My lovely bride and daughter are in Alaska committing mischief, so Cosmo and I are here holding the fort on our own. In fact, we’re holding two forts. The house and the fort we’ve made from books and pillows in the middle of the living room. It is amazing how quickly the world falls apart once the civilizing influences of the fairer sex are removed. I know, I know, there are disciplined, tidy, responsible men out there who do not need the company of women to resist their more barbarian instincts. And, yeah, I’m sure that if I were left alone long enough I would build-up the necessary psychological muscles to avoid a total Lord of the Flies scene. But, man, they’re gone for a couple hours and Coz and I are filthy, walking around the kitchen trying to figure out how food “happens.”
It kind of reminds me of a documentary I saw about Rikers prison in NYC. The male prisoners are kept under a microscope. The guards search for ball point pens, the wire from those garbage bag ties, sharp lint — whatever the men can forge into a weapon. Meanwhile, in the women’s facility the female inmates have open doors to their cells and are allowed to use and keep irons.