780 pages ago, "TFWG" was on page 3000 and I was still in my self imposed exile.
WMC, First I hope you are feeling well. I will now reveal my fascination with "The Dude". (True Story, really). When I was in college, during my freshman year (1980) There was a guy living on our floor in the residence hall. He was a senior and his name was Joe, which is his real name. Joe was very tall, very muscular, very nice, extremely good looking, and played on the football team. But Joe had another unique characterization, he was the "unofficial floor leader"
and a really great guy!!. In a small college of about 5000 students, Joe was known for his incredible football skills (also aforementioned his tall, muscular, good looking body) I was 18 at the time, and I was about 400 miles from home, I was extremely overweight (about 360 pounds) and very home sick. Joe seemed to sense that I was having self identity problems as well as a lack of self esteem. Joe would come to my room a few times a week and we would just sit around talking mostly about my homesickness, my classes, etc... Sometimes Joe and I would walk on campus together. Of course, mostly everyone knew Joe, and he would introduce me to his friends. For the life of me, I could not figure out why Joe would want to hang out with me. Maybe he was kind of like me in high school, maybe he felt sorry for me, or maybe he was just a G-D nice guy. Call it a "man-crush" or a "bromance", or anything you like. Joe was just A Dude helping another person out. When I think of "The Dude" (or "4dude), yes I think about Joe with nothing but fond memories!