“I’m the freaking boss of TV, just so you know.”

March 12, 2010 by The Clever Kris · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Deep South, Everyday, education, family, humor 

I’ve made no little secret about the fact that growing up, as I did, the television was not the center of the universe. Not in our house. It was carefully guarded: it and all its wonders of delicious and suggestive programming. The only television station that I was allowed to watch, almost entirely on my own and un-chaperoned, was good, old PBS. And, oh, how I watched it: Letter People, Clyde the Frog, Voyage of the Mimi, and one of my all-time faves, Read All About It. Even learning, early on, how to convince U.L. that some shows were appropriate—How could they...

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I’m not sure if you know this or not, but it’s never wrong to steal a pen.

November 13, 2009 by The Clever Kris · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Deep South, Everyday, education, faith, family, humor, life 
What do you want from me? The Kit-Kat logo is copyrighted.

I can count on one hand the number of things I’ve stolen in my entire life: four. I’m holding up four fingers, at this very moment, even though you can’t see them. But, that’s it: four items. Four, random though purposeful, inconsequential items. One of those items was a candy bar. A Kit-Kat, actually, and it was easily stolen because I used to run the “candy store” between class periods, at my high school.  The smart kids got to do everything fun, especially when it involved cash handling. I only stole one candy bar and only the one time because I had convinced myself that...

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Suffice it to say, I was spanked, a second time, OR The 100th Blog.

October 28, 2009 by The Clever Kris · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Deep South, Everyday, faith, family, life, writing 
Rent's pretty cheap here: one soul for life.

I didn’t get spanked, as a child…much.

U.L. didn’t really believe in that, unless you’d done some really horrendous thing, which I never truly did because God, you know, also rented a room at U.L.’s house, and so it was really hard to get away with much of anything between the two of them. And then there was Jesus. He was always like, Hey, we'll fix it later. I liked him the most. I hated that he moved out.

I’m not saying I never got spanked, kids being kids, but I tried really hard to be a good boy. And, for the most...

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God had given him one-half of His Own Right Eye.

August 21, 2009 by The Clever Kris · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Everyday 
"On a hill far away..."

[I like to pretend I'm writing my memoirs, all of them at the same time, and so this is an excerpt from my second memoir, entitled The Deer in the Road. Feel free to edit, as you go along. Just don't let Amanda know.] On the outside looking in, I had a tragic childhood, I know, I’ve read that…but that’s only the way the story goes. It has a whole different feel, when it's told. The truth is I had a very conventional upbringing, for the most part, and it included a lot of church. I was brought up by a great uncle, who was also...

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"And I said, Well, excuse me, I didn't know you had a copyright on the bow tie."

August 20, 2009 by The Clever Kris · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Everyday 
Do you hear what I hear?

Now, you may not believe this, but I really do try very hard to be nice, to be kind, to be a friend, to be polite, etc. It's just that I have a great deal of trouble sometimes in doing anything even remotely nice, or kind, or friendly, or polite, etc. And sometimes, it's not even really my fault. It isn't. It's just that I'm, every now and again, a tiny beat behind the music.  I'm not even sure I hear any music, so God bless my poor little drummer. Of course, I don't hear very well, either, and I know that doesn't...

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