On the Title

I first came across this song in Jimmy Buffet's novel A Salty Piece of Land, where the ex-pat, cowboy, and patron of the Church of Mark Twain named Tully Mars hears it during an idyllic spring break scene with a gorgeous girl (half his age and out of his league) just before he finds himself very much "…an innocent bystander, stuck between a rock and a hard place.” Since the album Excitable Boy came out nearly a decade before I was born, my knowledge of Warren Zevon never went further than "Werewolves of London;" a song I discovered a kid listening to the oldies station on a trip home from visiting my grandparents. It was awesome, a dude howling and singing about "Werewolves of Thunder;" sounded like it could be one of my Saturday morning cartoons at the time. Only when I revisited the song in college did I learn the real lyrics in all their macabre, hysterical, and culturally-observant brilliance. Isn't it strange though? Something can be clear and ordinary one moment, but at another point in your lifetime, your entire outlook changes – you realize the provincial nature of your youth. Time, observation, and experience drastically alter perspectives.

So, as we argued and discussed various ideas for what would be the title of this blog, I realized that I'd been listening to that solution every morning before I started my day. It fits precisely with what this blog means to address. Here's a guy, presumably pretty young, who’s had some experiences but craves even more, and despite having no malicious intent, he finds himself in these ridiculous situations which require at least one, but more likely some combination of the three catholicons he requests. That's the intended content and demographic of this blog: half-cocked, gambling adventurers who have some experience but know there's so much more to understand and discover about the world. And, like the song's protagonist, we learn that nearly all the worldly troubles and their respective solutions can be viewed through the clear metaphor of “lawyers, guns, and money.” His issues are commonplace – we all find ourselves in situations that make us feel like victims, but with dutiful observation and disciplined, logical thinking, we can see how those outcomes are results of our own actions, whether or not we meet our intended consequences.

The three catholicons:

"Lawyers," already with the convenient stereotype of bottom-feeding scumbags, represent a variety of concepts to address: reading, writing, and interpretation (and too often misinterpretation,) forms of government, political ideologies, and the fine art of negotiation.

"Guns" serves to cover the innate human affinity for competition. Competition erupts into a thousand different forms – war, strategy, winning, losing – and knowing when to quit. Power exists as the backbone of all conflict in the world – great or small, human beings naturally struggle for dominance and control.

“Money,” as the most omnipresent of the three, money inextricably ties all of the three together at some level or another. Discussions of economics, capitalism, finance, power, resources, et al. will pervade every dimension of this blog.

Look at the world through the prism of the three perspectives above. Consider this a call-to-arms; when the content of these posts inspire any questions, thoughts, or comments, post them or e-mail us. Discuss, argree, argue - whatever your thoughts, share them. Above all, enjoy and be entertained.