"You Can Only Have ONE Best Friend"...Says Who???

In the "Chapter 6: The Monster" episode of Netflix's Stranger Things, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) talk about jealousy within friendship after Mike and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) get into an altercation over Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown):

Dustin: "He's your best friend, right?"Mike: "Yeah...I mean, I don't know."Dustin: "It's fine, I get it.  I didn't get here until the fourth grade, he had the advantage of living next door, but none of that matters.  What matters is that he's your best friend and then this girl shows up and starts living in your basement and all you ever wanna do is pay attention to her--"Mike: "That's not true!"Dustin: "Yes it is...and you know it, he knows it, but no one ever says anything until you both start punching and yelling at each other like goblins with intelligence scores of zero.  Now everything's weird."Mike: "He's not my best friend."Dustin (laughs): "Yeah right."Mike: "I mean, he is, but so are you and so is Will."Dustin: "You can't have more than one best friend."Mike: "Says who?"Dustin: "Says logic."Mike: "Well, I call bull on your logic 'cause you're my best friend, too."Dustin (smiling): "Okay."

The interesting thing about this dialogue is none of these characters are older than twelve years old, but this dialogue is representative of the often immature logic people take when it comes to someone being considered a "best friend" and how many we're supposedly allowed to have.  While the memes found in this Google search are hilarious and entertaining, this is merely indicative of the comedic ideology where jokes have a significant level of seriousness to them.  So in another myth busting edition of "Says Who???", I attempt to debunk the assumption you can only have one best friend...

Dirk Scribbler's Guide to Being a 97 Percent Raiders Fan, Part 2

As explained in Part 1, part of what drives my love for the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders is my subconscious infatuation with California.  However, my conscious decision to make the Raiders my AFC team ran even deeper than Tecmo Super Bowl, fierce team colors or the love for anything Compton native Kendrick Lamar laid out in "The Recipe".  From a social and political standpoint, neither Oakland nor Los Angeles have not been kind to people of color, especially in regards to police brutality.  The Black Panther Party, who were formed in Oakland in 1966, served as enforcers of justice specifically for Black and Brown people around the country against systemic racism despite perceived and actual controversy.  Although I've never seen any of them in Raiders paraphernalia, they wore all black as a sign of solidarity and empowerment.  So in Part 2 of "Dirk Scribbler's Guide to Being a 97 Percent Raiders Fan", I dig deeper than football to speak about how the Raiders became the inadvertent symbol of a new era which included yours truly...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Divisional Round

As much as I love the NFL, there is nothing worse than investing so much time and energy into watching as many games as possible over 17 weeks only to have a letdown in the playoffs--and that's beyond the Raiders getting handled by the Texans last week.  (Yup...still salty.)  With the Wild Card Weekend games being decided by an average of 19 points, last week was highly disappointing and hopes were high for better showings in the Divisional Round.  However, the first half of the weekend wasn't shaping up to be much better and it appeared the same thing might happen in the second half.  Nevertheless, by 11:30 p.m. Sunday night, avid football fans had been treated to two competitive contests this weekend, including what could be the best game of the playoffs depending on who ends up in Houston...

RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!! (Vol. 2, No. 1)

The irony of the first edition of "RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!!" for 2017 is I'm not leading off with anything about the New Year at all.  Instead, as I often seem to do best, I choose to wax nostalgic.  I'm watching TV one day--surprise, surprise--and see the "Coach Steve" Dr. Pepper commercial featuring the Ol' Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier.  In the midst of essentially tuning him out, my ears instantly perk up to "Stuck with You" by Huey Lewis and the News.  As if I'm Marty McFly hopping in the DeLorean with Doc Brown and hitting 88 MPH, I'm immediately transported to one of the happiest times in my life.  (In my Sophia Petrillo voice) Picture it...Northwest D.C...1985...we're riding in Big Dadi Scribbler's "money" green Cadillac down North Capitol Street on a sunny day and "The Power of Love" is blaring through the speakers as I watch all the cars go by.  Particularly, I see this red 1984 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z pull up beside us--for fellow Hunter fans, it looked like the one Det. Sgt. Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) whipped around--and instantly wish I was old enough to drive it so I could blast Huey Lewis like he's going out of style soon.  So whenever I hear any of his music, especially if I'm watching Back to the Future, I smile one of my big smiles.  Since I know somebody is giving me the Biff Tannen treatment and calling me "Dork Scribbler" by now, let's simply get on with the rest of this madness before I lose additional credibility...

Dirk Scribbler's Guide to Being a 97 Percent Raiders Fan, Part 1

In 2014, a BrainFall quiz titled "Which U.S. City Should You Live In" required answering questions about new restaurant openings, cost of living and favorite topics of discussion, and in my "You Should Live in Los Angeles" result, the summary read:

Perhaps best known for Hollywood, Los Angeles is the perfect place for aspiring artists.  There is no denying it's a playground for the stars, but even before you make your millions in the entertainment industry, you'll still be able to afford a bad-a** burrito.

Nearly three weeks later, I took a PlayBuzz quiz titled "Which American Accent Do You Actually Have" and having to pronounce words like "lawyer" or the trifecta of "Mary, merry and marry", I apparently have a Western accent.  Considering how folks never think I'm from D.C.--I've gotten New York and Philly the most--this explanation made sense of it all:

The west was the last area in the United States to be settled during the westward expansion of English-speaking people and it's full of linguistic patterns from other regions.  Your accent is general that no one knows exactly where you're from.  Your accent is perfect for public speaking, news broadcasting, acting, advertisements, etc.!

As I ponder the music, TV shows, fashion and even the weather toward which I've always gravitated, California has always seemed like the most perfect place on Earth and is the No. 1 state to visit on my bucket list.  Thus, despite being born and raised in Ward 8 D.C. and a fan of Washington's NFL team for the majority of my life, it only makes sense my AFC team (because most NFL fans have a favorite team from the opposite conference) since the mid to late 80s would be the Oakland/Los Angeles/back to Oakland Raiders...