Bros Before Love

Happy belated Valentine's Day, folks. If you're like me, then you don't really care one way or the other about Valentine's Day. After all, it's a holiday marketed by card companies for the sole purpose of making money between the winter holidays and spring holidays. Someone gives you flowers and you get to watch them slowly shrivel up until they finally die and you get to throw them away while you think they probably would have had a fulfilling flower life had they not been cut in their prime. Or someone gives you a themed stuffed animal, which is cute at first -- until you realize you're stuck with a grinning bear holding an I Heart You sign all year long.

The way to my heart on Valentine's Day? Cheap burgers, normal looking baked goods, and -- in this year's case -- a mug with a ridiculous but cute cartoon otter wearing a suit on it. In previous years I've gotten cupcakes that spell out I Hate You and a live Led Zeppelin record (like, on vinyl). Now that's what I'm talking about.

So what's my point? I'm not going to post about some sappy love romance. I'll leave that to the thousands of other websites and blogs. Instead, let's take a look at something completely different -- brotherhood. Screw sappy love. I'd rather read about friendships and misunderstood delinquents.

I first read this book by S.E. Hinton in middle school. We read it in class along with an audio tape. I didn't like the narrator's voice and thought he sounded ridiculous when he read the girl parts. After a week or so of reading, the class got to watch the 1983 movie version. I didn't get to watch the last part because I was sick, so over winter break, I had my mom rent it. And that's when I fell in love. I watched the movie over and over again multiple times a day until I was forced to return the movie to the now deceased Hollywood Video.

Though my love for The Outsiders stemmed from my love of the movie and Ponyboy, I've read this book numerous times. Though Ponyboy's life is filled with tragedy, I still envied him for living in the 60s and being able to experience things I could never understand. It's hard to be disappointed by Ponyboy's romantic views of society and friendship. And who couldn't love his gang of greaser friends who loved fun and rumbles? Dallas Winston, you're the epitome of bad boy allure.

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How can you not love a movie that has young versions of Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Matt Damon?



I wish C. Thomas Howell (aka Ponyboy) had aged better