On The Road With Al and Ivy: Blog

"...I rode away, thinking, I confess, not so much of the kind mother left alone, and of the home behind me, as of to-morrow, and all the wonders it would bring." - William Makepeace Thackeray ("Barry Lyndon," 1844) "Coming of age" rites for young men and women have pretty much remained the same throughout history; men endure epic tests of strength and will, while women are trained in the sacred roles of motherhood, parenting and how avoid getting a case of the ass from dealing with men. Some cynics have suggested that a woman's parenting training applies to both men and children, while others indignantly insist that following a man's orders requires no special skill. While accurate attribution for such insights isn't possible due to the degraded condition of the ancient source material concerning motherhood discovered in the Chicago 5th Street Salvation Army Store book section in 1989, the debate appears to be divided along male and female lin...

"…I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future..." - Jack Kerouac (On The Road, The Original Scroll) "It was my last observation that it was the custom of every man to call every other man a madman. The truth, in my judgement, they were all mad." - Jack London (The Jacket, aka The Star Rover 1915) Jack London is known (these days) as an adventure writer whose most famous books, Call Of The Wild and White Fang, are considered children or young adult classics (at least in abridged editions). He was quite popular in his time, and wrote several books that are considered classic. His real life became legendary and many works like On The Road, a book about hobos, came from experiencing, and not just visiting, that life. London treated writing as a discipline, and part of that involved churning out 1500 words a day. That resulted in a body of work that included short stories, ...