birtmc.com

As I announced earlier today , I was forced to buy a new car this weekend after my old one (whose name may or may not have been Bruce) finally needed more repairs than it was worth. The whole experience of buying a car was not as terrible as I expected, and I'm of the opinion that the days of slick, cunning car salesman are nearly extinct, save for the Billy Fuccillos of the world (I'm assuming). It also conjured up memories of the time I went to a Volkswagen dealership in North Carolina while the softball team and I were on our spring break trip in 2015. I was bored and needed to kill some time, so I decided to make up a story about me becoming a student at UNC in a few months and probably needing a new car. ( You can read that recollection here ) Anyway, as a financially-strapped young man who somehow went to bed Saturday poorer than he awoke, I realized that the process of buying my new car wasn't nearly as stressful as pretending to buy that VW Golf was. I w...

For those who haven't heard, I recently had to say goodbye to a friend I've known for 12 years, and who's been especially important to me over the last seven. I am, of course, referring to my car. “Not with a bang, but with a whimper.” pic.twitter.com/3ZuDnjXMsX — Matt Birt (@BirtMC) October 19, 2017 “I promise. I will never let go, [old Focus]. I’ll never let go.” *proceeds to drive off the lot, dropping the old Focus to its icy death* pic.twitter.com/3xdFz0ofnv — Matt Birt (@BirtMC) October 23, 2017 Yes, the khaki/gold/tan/beige-colored Focus that I bought off of my dad at 16 years old is no more. It wasn't much of a surprise, as the thing has been showing its age for years. The underside is rustier than Brett Favre's arm, the air conditioning spews more hot air than Rex Ryan, and there's enough duct tape on it to stick DJ Khaled to a wall for a week. But I can't help but feel a little sad that the car responsible for so many memories is now...

Clarence Clemons, left, takes a break from the saxophone to sing to the crowd at a Bruce Springsteen concert in Buffalo in 2009. It was Clemons' final show before passing away in 2011. I began writing this article on Monday afternoon, after sitting on the idea all weekend. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about whether or not Bruce Springsteen truly was the best there ever was. But as I began writing, I changed course. I stopped entertaining the notion that he might not be, and dug into my stance that he is. And since I needed to buy some time,  I wrote what I wrote  on Monday. Clickbait and foreshadowing. The calling card of a bad writer and a lazy salesman. I hoped it would spur some responses from you all, and it did: No — You (@BuffCribbs94) August 28, 2017 Matthew, just because we want to be successful sports professionals doesn't mean we have to effusively praise Bruce Springsteen. — Alex Beilman (@Alex_Beilman) August 28, 2017 Growing Up,...

Have you ever scrolled through your iPhone or iTunes music library looking for a song that begins with the words ‘the’ or ‘a’ but know you won’t find them under ‘t’ or ‘a’? Have you ever scrolled through your Windows music library looking for a song that begins with the words ‘the’ or ‘a’ and know you won’t find them anywhere but under ‘t’ or ‘a’? Files that begin with other seemingly insignificant words like of, if, at, on, as, or in will be alphabetized in their respective orders, as those words are not overlooked in the iTunes system. Billy Mays interlude: When the same words show up in the middle of a file name, iTunes takes them into account appropriately, and gives them equal weight. For the record, iTunes treats ‘a’ and ‘an’ equally, depending on the succeeding word and whether or not it begins with a vowel sound or a consonant sound. ‘The’ is both an adverb and a definite article, two very valid and important parts of speec...