Dear Gentlereaders,
The Flyoverland Crank, although technically a blog, is a self-published column that's inspired by/modled after a traditional newspaper column that is not primarily based on politics featuring "the wit and wisdom of a garrulous geezer" — me. I really do live in Flyoverland and I am a (lovable) crank.
My column began as letters written to my grandkids, the Stickies, and my daughter and son-in-law. Nowadays my letters are written to anyone who might find my various and sundry musings worth reading, my dear gentlereaders, including my grandkids who are now all (technically) grandadults.
While I present as a straight white rapidly aging gentile man with osteoarthritis and other afflictions, I self-identify as a gorgeous young, Jewish athletic lesbian of color who bears a striking resemblance to a young Halle Berry although I'm trapped inside an old white dude's body.
I began writing a brand-spanking new column every week in July of 2015 (except for when I took a brief sabbatical at a secret Taoist monastery in the Wudang mountains in the fall of '22). Recently, I switched to publishing longer columns every other week.
I don't offer a comment section at the end of my column because I post links to my columns on Facebook (and occasionally other stuff) so that you can love me, hate me, or lobby to have me publically flogged by a much larger audience.
You'll be relieved to know there is no community to join, no Flyoverland Crank $20 coffee cups to buy, or yet another podcast to listen to. You can reach me via email at TheFlyoverlandCrank@gmail.com... if you are a gentleperson.
"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." -Nietzsche
My why is my daughter and son-in-law (Nipples and Skippy), my grandkids (the Stickies), and a desire to hang around to see if Western Civilization's ongoing attempted suicide is successful.
In the words of a much better writer than I:
“At this point I reveal myself in my true colours, as a stick-in-the-mud. I hold a number of beliefs that have been repudiated by the liveliest intellects of our time. I believe that order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves. I also hold one or two beliefs that are more difficult to put shortly. For example, I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people's feelings by satisfying our own egos. And I think we should remember that we are part of a great whole. All living things are our brothers and sisters. Above all, I believe in the God-given genius of certain individuals, and I value a society that makes their existence possible.” -Kenneth Clark, "Civilization"
M.M.
