But I had New York Irish parents who worked their asses off to make me dinner every night, give me lots of other stuff (including a big yard with a fort and two imbecile dogs), and then pay for most of my college education.  Not too shabby for a couple of kids from Queens.  I had it a hell of a lot better than a lot of kids I see on the news today.

The only “struggle” we endured was when one particularly dark soul gave my mom “The Casserole Cookbook” one Christmas, and our fare, for a while, took a turn to the Lovecraftian.  But that didn’t last.