Byline: Nathan Graziano

The Spider Plant, I believe, derived from a cut Cobain may have once tried. With my hair growing long and shaggy, in order to execute The Spider Plant, I needed to shave the back and the sides with the clippers while allowing the hair on top of the head to grow long and hanging over the shaved sides like the leaves of a hanging spider plant growing over the planting pot.

So as September ushers in my favorite season—not that I venture outside enough to truly enjoy any of the four seasons—here is this month’s glut of random observations, useless facts and irreverent musings.

As a teacher who cherishes the summer reprieves from classroom responsibilities[1], August always finds me ambivalent. On one hand, it is still summer, and there are still three precious weeks to prepare and relax before returning to the daily grind of the school schedule.

My friend Dan—who lives in Missouri—and I are engaged in a Zoom discussion on one of our favorites topics: Rocky movies. We pride ourselves in our acumen and insight when it comes to anything related to Rocky Balboa and the bevy of films based on his character.

I’m talking about letting the Led out, a full day filled with sundry substances and the music of the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin cranked up real loud.

But, alas, the heatwave and June are behind us, and as now we prepare to celebrate ‘Merica by grilling animal flesh, drinking our body weight in booze and blowing stuff up, here is this month’s homage to great Providence Journal former-columnist Bill Reynolds.

Why has this happened? I guess I can accept my wife’s statement about fashion being cyclical, but as a human species, we also need to learn from history and not repeat our most egregious mistakes.