About the Author: Michael N. Marcus
Michael N. Marcus is a journalist, author, advertising copywriter and founder and president of AbleComm, Inc. ("the telecom department store").
He provides the words for about 40 websites and blogs, was an editor at Rolling Stone and has written for many other magazines and newspapers.
Born in 1946, Michael's a proud member of the first cohort of the Baby Boom, along with Dolly Parton, Candy Bergen, Donny Trump, Billy Clinton and Georgie Bush.
At the urging of a misguided guidance counselor, he went to Lehigh University to become an electrical engineer, and was quickly disappointed to learn that engineering was mostly math—and slide rules were not as much fun as soldering irons.
Michael was one of a few literate people in his engineer-filled fresh-man dormitory and made money editing term papers. While in college he co-owned a band management company. One of its groups turned down the chance to record "Yummy Yummy Yummy, I've Got Love in My Tummy," which later became a hit for Ohio Express.
Later, his college apartment had an elaborate and illegal multi-line phone system, a phone booth with a toilet in it and an invisible phone activated by two hand claps.
Michael lives in Connecticut with his wife, Marilyn, Hunter, their golden retriever and a lot of stuff—including both indoor and outdoor telephone booths, a "Lily Tomlin" switchboard, lots of books, CDs and DVDs, and many black boxes with flashing lights. Marilyn is very tolerant.
Stories I'd Tell My Children (but maybe not until they're adults) is mostly hysterically funny, sometimes poignant and profound, often bawdy and always delightful.
The book includes more than 100 stories that span 55 years: pre-school, in school, and after the author had enough school. There's lots of sex, drugs and rock & roll. Even the sex and drug stories are funny.
Some stories were written as revenge against bad teachers, evil bosses and crazy clients. There are stories about weird relatives, weird food, women the author considered marrying, and the woman he did marry. You'll even learn what his wife had to do in bed to defeat the competition.
Although Michael N. Marcus is a first-year baby-boomer who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, "This book provides a hilarious look at life for people of all ages who want to roll on the floor, laughing until the tears come." Another reviewer said, "This book is so funny that I nearly peed in my pants. My girlfriend didn't think it was funny, so I got a new girlfriend."
In addition to laughter, the book provides an education. One chapter helps women understand the male fascination with farts and breasts. Another explains how Betty Friedan and Anthony Quinn made 1965 much sexier than 1964.
Other chapters explain the difference between New York and Connecticut mommies, the connection between Sigmund Freud and Groucho Marx, how baseball can be child abuse, how oral sex can be dangerous, what boys don't know about jockstraps and childbirth, the meaning of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," the disgusting secret ingredients in the world's greatest coleslaw, how a free dog can cost $100,000, and how the author conducted a test to determine if he attracted crazy women or drove women crazy.
There are four murders in the book, two failed attempts at maiming, one near-electrocution, one paranormal experience, one story about the loss of virginity with an older woman, one story about sex with a 15-year-old girl (who seemed much older), one story about contemplating sex with another 15-year-old girl, two three-in-a-bed scenes, two episodes of paranoid delusion, one offer of sex from a woman who had escaped from a mental hospital, and three frustrating encounters between a horny heterosexual male and lesbians. These stories are all funny, and guaranteed to be at least 80% true.
