YOUNG BUCK

I bought Jack a present recently, and it turned out better than I thought. It was either this one, or on that said "No Fat Chicks." I think I made the right decision. I had to share this...

ORIGINS OF A NICKNAME

"For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemies have only to find it." - Ambrose Bierce

As my readership grows (I think I added a new reader this week - my cousin Val!) it strikes me that an explanation of my nickname might be in order.

My rookie year on the Wildwood Beach Patrol in 1990, I hung around my friend Dan Fourney, who was already a lifeguard and got me into his group house. Dan's nickname, given to him by his older brothers, is Thinman, after Dashiell Hammett's novel and subsequent movie series, but also because Dan is thin.

When dudes get together, they never call each other by their real names. Consequently, my last name went from Cronin to Bonin to Boneman, because I was always hanging out with Thinman. Although there are some out there who think it may have a nefarious connotation, and I won't name who you sickos are, it's as simple and as stupid as that! Yet there are people out there who literally only know me as Boneman, and don't know my first or last name.

WARRIORS - THE NEW CLASS!

Young Jack looks good as a gang member - and incredibly fit, too!

WARRIORS - COME OUT TO PLAAAAY - EEE - YAY

Today is the day...The highly anticipated video game based on one of the best movies ever - The Warriors - is finally available!

In case you are totally lame and never saw this movie...the story line is that representatives of all major street gangs travel to a meeting in uptown New York, where the leader of the most prominent, largest gang in town, the Grammercy Riffs, appeals to everyone to join forces and take control of the city. When he (Cyrus) is shot, the Warriors are falsely accused and, with the temporary truce called off, have to fight their way back to Coney Island as they pass through enemy territory. It's intense!

As a young boy growing up on the West Side of Mt. Laurel, NJ, The Warriors taught me everything I needed to know about soldiering, and I used that knowledge every day on my paper route and at the Ramblewood Country Club pool! It also made me scared to visit New Jack City for years. Even to this day, when I step out of downtown Manhattan Starbucks en route to my next meeting, I'm looking over my shoulder to make sure there are no Baseball Furies or Turnbull A.C.'s out to get me. A soldier through and through....with a delicious Grande Mocha, of course.

CAAAAN YOOOOU DIIIIG IT????!!!!