What if a Man got Pneumonia and Didn't tell Anybody and then Fainted?

TRUE GRIT! He never gave up. He kept at it like a solider! Amazing! The man had pneumonia and he didn't let that stop him. No sir. Unh Unh. He just kept going to those campaign stops and let me tell you he is no whiner. Not a peep. Just a cough that's all he said and to think all this time he has been walking around with pneumonia! John Wayne no doubt. He would never complain about a cough. The man had cancer and had a lung removed and he still made movies! That's the kind of man you want to be President not some whiner who stops because of some crappy little bacterial infection like pneumonia.

That's why you need a man to be President. They are tough. They don't sit there and tell everyone they are sick. They keep it to themselves by God and it wasn't until he fainted that people knew. And even then he didn't want help. They made him get in that van. Hell no he wont go! Take Teddy Roosevelt. The man was shot and then still went on and gave a speech in Milwaukee. He wouldn't let pneumonia slow him down.. Why he would just lead another charge up a hill and then build the Panama Canal and after that he would go West to join the round up. Now there was a man! That was a President!

You don't stop. You don't tell anyone you are sick. YOU KEEP GOING!You don't stop until you fall down and I mean fall down. You got to that next stop until your knees buckle. That's what men do. They don't tell the press or people on their staff. By Godfrey they beat back that pesky cough and triumph! Now that's a MAN! Could you imagine a woman getting pneumonia. HA! Why the first thing she would do is stop and tell the press and her staff and probably try to get well! She sure woudn't press on and go to some memorial service and stay there until she dropped. Are you kidding? Women aren't that tough. The next thing they will say is a woman ran the White House when a president had a stroke and finished out World War I !


Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Man Volume

I was in a friends basement the other day when his wife said for him to turn down the music.  "I really cant stand Man Volume." That was the phrase she used. And it really got me to thinking how men are beat from the start. The hunters who are now the providers who become the domestic engineers. And the warrior  shall be restricted to mancaves or bars. There shall be no Man Volume in the house.

And when you have children and move to the suburbs Man Volume is further submerged under making a buck and being a role model. Daddy can not be cranking Black Sabbath while telling his kid to not smoke pot. And so the stereo becomes the last crackling fire on the plains of the War Party. Lest the warrior get too smoky his squaw will come over and douse the flames. "I really hate Man Fires!" And so the warrior grudgingly snuffs his fire.

And this is nothing new. Men become steadily domesticated much like dogs as they get older. They start out frisky and wild and by the end docility moves in and they are left with the Volume  Control as their only totem to their own unbridled youth and to who they were. And even then as U2 or Coldplay or some Zep starts to creep to the halfway mark this too is extinguished with the ruling hand of home and hearth(Turn that Man Volume Down!) ...lest that atavistic  warrior rears his head again.

But when the wife is out of the house and the kids are at school....
 MAN VOLUME BABY!

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher

What is it about male friendship?

NY Times magazine article on male friendship. Interesting. The basic thesis is that men provide for other men something that women cannot. What they provide is anybodies guess but the article took a shot and so will I. Men who have lots of male friends recognize that these friendships round them out in a way their wives or girlfriends cannot. I know that for me it is simply being able to say whatever I want and have it instantly accepted. No frown. No...now why would you say that? Lets face it there is a censoring that goes on between couples and say what you will, you can never say what you want. Not all of the time.

But with the boys  it doesn't matter. Men can say just about anything to men and it is accepted. Better there is very little reaction. Men usually give it right back. One stupid thing deserves another stupid thing and so the banter degenerates into the puerile. In short we turn back into naughty little boys who like to talk shit. And women do this on their end as well  except the format is different. Women can be assured they wont offend each other while men try to at every turn.

And the great buddy movies show us this. They start with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid all the way up to Starsky and Hutch or any of the Bruce Willis vehicles where there is a duo trying to figure it out. Buddy movies are box office bank especially for men. But what is it beyond the idiocy? Surely there is friendship and loyalty and these count for a lot. Men are loyal and there is a code of respect. Men may like each other but respect is much higher. After that it is commiseration. And just hanging out. And having a beer.

You know. Friendship.

Rocket Man...the Catcher in the Rye for the Great Recession Generation

Men Don't Read

You start out writing a novel and you have no idea what the audience will be and if you will have an audience. Then the reviews start to come in and people say, well it's about the forty something generation or it is about the American Dream or it is an anti-hero novel or it is a bad novel or a good novel or a brilliant novel or that it is no novel at all. Once you pass one hundred review mark then all bets are off. But one thing that has surprised me about Rocket Man is how many people have said it was a dad novel. True, the main character is trying to give his son a sense of individuality against crushing conformity, but I thought that was just part of the larger story. BookDads was the first review that made me rethink this book. http://www.bookdads.com/2008/12/rocket-man/The review came in and I thought, oh, well good, maybe this can help fathers with their sons or give someone else a sense they are not alone going through the craziness of fatherhood. Then a couple more reviews and I started to realize that maybe I had written a book about man and his son. Then I searched the sites for dads and books. There are hundreds if not thousands of them. You always assume men don't read, but it would seem there are more than a few literate dads out there looking for a good read. I guess you never can tell who your audience will be, maybe it's just good you have one at all.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com