Humor | Cathy C. Hall Writes

When friends read my column in Modern Senior Living Magazine, they will invariably say the same thing. First, it’s “You’re making that up.” And second, they’ll say, “It’s a good thing you’ve still got your parents/husband/kids around.”

And I always say the same thing. First, “I wish I could say I made that up.” And second, “Yeah, those folks come in pretty handy in the column-fodder department.”

Now, I know the old writing adage, “write what you know.” But I think it should really be “write who you know.” Trust me. If you want to come up with a column idea, week after week or month after month, you’d do well to hook up with a big, somewhat colorful family. Of course, it works out great if it’s your own family.

Because family might get a tad annoyed when you write about them, but at the end of the day, they keep coming back, providing more columns.

(A special thank you to my mom who has NO idea that the May column (page 8) sort of spotlights her colorful behavior. And let’s keep it that way, okay?)

Dan Wilbur is my new best friend. He doesn’t exactly know it, but whatever. His blog, BETTER BOOK TITLES is genius. Simple concept, brilliantly funny execution.

He takes well-known books and re-titles them so that you, the over-worked reader, don’t have to actually read the whole book to get the gist of things. What a time-saver! Because I, for one, do not have time to read Jane Eyre again. But a simple glance at Dan’s better book title, and I’m good.

Basically, I’ve found a way to fit in at those get-togethers where everyone’s talking about the lastest best-seller (or classic) that I haven’t got ’round to reading yet (implying that someday, I might actually read these best-sellers/classics).

And now you can be cool and well-read, too! But I’ve got dibs on Dan Wilbur if he shows up.