The Voices in Frank's Head

The Germans have several unique words that don't have an English counterpart; one of the is schadenfreude . It means taking pleasure in the pain or misery of others. That really doesn't quite describe how I feel at this moment, but it's the closest I can think of. I know, an opening paragraph like that deserves a serious explanation. Here it is. There was this woman that I kind-of sort-of dated - way back in 1992. I have to say we "kind-of sort-of" dated because we never actually went on a date. Whenever we bumped into her, she was constantly touching my arms, commenting on how she liked my cologne and generally exhibiting a certain level of interest. I eventually took the hint, asked her out on a date and she said "yes". We made plans to meet after class, since we were both in college at the time. When the appointed hour arrived, she was nowhere to be seen. I figured she was just blowing me off. The interesting thing was that I got a phone call ...

Keira Knightley recently remarked that she is " twice the size " of most actresses in Hollywood. Um... yeah. I don't think so. The only time Keira Knightley is twice the size of other actresses is if there are three of her all at once.

I found the video below on YouTube. If this doesn't do wonders to boost military enlistment, I don't know what will.

Thanks to my involvement with Detroit Synergy , I will be on the radio this coming Monday. I will appear on Detroit Today , which airs on WDET 101.9 FM. We're going to discuss this trend of people leaving Michigan for one reason or another. The segment will air on Monday, September 17 at approximately 10:20 a.m. If you're not lucky enough to live the WDET broadcast area, you can always listen on-line .

September 11th. I miss the days when today's date meant nothing more than it was brother's birthday. I miss being able to look at the calender 1/12 of the year and not think about the pure horror and disbelief that I felt as I watched United Airlines Flight 175 slam into the South Tower of the World Trade Center live on CNN; the utter dismay when it collapsed less than an hour later and - above all else - the overwhelming sense of helplessness when I saw the North Tower still standing, but knew it would collapse soon. I miss what it was like to walk through the World Trade Center itself. I miss being able to sit back on boring days at work and just ponder what it would be like to go back to Windows on the World . I miss being able to visit buildings like Renaissance Center in Detroit, the Sears Tower in Chicago or the CN Tower in Toronto without thinking twice about it. I know, of course, that those buildings are as safe as anyone could reasonably make them, but there's ju...

I have a confession to make. I'm helping to plan Detroit Synergy's Wooden Anniversary Pub Crawl. It's a great time, having a lot of fun with a couple hundred of your best friends, as we bounce between 8 different bars in one evening. There will be drink specials at each of these bars, of course, and the folks at Hard Rock Cafe are offering free parking for participants. Like I said, it's a great time. More importantly, this is Detroit Synergy's big fundraiser. The group doesn't charge dues or anything so it relies on pub crawls to keep themselves afloat. None of this is all that newsworthy - or even worthy of a "confession" per se. Well, here's interesting part. Some of my Wolverine friends, decided that they didn't want to go because it was the same day that the University of Michigan was playing the University of Notre Dame. I was a bit frustrated by this. I tried to be as accommodating as possible when it came to scheduling the pub ...