“TP” is excerpted from Nowhere Near Manhood, by Michael Mecherikoff, available at www.NowhereNearManhood.com.

Sometimes I like to imagine the origin of stupid things. When a crappy commercial appears on television, I envision a large, expensive conference table surrounded by marketing execs in fancy suits.

      “No, no, that commercial would actually describe the product we’re trying to sell. What’s next?&rdquo

Think of any time of year, and chances are you can think of a pie to go with it.

Blueberry pie in the summer. Apple and pumpkin pies in the fall. You get the idea.

Americans, so it seems, love their pie (especially Grandma’s), and for good reason.

“Everybody has great memories of pie from their childhood,” says Linda Hoskins, executive director of the Illinois-based American Pie Council. “Even if there was a bad pie, there’s usually a great memory.&

A republican president whose popularity plummets as the country undergoes an unmatched economic crisis, and – rightly or wrongly – he is harshly criticized for arrogantly ignoring that crisis. A candidate who previously was considered an underdog wins the Democratic nomination, and then the presidency. The new president is put under suffocating scrutiny as he struggles to assemble a cabinet and impleme

Colorado has long been accused of possessing about as much cultural singularity as Rodney Dangerfield. And for a while, the accusers could have been right. But lately, somewhere within the giddy-up and the git-er-done cowboy swagger is growing a small glimmer of actual urbanism, of cultural diversity and musical miscellany.

One aspect of this slowly changing reality is the buzz surrounding the electronic music scene in Denver, which has increased to a dull roar over the past year. And c

Standing atop Point 13,664—also known as K2—the view southwest to Capitol Peak’s 14,130-foot summit is both intimidating and inspiring. It’s intimidating because the mountain is a soaring fortress of rock. It’s inspiring for the same reason. The mountaineer in me admires the peak’s architecture, and the aesthetics of its few routes of ascent.

From this vantage, I can see the famed northeast ridge head-on. In many circles, it’s referred to si