ABC’s “Cougar Town” is a new show starring Courtney Cox, who plays a recently divorced woman who re-enters the dating scene that’s filled with younger men. The show takes place near Sarasota, Fla., and the title sequence opens with a sign that reads “Welcome to Cougar Town,” referring to a place where attractive, single older women date younger men. While the name of this television town is completely fictional, there are real towns where cougars live. In case you were wondering, here is a list of the top five cougar towns in the United States. 1. Austin, Texas About Austin: As a college... 

1. Natural Ice – A.K.A. “Natty Ice” or simply “Natty”, this piss also comes as Natural Light. This beer is the closest you can get to tasting like sour water that’s been sitting in the pipes of an abandoned house for 5 years without actually giving yourself stomach ulcers. Although it might actually be too soon to declare that second part. If you want to be known as the trashy southern kid with an alcoholic father and an all-around girl-repellent, go for this one. (Coor’s version would be KeyStone Light.) 2. Olde English 800 – Okay, let’s go... 

There’s a chess set that sits in the corner of our family room.  It’s really there a lot more for decoration than anything else.  My grade school daughters play a game or two on it every now and then but I’m not sure they’re really playing chess.  They kind of make up their own rules and take each others pieces according to fluidly changing criteria. I played a little bit of chess when I was about twelve immediately following the summer of the great challenge match between Bobby Fisher and Boris Spassky in 1972.  My lasting legacy from this is that close to forty years later I can still... 

Pretty much anyone can buy an ATM machine. Apparently I raised a hackle or two. Seems my little stunt got the attention of industry insiders, and not all of them believe that I bought a used ATM on Craigslist, which turned out to contain thousands of credit card numbers. Well, it did actually happen, and despite what many say, that the ATM couldn’t have contained 16-digit credit and debit card numbers on it, it did. The most intense resistance to my experiment came from one Boston cop who watched me plant this thing in Downtown Crossing. He crossed his arms, glared at me, and when I walked... 

What do you get when you mix Latin, German, and French, along with a bunch of other linguistic tidbits (gross!)…? You get English, one of the most horrifyingly dirty languages in human history. Please note that these words are able to reach their shocking levels of disgust by their phenomenal suggestiveness, while not actually crossing the line into being foul. Some might not seem dirty until you’ve actually witnessed someone drop one of these bad boys off their tongue in public, at which point you will probably throw up a little bit in your mouth (like when an old lady in Trader Joe’s... 

Tree climbing class at Cornell University. CLASS: The American Vacation UNIVERSITY: University of Iowa This class is a trip–literally. At the University of Iowa, students can delve into how American families varying backgrounds shape their vacation experience. The class dives into American vacations at a very microscopic level with lectures on the social history of vacations, the cultural significance of contemporary vacationing patterns and the patterns of vacations based on race, class, gender. Enrolled students are expected to deconstruct your personal experiences on family vacations.... 

The other day I received an email which read in its entirety as follows: “Do you want to give me a call about this?” There was only one problem.  It was an attached response to an email I had sent this person more than two years earlier.  Actually I took a minute to count it out, two years, three months a week and two days to be exact.  The “this” he was referring to was a business inquiry long since irrelevant. So of course decorum dictated I ignore his overly tardy reply or perhaps even send him back a polite one liner.  But for some reason I didn’t want to let him off... 

The following are actual sex laws in the United States that are still on the books today: 1. Oral sex is illegal in 18 states, including Kansas and Utah. 2. It is illegal in 18 states for a man to have an erection that shows through his pants. 3. It is illegal in Willowdale, Oregon, for men to talk dirty to their wives during intercourse. 4. Sexual intercourse between unmarried couples is illegal in the state of Georgia. 5. In Dyersburg, Tennessee, it is illegal for a lady to call a gentleman for a date. 6. In Connorsville, Wisconsin, it is illegal for a man to shoot off a gun while his female... 

Now I love the Holidays as much as the next guy but can we all please agree that a serious overhaul is needed in the Christmas song industry.  I’m pushing fifty years old this yuletide season and I’ve heard most of these tunes enough to last me another fifty. My guess is I’m subjected to Walking in a Winter Wonderland twice daily between Thanksgiving and Christmas every year.  So if my collective memory began when I was about five, I’ve heard that song more than 2000 times.  I think that probably warrants a break for a few years.  And then there’s that Partridge in a Pear Tree that... 

When I was five years old my big brother and I walked up to the neighborhood movie theater to watch the film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. What we viewed that afternoon was a cinematic production every bit deserving of its future designation thirty-four years later as one of the worst movies of the twentieth century. The plot itself was more than just a bit disturbing to a pre-schooler, Martians descend and kidnap Santa along with two small children so that Mars can have Christmas just like the planet Earth does. I remember that was creepy enough to begin with but when these men in green... 

It’s something Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Henry Ford, Winston Churchill, the last four U.S. presidents (Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama), and Tom Cruise all had to overcome: the right-handed world. Over the centuries, the question has been raised again and again in academic circles – does the shunned left-handed minority flourish because of their in-congruence, or are they just, say, more intelligent by nature? But more to the point, why the heck aren’t there enough lefty desks at UC Irvine and why do all the right-handed kids always steal... 

The High School Teacher You’re fresh off the plane, train or automobile and this is the first person you see– an old high school teacher. Oh god. He’s just out of your social age range but you still have to call him Mr. Daniels, and no, you’re not going call him K-Slice. The guy who busted you for smoking behind the dumpster looks like he just crawled out of one and he’s looking for friendship. NO, you don’t want any part of the Thanksgiving Potluck he’s throwing in his one bedroom apartment. The Old Best Friend You guys promised to keep in touch with...