Guest Blogger
Since it’s all the rage to generate excitement on your blog by having
guest bloggers, I’ve invited an old acquaintance of mine to guest blog
here at Perils of Caffeine. I met him when he was 16 and the
editor of his high school newspaper. When he was in 7th grade,
Jim Leyland, the former manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Florida
Marlins, was a senior, a sports star (natch) and went by the name of
Jimbo.
My young friend’s math teacher was a wiseass guy from New York with a
bit of a mean streak, and hung the name “Philbo” on the chubby little
putz in his math class in what he probably thought was a brilliant bit
of irony. The name stuck, but the kid wore it indifferently, as
few, if any, of the other kids were fully aware of its sarcastic
etymology.
His career at the school newspaper had its ups & downs. As
sports editor in his junior year, he incurred the ire of the football
team by referring to a 44-0 defeat as a “holocaust”. His editor,
the baseball coach, stood by him, however, and things got worked out
without his having to make an appearance at practice without pads.
In his senior year, he began to fancy himself (despite a paucity of
evidence) a writer and, with the latitude of being co-editor of the
paper, started writing a column. He has agreed to submit one of
these columns as our guest blog. Check him out!
