The Path

Bob Lefsetz’s Original Post – “The Path”

“So I’m just telling you one thing. LISTEN TO NOBODY! Everybody will tell you what to do. You’ll be overwhelmed, you’ll have a hard time starting, never mind staying the course. And nobody knows where all the rocks in the river are, no one knows all the pitfalls, everybody’s adventure is different, and the goal is to get to the end and feel proud that you did it your way.” – Bob Lefsetz

Damn good advice, Bob! So why do you spend so much of your time telling others what to do?

You are absolutely the best source of news and information regarding entertainment, music, rock & rollers, movies and books. That’s why I and thousands of other people have subscribed to your newsletter and blog and enthusiastically recommend you to others!

But how does that qualify you to rant to your subscribers about politics, vaccinations, climate change and so many other topics you know so little about?

“What kind of crazy, fucked-up world do we live in where…

Is your favorite opening line to any newsletter you write in which you plan to beat your supporters over the head with your Left Coast progressive opinions about any topic you know nothing about, larded up with your ten dollar words and catch-phrases, such as:

“wankers”, “hoi polloi”,  “fungible”,  “moving his cheese”,  “de rigueur”, ” the great bifurcation”,  “bloviators”,  “de minimis”, ” the negative imprimatur”,  “the progenitors”,  “stare decisis”,  “his party apparatchiks”,  “bogey men”,  “BECAUSE WE’RE PUSSIES!”,  “the chiaroscuro nature”,  “the glitterati”,  “beaucoup bucks”,  “hagiography”,  “multifarious society”,  “the appellation”,  “sui generis”,  “schadenfreude”,  “complete Balkanization”,  “the vapidity”,  “paying fealty to the cult”,  “their prostates are too enlarged!”,  “don’t get your knickers in a twist”,  “a concomitant denigration”…

and all the rest.

From the Urban Dictionary: ten-dollar word

Using large, difficult words that most people will not understand. Makes you look like an elitist prick that wants to flaunt your advanced intelligence or vocabulary.

We’re not impressed. You wanna to be the next George Will? Looking for a gig with the New York Times or the Washington Post? Start a political blog. Let’s see how many subscribers sign up for that. Remember, you were the one who told us:

“Being a politician is a profession. Michael Jordan proved that being the best basketball player of all time didn’t make him a world class baseball player.” – Bob Lefsetz  

But you’re beginning to sound like the old man standing on his front porch telling neighborhood kids to, “Get off my lawn!”​

“So I’m just telling you one thing. LISTEN TO NOBODY!” 

How about we just stop listening to Bob “Angry Old Man” Lefsetz?

Or as Billy Joel described it so well:

And there’s always a place for the angry young man
With his fist in the air and his head in the sand
And he’s never been able to learn from mistakes
So he can’t understand why his heart always breaks
But his honor is pure and his courage as well
And he’s fair and he’s true and he’s boring as hell
And he’ll go to the grave as an angry old man