The Real McCoy

“Life doesn’t imitate art, it imitates bad television.”
— Woody Allen
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  • Quintessential
  • Authentic
  • Classic
  • Genuine

I have a good friend who's an attorney in Atlanta. I don't mention that he's an attorney in Atlanta as any kind of qualifier, in fact I realize it could cause you to jump to stereotypical conclusions. So let me quickly say that the wit and wisdom I love about Gene supersedes his vocation and location. This good friend is in fact part of the inspiration of this blog. He's the one that reminded me of the now gone TV show ,"Men Of A Certain Age" with themes similar to what we're exploring here at About POPS.

Not long ago he made a visit to Italy. It was a honeymoon trip. It doesn't get much more romantic than that, right? I asked him after his return if he found that a bottle wine and a bowl of pasta tasted better in Italy than it does here. His insightful reply: "Yes, in the same way that bacon and eggs taste better cooked in an iron skillet over a campfire while camping out." Don't you wish this blog was a scratch'n'sniff?

Why is that? What is there about things like reading an actual printed book, preferably hardback, in a good, deep leather chair near a wood-burning fireplace? Why is a baseball game at Wrigley a great experience whether the Cubs win or not?

Somehow these things just seem more real. Thank you Gene for making the case so vividly.

Words like real, authentic and genuine get thrown around these days in ways that aren't very authentic or genuine. So it set me to thinking; what are some of those things, you know, things that endure, things that are above the passage of time, trends and pop culture?

Please add your thoughts to the conversation by posting a comment here.


P.S." In case you're wondering... 

The phrase "The real McCoy" is a corruption of the "The real MacKay", first recorded in 1856 as: "A drappie o' the real MacKay," (A drop of the real MacKay). This appeared in a poem Deil's Hallowe'en, published in Glasgow and is widely accepted as the phrase's origin. -- Scottish National Dictionary