From Paul Dail
While I think I’m pretty damned funny, I don’t write outright comedy pieces like some other talented writers I know. But every now and then, I get the opportunity to vent a little bit of the lighter – or sometimes more sarcastic – side of my voice. If my wife chuckles aloud at least once while reading, I feel pretty good about what I’ve written.
You can read the following three excerpts (with links to full articles) or find Paul Dail’s complete portfolio at pauldail.contently.com.
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Can we just have the presidential election already?
One of two things needs to happen in my life. Either the general election date for the 2016 presidential race needs to move to, I dunno, maybe January, or I’m going to have to leave Facebook.
Given not only the political landscape of the presidential election but also recent tumultuous international events, I could go on about Facebook. Believe me, I could go on.
I could go on about Facebook. Believe me, I could go on.
But this isn’t a piece about Facebook so much as it is about a political election process that seems to start just seconds after the final announcement of the new president from the previous election campaign. I understand that to a certain extent, politicians are campaigning year-round, but while I know in my mind that the four-year term of the president hasn’t changed, it’s just starting to feel like a lot longer. …
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Men who don’t like sports need a support group
Hello, my name is Paul. And I’m a man who doesn’t like sports.
No, really, I’m still a man. I promise. Being one of the handful of members of MWDLSA (yeah, Men Who Don’t Like Sports Anonymous) doesn’t make me less of a man, although it feels like it sometimes. In fact, given the number of women who like sports, it might even be inferred that those of us men who don’t like sports are even less manly than women.
It might even be inferred that those of us men who don’t like sports are even less manly than women.
But if I weren’t a man, would I feel the need to make such pronouncements as the fact that I worked for several years in construction and could damn near build a house from the ground up given the right tools and a few extra hands? That’s manly, right?
But if you’re a man who doesn’t like sports, that’s often not enough proof. …
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Hypochondriasis, the horror writer, and the horrendous Ebola
I’m not allowed to read the news anymore.
Not that I consume that much to begin with. I’ve had to put myself on somewhat of a news media blackout as of late (another topic for another day). But you’d have to live in a cave to not hear anything about the Ebola virus.
According to my wife, I should probably live in a cave.
Or at least have some sort of program that filters out the word “Ebola” from any of my online activity. Because I have my own sickness. I know that now. It’s a mental one (or two, or three, more realistically), but now that I’m coming to terms with it, it’s a relief to know I’m just crazy.
It’s a relief to know I’m just crazy.
I don’t think I’m alone. In a recent poll by The Independent asking, “How worried should the American public be about the Ebola virus?”, almost 12 percent responded the same way I did. Not “terrified” or “scared,” but right in the middle, with “worried.” …
Paul D. Dail 