Why "I'm Not Complaining"

How this Substack got its name, plus other things that are amusing me today

This edition of I’m Not Complaining is brought to you by my favorite daily source of news: 1440!

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Now, on with the ‘stack!

Am I Not Complaining?

In 1965, Dan Greenburg wrote a slim book entitled How To Be A Jewish Mother. Even at the age of ten, I knew that I would never be a Jewish mother, but I definitely had one, and I wanted to know the secrets.

Instead of giving me the secrets of Jewish motherhood, this book turned out to be one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Identification is a beautiful thing. Discovering that my mother, my aunt Leonie, and my grandma were not the only women in the world who behaved like that and that I wasn’t the only male who reacted the way I did - you know how it feels to have a weight lifted from your shoulders that you didn’t even know you were carrying?

The chapter titles explain a lot. They include:

• Making Guilt Work

• The Technique of Basic Suffering

• Sale Merchandise Costs Less

And so forth. A lot of it is dated - there have been a couple of new generations since this little gem was published - but as I always say (maybe not always, but frequently), styles change, but principles never do.

So, nu, what’s that got to do with naming your substack?

One of the many laughs I had from Greenburg’s opus, and one that has stuck in my head for over half a century, was this item in the glossary:

I dunno. It still makes me chuckle

So I’m not either.

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Other things that are amusing me today

There’s a commercial on the radio for cold-water laundry detergent that features Ice-T and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Cold, get it? So maybe Hulk Hogan can open a chain of sandwich shops called Hogan’s Heros.

If you’re under 60, ask your dad.

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I promise the next edition will not have any Dad jokes.

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