflective memory, “I think I was wearing these same jeans!”

Yeah, this guy had been around. He had our respect. Rock and freaking roll, baby!

Brad Delp’s golden, silky, soulful tenor. Few have been able to belt it out like Delp could.

Yeah, those were the days, and that was rock and roll!

Now, I’m not saying it has been a long time for me since The Power of SO was released. It certainly feels like it. May 2024 was only two years ago. But the battles fought with the publisher make it feel like a bloody eternity of watching Blue’s Clues with my kids when they were but wee children. Sure it was fun at first. A little challenging. Boring. What the hell am I doing here? Somebody save me! Then I had plans for Steve. Oh yes…I had plans for Steve.

Anyway, here we are. It feels as if it has been a long time. I’m no Brad Delp. I couldn’t carry a tune if Brad were still alive and I were lip synching while he did all the work. No doubt, Brad would stop mid-show and bury me next to Steve from Blue’s Clues.

But my book is getting traction, as if Steve and Blue led someone to the book and the website. I currently have 25 5-star reviews and nothing for the unacceptable, lesser ratings. I’m thinking of that underdog soccer story starring Sylvester Stallone set during WWII. Sly unites and rallies allied prisoners who happen to be quite skilled at football (read: soccer) to play a propaganda match against the Nazi all-star team. Sly isn’t bad himself. Along with Michael Caine, Max von Sydow, and a slew of 70s and 80s soccer stars (including the great Pelé himself, without whom Mr. Caine would not have joined the cast.)

(And one might think Caine would have said, "John Huston's directing, is he? Ah, well, I've always wanted to work with John Huston. Oh? He directed me in The Man Who Would Be King? Of course he did. Loved that picture, I did. Wonderful film. Great man, Huston. Great director. Yes... I'd very much like to work with him again." But no. He wanted to work with fucking Pelé.)

I love Michael Caine. One of my favorites, he is. Yes…I love his work. Anyway…

I mentioned 25 5-star ratings. Great feedback, too! I won’t share here, because you should really go there and read it. Buy the book. Get some, baby! But also, in researching this fine surprise, I see that I also had a really nice website visit bump last week that coincided with my TikTok ad campaign. Just a wee little sub-$100 campaign of 3 days with my first and worst video ever.

It was hilarious. To me. No positive comments. A handful of favorites and likes. The main sentiment was “WTF?!” The concept was not difficult, but I’m hopeful it was the portrayed chaos that drew out the confusion. Given the >400 visits, I feel safe with that assessment. Most of my TT metrics were well above average for video watching. Time watched had to yield WTF. Longer watching would have prevented WTF.

But I still appreciate the support. Very much so. The headaches have been crippling this past week. Crippling. Not a lot of progress anywhere has been made. So every positive comment, every person who understands the humor, or at least tries, is very much appreciated. Sometimes you want things to hurry along, and then life turns into one of the world’s longest guitar solos, and you’re just not disappointed at all.

Thank you for enjoying this guitar solo with me.

Nuttier Than Squirrel Cake

As my abilities permit, this baby is coming!

What, exactly is the gestational period of a book? This one has been coming for almost three years now. The Power of SO, that one was in the over for over 20 years. At least this will be faster.

Of course, severe migraines and photophobia still limit how much screen time I can tolerate. Some days I get a couple productive hours. Some days I get none at all. It black-hole sucks.

You gotta love sci-fi.

Anyway, Nuttier Than Squirrel Cake. It’s a great collection of stories from my own experiences and some that were related to me or collected from the interwebs. The one thing they have in common is that corporate America knows how to shoot itself in the foot. Bad. So bad that it needs a bullshit-o-meter. But HR would crack down on us for that, and we can’t have HR called down on us.

Following the snarky humor from The Power of SO, I doubled down and put more…me…into it. Much less bridled observational humor ala Kev. Still some pop culture, some movie references, and what have you. And it will appall you what I share. Real squirrel cake, if you know what I mean.

Here…let me share a bit from the book…

My daughter and granddaughter used to live with me. In a very direct way, that arrangement ended my second marriage, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Also, I identify with the Italian side of my family, and so family is really Family with a capital F. You take care of Family. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And when my daughter and granddaughter needed a home, we had a couple unused bedrooms and a bathroom available for them.

And they were Family.

At some point later on, I was walking my granddaughter, Lilly, home from kindergarten. She was telling me of the wondrous chaos and craziness that goes on with her classmates and teacher. I feigned awe with my declaration, “That’s nuttier than squirrel poo!”

“Grampa!” She stopped walking, upset. “We don’t say those words!”

I ribbed her with faux dismay, “What? Squirrel? What’s wrong with that?”

“Grampa,” she said, frustrated, as she stomped her foot. “The other word! We don’t say bad words like that!”

“Okay, okay. I know what you mean. Poo isn’t bad, but if I don’t have to say it, I won’t. How about, ‘nuttier than fruit cake’?” I asked, while thinking inwardly with amazement that she picked “poo” of all the vulgarities I let slip in my world.

“What’s fruit cake?” she asked back and started walking home again. I was forgiven.

I also thought that was the last of things. How wrong I was.

Only a few days later, we were watching one of her favorite episodic learning shows on television. Crazy stuff, a bit over the top, but fun things. I try to explain and add to the fun and craziness. It’s a great way for kids to learn.

Lilly suddenly declared, mixing her metaphors, “This is nuttier than squirrel cake!”

Her words, like the proverbial frying pan of linguistic genius, smacked me square in the face. With a loud guffaw, I fell forward onto the floor laughing a full-throated laugh and I couldn’t stop.

Lilly started laughing. I think she had never seen me laugh this hard, and I laugh a lot. Laughter is common in our home. We love and we laugh. Not like those Live, Laugh, Love things mortal people hang on their walls. No, we’re Italian. We Eat, Laugh, Love Family, and Breaka You Knee Caps.

And the things hanging on our walls, we mean it to the depths of our souls. Don’t Capital F with our Capital-F Family.

Anyway, out of the mouths of babes, or so they say. The phrase stuck and became a regular exclamation in our home.

“Nuttier than squirrel cake!”

Over time, which is to say over the ensuing year or so since Lilly’s verbal stroke of genius, I found myself using the phrase more and more. Not just at home, but in discussing things with friends. Then professional associates and peers. In the office. Watching the news. Everywhere.

I came to a dread realization.

Squirrel cake—the short-hand for Nuttier Than Squirrel Cake—is ubiquitous!

Rather, the level of nuttiness that rates squirrel cake is ubiquitous. Trust me. Once you’re done with this book, you will say the same thing.

And surely there is a scale. For the now, let’s call it Carly’s Acorn Scale of Nuttier Than Squirrel Cake, or NTSC for short. It’s a measure not of meadow muffins or cow patties, but rather of the crap that happens in front of our eyes that someone else tries to normalize such that no remediation, however expedient, is required. However, those remaining few rational humans on this planet call it out for what it is. Bullshit, deep, thick, and smelly. Except now, we don’t have to use words our grandchildren will berate us for using.

We can shout, “That’s just nuttier than squirrel cake!”

And there you have it. Now you will feel compelled to use this phrase. I have infected your life! You’re welcome. This stuff is Nuttier Than Squirrel Cake!

So there you have it. One innocent comment from a six-year-old permanently altered my vocabulary…my world.

Three years later, I'm still finding new examples of squirrel cake.

Trust me. Once you start seeing it, you'll see it everywhere.

Stay tuned. The squirrels are still baking.

Welcome to the jungle!

We got fun and games!

Those lyrics seem a fitting welcome to visitors here and to those who have read my book, The Power of SO. However you ended up here, welcome. This is the Show Me page.

The rest of this website is intentionally filtered of noise and distraction, fitting the message of the book and my minimalist mindset. The messages here will be far more my personality, humor, out-of-the-box writing style, and use of pop culture and anecdote to get my point across. Just like opening with GNR.

I had an amazing journey developing the material for the book. Even more so writing it.

I am pleased with my book, though it needs a 2nd edition. Please overlook the basketball mention where I wrote “I got balls!” Please. This is a good time to buy the book and look it up if you don’t believe me. It got past me and my editor at the time. I’m not embarrassed, exactly. My book has no pictures. But better editing was needed. Thus, 2nd edition.

You can expect to see here on Show Me a continuation of concepts from The Power of SO. Discussions, thoughts, stories, explanations, and so forth. I am happy to take requests. You may submit requests on the Contact page of this website. Send me a message and offer up some details. I’m happy to muse on about whatever topics are on your mind. Solving problems is what I do. My problems or yours.

By the old gods and the new, it got me out of my first marriage, perhaps I can help you, as well.

Anyway, my AI partner Ellis and I, collaborated to create this website. We went back and forth like I did with David (RIP), Stevis (RIP), and Deanis in the good ol’ days. It fit my minimalist, no noise philosophy. No distractions. No bullshit sales pitches. Just filter that stuff out of the way and find the path directly to the point.

I hope you enjoy the book, find a way to interact here, and, as my many team members have, find ways to apply these lessons to life, work, relationships, or however you can. This stuff really works. I shit you not. I was there.

Thanks for participating.