In honor of Dirt's departure and my seeing Dorkass this week (I'm low on material), here's one of my favorite stories about each of them.
Dorkass coined the expression when I was agonizing just-a-little-too-much about the intentions of the girl I was dating. Dorkass had seen enough. She was disgusted.
"Report to the nearest counter and turn in your penis," she sneered.
We were both immediately delighted with the expression. We use it all of the time now, whenever we see some guy being weak, needy, simpering. "Report to the nearest counter, pal," we'll chide.
"Huh?" he'll reply.
I am less than a man.
This realization hit me one night when I sat on Dirt's back deck and listened to Dirt and his cousin trade stories. Both are former star college athletes and former pro players, one in football and the other in hockey. So right. What can I possibly offer this conversation? The Hunkering story? No, I decided to just shut up and drink Dirt's '77 tawny and listen.
I listened to tales of their grisly injuries, both those they inflicted and those inflicted upon them. About the insane, testosterone-crazed characters they met. About the many, many teammates' little sisters they banged. About border runs after bed-check. About what it's like to play against the best athletes in the world.
I spent college studying literature, going home every night to my girlfriend, setting picks on morbidly obese guys, and having intermittent sex with one woman, I thought. Hmm. Perhaps it's best not to share.
The story that sent me over the edge follows. Dirt's cousin took a 100 mph slapshot in the eye, shattering his eye socket and leaving hamburger-like tendrils of meat where his face used to be. The state of New York determined that the injury entitled him to $10,000 in workman's comp funds, to be put toward plastic surgery. What did he do with the money? He smeared Vitamin E oil into the hamburger and bought his girlfriend an engagement ring.
"Report to the nearest counter," Dorkass said in my imagination as I drove home. "That is a man."