i’m confused about something. everywhere i go now i hear, “bad boys, ooh the bad boys. men! they’ll just break your heart. they’re such heartbreaking heartbreakers! they’ll take advantage of ya! they’ll rob ya blind! they’ll sex ya up and leave ya cryin’!”

where?? where are these men? in what area can they be found? i’m just curious. maybe it’s a cultural thing. maybe it’s only in very select areas of the country. not that i’m looking for them or anything, but seriously, the men i’ve been running into haven’t at all resembled those mythical bad boys. the men i’ve encountered have been needy, emotionally desperate, longing for love, aching to settle down — basically, they’ve been women. or the culturally stereotypical view of us, anyway.

yeah, okay, i’ve run smack into an asshole bad boy like a blind crow thwacking into the broadside of a barn before. i’m not denying their existence. but here’s the thing about those guys: they’re already settled down, married, with the love of their life. most of those guys are assholes, married assholes with kids, a mortgage and nothing to make them feel really, really alive. they live two lives. one a life of quiet desperation, playing the role of husband, father, accountant, little league coach, soulless drone. the other a life of secret thrill. high school re-visited. they play the role of flirting, drink-buying, kiss-stealing, heartbreaking bad boy.

but the single, available, believable guys? i’m not buying it. somebody explain that one to me.

okay and i have to put in the disclaimer about matt and how he’s totally not a needy emo goody gumdrop because, you know, he reads this and he might cry.

heh. but seriously, he’s all against what he calls the “pussification” of american boys. we picked this up, finally:

and ah, look, there’s jacob and kaileb reading it already:

hmm. i wonder why kaileb was wearing that coon hat and holding that gun? and was that a bottle rocket behind jacob’s ear? i don’t know why they were reading it on the trampoline, either. those things are dangerous…

this trend i can get behind. i like. i don’t want it to be a fad. the press is nice. seemingly, everyone is reading it and writing about it and — well, here i am on the same page with everybody else. not that we haven’t been pushing the concept all along…

i just hope it catches on. i hope they let our boys be boys.