I've read everything you've written since you joined Rudius. Something about this story hits home. From my view, it's the best one on the site. If the book is half as good, I'm in for a treat next week. Thanks for sharing. Oh, gold cuff links DO make you look like a pimp.

PL: Thanks. Gold's just wrong.

I got bogged down in the Me vs. I back and forth at the end. I liked this series but this one went out with a whimper.

Still looking forward to reading your book, gonna buy it as soon as I get back in the U.S.

PL: That's how life works. Consider the title of this piece as you evaluate it.

The fixation with "ending" has sort of ruined the whole concept of writing and the relationship between reader and writer, IMO. I love the ending to No Country for Old Men precisely because the Coens refuse to give you the shootout where Josh Brolin dies or offer a complete tie-out on whether Bardem's character offed his wife.

The "arc" has it's place, but I've never desired to write in a linear "set up>climax>resolution" fashion. Kind of odd when you consider that's how screenplays are done and I write more like a screenwriter than anything else.

I think I just like painting pictures. And as to fixations on law, this will be my last in the style I have followed.

A man's got to move on to other things sometime. The writing will continue. The subject matter will be shifting.

By the way, the "Me v. I" thing is a very important observation. I indulged myself there because I went through that back and forth in my head for years. There was no other way to cough out that point - a point I think explains the secret mindset or "split personality" of untold tens of millions of corporate workers worldwide. It's a simple concept, sure, but the simplest points are often the least noted, and most powerful in terms of immediate universal recognition.

This whole series was incredible and this entry specifically, really hit home. Can't wait for the book.

PL: Thanks, the words "myth of direction in movement" have been banging away in my head for some time now.

Good finish to the series...but it's been soo long since you've started writing/posting it, I've forgotten how it all started.

Can't wait to get your book too. If it's anything near what you've wrote soo far, I won't be disappointed.

PL: No need to know how or where this one started. Go on Youtube and punch in "Kinks" and "Do it Again." That'll fill in the blanks.

The Davies brothers were geniuses. And no, I'm not saying that to liken my tastes to Wes Anderson's. I've been a fan since "Give the People What They Want."

"Paranoia... Big destroyer..."

Kurt Cobain.

PL: Damnit. Damnit. Damnit...

Thanks.

hi, i'm the guy who makes you and all your white-collared cohorts lunch everyday. we have inner monologues too, but we're sure as hell not saying we wish we had skipped out on law school to pursue a career as scuba diving instructors.

personally, i think you're a great writer and probably an okay guy out there in the real world, too. i can see how the bureaucracy of an office can be dehumanizing and almost seem like too much to handle, but sometimes i guess reading this blog feels like a spit in the face when i think to myself how badly me and my co-workers would like to trade places with someone like you. wasting your life feels a whole lot worse when you're doing it at minimum wage.

school weeds out the slackers very quickly. some of them are bright kids who just detest the busywork and absurdity of it all- something you seem to identify with. unfortunately, if you blow all that paperwork work off while you're still in high school or community college, you don't walk away with a degree. if you don't walk away with a degree, you can't get a job in an office. if you can't get a job in an office, you do avoid office bullshit, but you're no freer than anyone else, anywhere. you get a shit job that pays shit, and your vacations aren't spent in vacation homes mingling with yuppies. i don't know. most of us hate our jobs, but i'd rather be an office yuppie than a closing supervisor at a goddamn sandwich franchise.

PL: Like I said, the dialogue offered is universal. I'm not spitting at anything. I'm citing something millions of people feel, at every type of job. That's what writers do. How you interpret it or what you do based on it, if anything (it's only rock n roll), is up to you.

But thanks for the kind compliment.

As a public school kid who grew up off the Main Line, all I can is, fuck Shipley.

PL: Watch Bill Murray's speech opening this amazing montage/scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Kl9Ab20IY

Good Job. Exemplary. Best thing I've read on your site (having read them all), and it wasn't even all that focused on drugs, booze, or sex (which I fear sometimes, is the largest reason I enjoy yours and Tucker's stories). You really out did yourself and all of rudius with this story. Your writing has a real substance to it.

So you've just finished your book, and have written a good many stories about the internal conflict so many people feel about toiling away at jobs. What comes next? Do you know if you're going keep going with that sort of theme, or are we to expect a new direction with your writing?

PL: If my law-focused material was a song, say Layla, this was the piano outro.

I don't have much left. And there's too much important going on around us right now to keep focusing something as small and so demonstrative of our "lesser angels" as litigation.

I'm going to start writing dick jokes. Henny Youngman stuff, maybe a little bit of Rodney...

Honestly, I'm not sure. I think I'll keep riffing on current events and hoping to give a third party view that avoids the bullshit you hear from advocates on both sides of an issue in this country. I listen to all the finger pointing these days and think to myself, "You assholes... We know the mess was caused by all of us in so many little ways. We know the real issue in this country is there is no way to sustain our standard of living given our population, revenue, resources and expectations/entitlements, two of which are grossly outpacing the others. And yet, what have we in DC? What have we on the talk shows? Advocates, blaming each others.

Here's wisdom, douchebags. Nobody got a car out of a ditch bitching at the guy who drove it there.

We should focus on fixing the problem. The press should put a moratorium on any stories about who's at fault and start running stories educating people on what happened and what happens from here... Where we go. We need a national town hall meeting when Obama takes office, where he levels with us about the impossibility of maintaining our current trajectory, and the sacrifices we're all going to make in the coming years. We need to immediately rid our society of the notion that out of an adversarial structure where two parties lie at one another the truth emerges. It doesn't happen in courts and it certainly doesn't happen in the press or society at large.

Wheew. That was a rant. Way off topic. Sorry. When I get rolling it just comes...

It's a nice time to be a writer. Lots of creepy, wild shit's going to go down in the coming years.

"What? What won't you do? For God's sake, say it already." Two words... "Cuckholdry" and "Felching"... PIZZA! PIZZA!

PL: Bullshit. An anteater couldn't felch Meatloaf.

But I'm with you on his wife tagging everything else in sight.

Amen. Fuck Shipley. DC was private but at least it didn't cost as much as mid-tier college.

There's this obnoxious dichotomy between people of my generation and the grey hairs who have already "made it." They've slaved away their entire lives just to make money/obtain success....yet they still slave away so that it doesn't slip from their grasp. And they preach to us that we have to start now [aka age 24] if we want to get there and be comfortable. The problem is that when we get there, we won't be any more comfortable, we'll still have to log ridiculous hours and stresses just to keep it. Yet at the same time, my generation will keep watching MTV and think "I'm a baller" yet not put any work effort and will work 35 hours in a cubicle for the rest of their lives. So there's this balance I'm trying to figure out - how to work hard and achieve, yet not be a slave, and enjoy my early years all the same. Does that make sense? It's hard to put into a cogent description.

PL: Make sense? Dude, that's the balance every smart human is seeking. I'd say you're on the right track, and if you find it, please let me know where it is...

No one in this country's going to be truly comfortable for a while. And why should we be? In periods of imbalance risk-takers jump into the fray and start the Next Big Thing.

Great story. Your blog continues to grow in style and sophistication. You've written a lot about your history and getting into Law as well as the nature of a career in law. I was wondering if you'll ever write about your current personal life?

By the way I am currently traveling around Japan and Australia until sometime next year, will you book hit shelves over here? It's difficult to use Amazon when you don't have a fixed address.

Great blog man.

PL: First, thank you.

Book's being sold worldwide. You'll be able to find it everywhere.

I don't write too much about my personal life these days because I don't think I'm the story. Its much bigger than me in that regard. Does that make sense?

This story synthesized for me why I love your writing; it always leaves me with two feelings:

1) Run away now
2) I should have done more drugs when I was 24

"Escape was in having direction"...great line.

PL: One doesn't necessarily correlate with the other... I'll always like getting out of my head, but I find it causes a good bit of running in place.

You can always run, just know where you're going first.

You motherfucker. You motherfucker. How dare you say what I was thinking before I had a chance to do so?

I won't fault you too much, however. Someone had to say it, after all. You beat me to it. Kudos.

And yes. Yes, it does make sense.

Thank you for writing, whatever your name is. I've been enjoying your work for the past two years. Almost three, actually. You're not the only one who's disillusioned with the practice of law. I'd like to talk to you more about that, but I know you're busy, so just give me a yell when you're available. If you feel like it. I know you're not inclined to talk to random assholes who contact you on the internet, but if you get a chance I'd like to speak. Just a thought.

Great stuff, buddy. Keep up the good work.

PL: Many others say it every single morning, some for ten, twenty, forty years of their lives. Do you have a right to enjoy what you do? Yes. I say you do. And I'll go one further and say that by allowing so many talented people in this country to be thrown into a system where they do exactly what they don't want to do, or by over-monetizing a job like law to the point where there are too many lawyers and the work has become corporatized administrative dreck, this country is allowing some of it's best minds to be wasted.

Hell, Antonin Scalia said there are too many lawyers in an interview a month ago. The exact quote was, "When a society requires such a large number of its best minds to conduct the unproductive enterprise of law, something is wrong with the legal system."

Something is wrong with our society. And what we value.

Is that your real email here?

I really dug the inner monologue. I have those and they always end at the same conclusion: "Do something about it. Otherwise, shut the fuck up." I tend to think anyone I care to be around comes to the same conclusion as well. Unfortunately the time I should be using to come up with an idea that could feed/entertain/house me gets used doing drugs and fornicating. I'm almost 30. Am I going to be doing the same thing when I'm 40? Introspection at 9:15am on a Thursday sucks. I got to stop reading your stuff on the weekdays at work.

Unrelated - I was talking to a good friend of mine a while back who is a lawyer. After quizzing him on pay and student loans I quickly figured out he could have owned a Subway franchise, make more money than he is currently making, and work way less hours. He said he already came to that conclusion years ago. Good times.

PL: I think I wrote something long ago explaining that a lot of lawyers come to the job not for money but as a "[last ditch] lifeline, calling... buying into the 'law as life' lie - that the easiest, cheapest professional degree somehow elevates an utterly unremarkable existence." I'm not suggesting your friend came to the career from that perspective. I'm only suggesting that a lot of lawyers do it for reasons other than incorrect assumptions about income.

That and I think it attracts a lot of "wind up dolls," the sorts of kids who learned to ace standardized tests and rack up A+s all through school. They have laser-like direction and can do complex, detail oriented tasks very well. The sorts who you'd think have undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome. Too pushed in one direction by mom and dad from birth... "You will be a doctor, or a lawyer!" You know the type. We all know them.

This is definitely my favorite PhilaLawyer entry. I can't believe you went to Avalon. From what I hear, the Princeton has started trying to appeal to an older crowd and seem classy so now they kick out anyone who seems drunk.

PL: It's not the Princeton anymore. It's a like a super-high end California Pizza Kitchen mixed with a 'klassy' sports bar.

I can't remember when I first encountered your writing but I haven't read anything in the past three years which speaks to me more. I'm sitting here, in the penultimate semester of my law degree, trying to find the motivation to finish plagiarizing this paper on the taxation of trusts.
You put to paper exactly what I felt about my fellow law students with their false sense of importance and superiority. These stories have helped me realize that I can not spend my life trapped in a box surrounded by these types and am instead going to pursue what motivates me in life, rather than a career in what my parents and friends thought suited my personality.
Thank you, and thank god I'm getting away with this debt free.

PL: Thank you. Thanks for reading. If you've bought the book, please tell anyone else with your views about it. If you haven't, still tell them.

The potential, I think, of this country lies in people striking out into things they want to do. I think that's going to get us out of this mess, I really do.

It's just going to take a while...

Wonderful four part story that really does have a wrap up, in its own way. The circular nature was the premise, and you delivered on that promise with imagery that is both recognizable in general, yet specific enough to create an individual experience.

The Bulldog (Churchill) gave one perspective on this circularity - "Those that fail to learn history, are doomed to repeat it."

I take from this serial the idea that these mini experiences are history that you failed to recognize at the time, that are repeated in different forms, due to the failure to recognize the earlier lessons. Hope that was, at least, in part, the message you were angling to convey.

PL: Yep... You want to scare yourself? Read Churchill's remarks about the British occupation of Iraq.

Ha, I realized by the time I was in third grade that the world's pretty much full of bullshit, and the way to deal with it all is to just be a dung beetle, roll up some bullshit, call that your bullshit, and sit on it.

But in all seriousness, I've chosen a path in life that I feel will cater to my interests. Fuck, I may not get rich doing it, but I'll be a hell of a lot happier than the next guy, who loathes his job. Then again, being poor as an adult won't bother me much when I've grown up to be poor from the start.

Isn't it funny how monks had vows of poverty which would make them appreciate life more, while rich bitches always complained about their "hardships?" It's not that the rich don't have problems, it's that there are much greater problems that they could have and are too narrow-minded to see.

PL: True. If you have a chance, there's this great unknown group from Northern California called the Mother Hips. They have a fantastic record out called "Later Days" and on it there's a tune called "Gold Plated" that pretty much sums up the point you're making.

That and people should dig the Hips because they're better than 90% of shit on the radio today.

Ooh, that's a tough pill to swallow, knowing that so many of your dreams are likely to die than be fulfilled. All the lies they tell you. I've always wondered why every day since graduation I've woken up feeling hung over.

Then again, maybe we misinterpreted what we've been told. Maybe the young just can't hear the small print. Maybe its like the ads you hear on the radio where the voice explains how the contest really works all squeezed within a span of 2 seconds.
"You can be anything! successvoidwhereprohibited.successmaydependsonagebeautysocialstanding.maycauseanalleakage."

PL: It's not a real meritocracy. It's never been about what you know. Hard work is nowhere near enough. Showing up is half the battle; luck is another 25%. Good timing's worth 30 IQ points. Lineage matters and that's never going to change. Etc, etc...

But... And this is a huge caveat to those negatives... If you keep throwing yourself into different ventures, you increase the likelihood of having the right idea at the right time while simultaneously expanding the experiences you'll have in life. I want to have a lot of odd things to talk about when people ask the inevitable, "So, what do you do?"

"Performance artist, clown, poor man's bon vivant...drunk-in-the-corner-grinning."

1. You sound like you need a hug.

2. Litigators should only where cufflinks to work when (a) they know that they are not going to be in court that day (see also spread collars, shirts in colors other than white or blue, and shoes that don't look like your grandfather could have worn them to the office in 1957); (b) their clients wear them; and (c) they are older than 30.

3. I now want to break out the vinyl and play One For The Road. http://www.amazon.com/One-Road-Kinks/dp/B0002IQID8 "Nope. You're not quite ready for it."

PL: Ahhh, I was wondering where you went...

1. I do feel unloved these days. Ever since I had to give my cat to the bank to pay last month's mortgage... It gets lonely without him.

2. There is nothing worse than a point collar. I'm no fashion plate, but the point collar is everything wrong in our national fashion retardation. I'll compromise on button downs. And as to Aldens, if you can find me a better shoe, tell me. And none of that fancy Italian crap.

3. You can go deeper, you decrepit bastard. Dig up "Muswell Hillbillies."

1)Are we circling the wagons, or just circling the drain? Frankly, I'm glad I bought all that discount ammo when it was cheap!

2)Just saying the magic words "Help me Mr.Wizard.." will not help, but it might make you feel better at the moment.

3)I thought at this current time and place in Urbane society, that all things pimp were in..., I mean if that fucktard in the White House can pull off this "what, me worry" facade in light of the fact that his friends and cronies have sucked us into the greatest economic vortex since the great fucking depression, well then what good has all this pro-pimpin bullshit, "fuck you I got mine" mindset we've been programed to love worth? I gotta say if this aint pimpin' economic times, then when the fuck is a good time to be of the "Bitch better have my money" attitude?
4) If I got a Mossberg 500, do I really need to buy a Ford 500?
5) How will you celebrate the anniversary of black monday, (October 19,1987)? Me, I already converted my stock a long time ago into metals: copper, brass, and lead.

PL: Same way I always do... Nude lawn darts.

(Fuck. I really do know how to spell "wear." Ah well.)

Where have I been? Trying to save the free market system from the likes of you, you bastard.

As we've discussed before, by "spread collars," I mean those Tyrwhitt monstrosities like this: http://ctshirts.scene7.com/is/image/CharlesTyrwhitt/SCPWHI?$278$ or those curved ones. A medium spread is fine. And as for shoes, I'm an Allen Edmunds guy (made in America, fuck-yeah!), but Aldens work. Dainty little Italian works of art for the feet are for Mrs. Bob to wear. And don't get me started on those chunky Kenneth Cole abominations that the kids seem to dig.

Preservation Act I, baby. Give the people what they want, indeed.

PL: Oh, fuck... I'm with you on those huge-soled shoes. As a person with a size 12 foot, those things would make me look like a clown. They're also uglier than sin.

On the collars, the curved jobs deserve no comment. As to the "cutaway" jobs, for turkey necked bastards like you, agreed. Me? I can still swing them (well, until stout drinking season starts next month and I balloon up for the winter [saves on heating oil]), and so I'll wear them.

We can both agree the blue shirt with white collars and cuffs is geriatric-chic/Bill Lumbergh, yes?

The medium spread is a senseless hedge. Shit or get off the pot. Either let your inner Brit out or keep him under wraps, getting spanked in schoolboy uniforms after hours, as the Missus does to you.

On your comment re: the free market, perhaps "Living on a Thin Line" is more apt?

"Tell me now, what are we supposed to do..."

More on Kurt: I never really got into Nirvana, despite them being one of the biggest bands of my generation. They just never stuck with me. Until I saw the video of them playing in New York for their unplugged set. I put that live album up there with any of the greats - Dylan at the Royal Albert Hall, Allman Brothers at the Filmore East, etc.

It's just so goddamn raw. Look at the set closer, the traditional folk song "Where Did You Sleep Last Night." Watch Cobain's light up as he takes in that final breath before belting out the last line. He has a moment of pure, undiluted lucidity. And we all have those moments, every single one of us, of absolute clairvoyance. It's like wandering around in a dense jungle at midnight, groping in the darkness, and then a scalding lick of forked lighting cracks through a giant cavity in the sky, illuminating everything around you for that one, transitory moment. It is as powerful as it is ephemeral. You are compelled into an aesthetic contemplation you neither understand nor desire...

For Kurt, it was his inevitable suicide, and for the rest of us, it is realizing that we will rot away in our cubicles. There. Is. No. Escape. We can't all be rock stars and movie gods. You responded to a post I had written earlier about T.S. Eliot. You're right - most of us shouldn't try.

PL: The version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" on that set is one of the greatest things in music I have ever heard, including Beethoven's 9th, the choir outro in "You Can't Always Get What You Want," the end of "Rhapsody in Blue" (yeah, it's pop-classical, but I like it), the peak of "Bolero" (killer), the guitar finale on the Velvet's "Oh, Sweet Nothing," the piano end to "Layla," the Duane Allman solo in the live version of "You Don't Love" on the "Dreams" boxed set, the bridge back from Page's acapella guitar piece in live version of "Whole Lotta Love" (that crazy little run where he bends a note in a way I have never heard elsewhere), the apocalyptic opening of "Gimme Shelter," Angus Young doing the Chuck Berry riff in the middle of "Let There be Rock," Johnny Cash's live version of "Folsom Prison Blues," Jerry doing that "See how everything led up to this day" in the live Black Peter from those Knickerbocker Arena shows, Hendrix's ridiculous solo at the close of "Axis: Bold as Love" or anything else I've ever heard that stopped me in my tracks and made me think, "This... These things... These are why I'd rather die than go deaf."

But, my man, there is escape. It's a big planet. Stop thinking like that and start planning.

1. Awesome conclusion. A few times while reading it I realized "this sort of writing would make an amazing movie." Especially if it was heavy on narration and had the sort of soundtrack I'd expect from reading your stories.

2. I think I ought to try lox. I used to work in a deli and we really did sell a lot of it. I'm surprised that for all the organ meat I tried, I never even sampled lox. Is nova lox worth the extra cost over regular? Should I put it on a bagel or something?

3. I'm in college and ended up taking an intro law class this semester. So far I've had numerous "ohh.. shit" moments when learning about certain topics, realizing I'd been pretty oblivious with regards to how I thought the law worked in certain areas.
Did you find much about the legal system surprising when you were in law school? Is that too broad a question?

PL: I'll be putting out a piece discussing music one should listen to reading the book. It was written to music, so why not read it with music?

Lox is one of the greatest foods on the planet. The only thing I like better is sushi. Fish should never be cooked, IMO.

I found the legal system to be a lot more "inside wired" than I expected. Man, was I naive...

I've had to buy three CD copies of 'Sticky Fingers'. 'Dead Flowers' always scratches first for some reason.

PL: I've had to buy 3 because people seemed to like to steal that one. But you're right. You might as well not have the cd when that song has a skip in it.

Fuck.

I'm astonished how your thoughts and emotions translate in your writing. I would expect this type of stuff if someone could record the thoughts in their head as the incidents occur, but to be able to bring it out while writing about something that happened years ago...

Like I said, fuck.

PL: Happened at least a hundred times. I've had that dialogue with myself in the mirror more times than I can count.

Best story on your site, hands down. "these were our 'in-between years,' that lost weekend between twenty-two and twenty-seven." Great.

PL: We've all been there... Thanks.

First, Main Line Children: Fuck Shipley? Sure. But fuck Haverford Boys? Hell yea.

Now, on to other stuff. That was a great piece of writing. I'm a million miles from litigation but the inner dialogue about how you don't 'see outside the game' any better than anyone else really struck a chord with me. You focus a lot on the universality of your writing and I agree that it is what makes it great.

Which is why I'm going to beg you not to follow through on your threat of talking politics a lot. Decision 2006 or 8 or whatever was, for it's length, one of the better things I've read. The thing about emailing Congress was smart, well thought out, and very boring. Your a good writer, please don't waste it on politics. The occasional aside is fine, and it's not as if your opinions are dumb or overbearing, but from a selfish standpoint, I'd much rather more of this.

PL: I wouldn't only do politics, but I'm sick of law. Whatever I do will be humor or social criticism, but you have to understand, it's really, really hard writing comedic stuff. It's really hard to mine the material and create the timing that makes the stuff work.

Awesome. Got your book on Monday, pre-ordered it from Amazon. Half way through it, and already feeling ecstatic about the purchase.

I'm curious to see who you actually are, put a face to a name, so to speak. But I am guessing that won't happen for a while.

In any case, thanks for the entertainment.

PL: You're more than welcome. Please let me know you're thoughts when you're done reading it.

Apropos of nothing, you do realize that the dude in the photo with the black box for eyes gracing the top of your page is wearing a shirt with a point collar (and a tie straight outta Jos. A. Banks)? Were the shakes so bad the day you were supposed to pick the photo that you just hit the packie for a bottle of Popov and delegated to art selection to Eugene?

Happy book release day. The line of people at B. Dalton waiting to buy your opus was too long, so I grabbed an Orange Julius and hung out with the Goth girls skipping school at Aladin's Castle instead. Did I miss anything? Will all the pages be colored by the time I get a copy?

PL: Popov? Oh, the memories... Almost as tender as those wonderful moments of lovemaking deriving from grain alcohol.

"It doesn't taste like booze. In fact, it doesn't taste like anything."

Two Hours Later

"It doesn't feel like sex."

"That's because I think you're fucking a fold in one of the couch cushions."

Looks like a lot of people are interested in the man behind that "bigger" credo.

I might be wrong about this, but I vaguely remember your site linking to an older Amazon page for your book that gave 'PhilaLawyer' a picture and even a name. Sunken eyes (though from your stories that much is a given, haha), roundish face, that "frowning glance"... Sound familiar?

When I first saw it, I have to admit that (as curious as I was) it came as sort of a disappointment. I felt like the anonymity of 'PhilaLawyer' was a reflection our own "alter-ego" that you detail in the last bit of this piece. It's a lot like the portrayal of Don Draper on the show "Mad Men"... we are shown some of the most intimate dealings of his work/home life, but we still don't know who he really is. Our understanding/association/empathy towards his disillusionment comes through the same questions we ask ourselves each morning.

Anyway, good luck with the book. I'll be picking up a copy myself within the week.

PL: I do have some black rings. Click on to Google and do a search for "Happy Hour is For Amateurs." Then click on the Harper Collins page.

I wish I were Don Draper. I'm working through details to set up speaking engagements and meetings at bars. If you;re near Philly or in the DC to Boston corridor, we'll meet. Just give me some time. The book's only been out six days, and isn't even in a lot of store yet.

That video had me in stitches. Just hearing everything you're writing about put into words, with that warped voice and 'anonymous lighting'... that was great, really.

Don Draper is my hero. His subtle discontent (through facial expression, camera angles, mise en scène, 'unspoken' dialogue, etc.) is your brazen voice. His calm, cool, GQ-like demeanor is your... shaky hands, bloodshot eyes, and cold sweats, hahaha. Maybe it was an unfair comparison, but I see a lot of what you're trying to say emanating from that show. And maybe my version of 'PhilaLawyer' fits into that suave, debonair character (through no less an effort of mine than yours, you narcissistic bastard) that's sipping a Canadian Club while expressing his nihilistic worldview.

Unfortunately, I live in Chicago. Part of me would love to meet you, another says it'd be too surreal. Maybe if you're still around in a few years (after I enter the rat race), I'll shoot you a message asking for advice on how to deal (this would include the name of your dealer).

PL: If I had any Draper in me, I'd be a lot farther than I am. That show is amazing.

Chicago... One of my longest lost weekends of all time. That's a long ride from Pennsylvania. Stayed at Northwestern and took in a lot of what the town had to offer. Great city. Great college. Well, what I can recall... Evanston Liquors, I think, was the name of the booze joint that delivered to us. That's so fucked up to a kid from PA.

Getting a lost in Gary, Indiana was a little odd. Not the place you want to be rolling around in a teal Saab with Florida plates. "You all sell beer inside the gas station?"

Shit, I'm getting misty...

Sir,

I don't know what to say. I have felt this way since my first office job right out of high school. I actually chose a line of studies that interests me, but will land me in an office anyway. Since then, I have had a couple of different jobs in very different sectors (ranging from a globally active (or now hemorrhaging) bank to an NGO in the third world. However, I feel like the only way to escape this rat race is to open your own business. However, I am wary of spending 5 years working at 150%... I am utterly undecided, jaded and unwilling to put myself through the corporate wringer. The kicker? I am 23... Help?

PL" Open your business. Take a chance and work your ass off at it and the time will not feel like work. there is nothing more demeaning than working under someone else and not having a stake in the outcome other than a salary. Working for yourself is going to be the trend of the future anyway, as corporations use more and more freelancers to shed costs, so now's a damn good time to start getting used to the paradigm.

I just recently stumbled onto your site and began reading through some of your work. This right here seems to tune to everyones frequency of thinking.

Similar dialogues run through my head and Im not even at an age to comprehend what they mean.

I love your writing.
I especially love your views on American society. It takes the cookie cutter bullshit most dime-a-dozen poets and writers managed to dish out and articulate them in a way that doesn't insult the readers intelligence, but rathers encourages it.

Ill definitely be buying your book.

PL: Thanks. Publishing's ass-fucking our society right now, feeding people shit like "The Secret" or some feel-good-for-a-couple-hours self help junk by Dr. Phil or Rick Warren or Mitch Albom. The people at my house, or Kensington, deserve a few books for getting behind books that ask the important questions. "Where are we going?" "What are we doing?" "What's it like to have a chick eat your ass?"