A quick one before the weekend

The NES was one of the first gaming systems that I ever played and I’ll never forget the hundreds of hours I spent sitting in front of the TV with this thing in my paws, trying time and again to beat Super Mario Bros. 2. Thinking about it now, I’m not sure if I ever did actually complete that game. I remember gripping the controller so tightly during those particularly difficult later stages that I’d force an impression of its cornered edges into my little hands. Sometimes I would apply such pressure that I’d actually bruise. I also head-butted my Gameboy while playing Wario once, but that’s an altogether different story.

Blessed are the forgetful

“There is no teaching, but only recollection”  – Socrates Last year I saw a stand-up comedian who, after riffing for 10 minutes on his recent travels across the United States, concluded his set (which was admittedly quite low on laughs) by idiomatically declaring to the half-cut Friday night audience that “when you experience different cultures,…