My oldest friend — at least, the oldest one that I can actaully talk to in public without commitment papers being drawn up on me — is a guy named Wade. Some of you might know him from his nine year stint at the Birmingham Post-Herald; others might read one of his two blogs every now and then; a few of the sharper-eyed among you might remember him from the post office wall wanted list pictures or his brief but climactic cameo appearance in Ass Pirates of the Carribean. Still others of you might recognize the name from Wade’s 101, a column that used to run in the Black & White when it was still a readable paper.**

Wade is a great writer, and while both his journalistic writing as well as his fictional pieces are excellent, his 101 columns are the true mark of his writing gift. Top ten lists are fun (if a bit hackneyed), but imagine taking a barely-slightly broader approach and coming up with 91 more ideas, and making them all funny… It may sound easy, but how many of you run out of interesting facts about yourself at 50, much less about a timely topic?

Stop lying. I read your blogs. Some of you were lucky to hit 30 before I moved on.

When he started his blogs last year, he brought back the 101 idea, and this time around he hits Superman. While he’s not the comic nerd I am, he’s well versed (like no one I know, frankly) in pop culture — and you’ll be amazed at some of the things he remembered to poke fun at. So go, now, and read Wade’s 101: Superman 2006. You will believe a man can try.

* Wade might be sexy, too, but I can’t honestly say. It’s not that I know him too well, or that I’m not into men. I just don’t have that fascination with Asians that most of my guy friends have.

** This has nothing to do with my freelance association with Birmingham Weekly. Rather, it has everything to do with the fact that they occasionally run Ann Coulter’s syndicated columns. Even my cats refuse to shit on that paper now.