A few weeks ago, I was at a buddy's house when I overheard something on YNN. There was some group out there holding a workshop or rally or something similar- it was for victims of domestic abuse----who were hard of hearing.
Immediately I said 'that would make a great column....it's wrong to hit your partner if he's hard-of-hearing- it isn't that he doesn't listen, it's that he didn't hear you!'
And then I thought about the negative feedback that can come about because of some silly joke like that (after all, what do you say to a woman who has two black eyes? Nothing you haven't already told her twice. And as I joked years ago about the organization called 'Alternatives to Battered Women', yeah it's called 'listen.' And who can forget the classic comic strip Andy Capp (it's a joke, son- say it out loud with a British accent)- where he and Flo constantly got into fisticuffs in the good old days....)
One of the hallmarks of my writing is that it has always been somewhat irreverent. If you bought into that spirit, the columns can be great fun. However, if you had a stick up your butt or just didn't get it...then you were offended by me. Obviously hitting your partner (or in 95% of all cases, hitting ANYONE) is wrong- if I have to explain that to you....then you need more help than I do.
But if I start taking the edge off my writing....well....didn't someone once say it's better to burn out than to fade away (I asked Deep but got a vacant look back).
-Zjabs (Rochester's Official Columnist)
© 2012 Zjabs - 5/6/12
