WRIT 340 dpdoyle

Admittedly, I have a lot of faults. You don't live for this long in contemporary society without developing some nasty character flaws. I’ve been guilty of being petty, overreacting, under-reacting, and a host of other issues. Once, I sucker-punched a guy on all fours because he insulted me. I grabbed a handful of his greasy hair, pulled his head upright, and gave him two quick CRACKS! across the nose. It was the definition of a cheap shot. I’ve cheated at cards and told my fair share of tall tales. Sometimes, I feel like a walking collection of cautionary tales. Don’t believe me, just ask any of my ex-girlfriends. Even with all that being said though, I’d have to say my worst defect is my poor sportsmanship. I can’t stand losing. When I compete, it’s like there’s a full moon out and I’m Lon Chaney Jr. I devolve into a moody and petulant man-child. One time while I was living in England, my local pub was having a bingo night. A group of friends and I decided to partake. However, ...

As a child, I loved reading biographies of great scientists and mathematicians. I read somewhere, especially in Physics, that most Nobel Prize awardees are younger than 30. Youthful minds are most capable of creative scientific thought. And I thought writers were right there too. Shakespeare wrote Hamlet when he was 39. You need some life experiences to reflect on and practice to be an accomplished playwright or novelist. These facts informed my ageism. I didn’t think I could be intrigued by the recollections and musings of an 80-year-old former activist. I was gloriously wrong. In the memoir My Life on the Road , Gloria Steinem recounts the amazing events of her life. She begins with her gypsy childhood in the backseat of a gas-guzzler from the 1940’s. Steinem recounts her multi-year stay in India after college, the founding of the feminist Ms. magazine, and many other things from her full life; she definitely scraped clean the plate of life. The autobiography is filled with thoug...