Make the reaper's job hell.

Hawaiian mongooses, Irish gangsters, American presidents and bull moose.  "I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me." I was rewatching The Departed for the seventeenth time last night and I found myself floored by the first line of the movie birthed from the mouth of Jack Nicholson who was playing a character loosely based on Whitey Bulger, an infamous Irish mobster... "I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me." I first became fascinated with Whitey several years back while I was riding in a cab driven by a gent in his mid-sixties who had just moved to Nashville from South Boston. He had family members and close friends that ran with Whitey and the Winter Hill Gang. He said he wasn't "involved" and that he just painted houses and tried like hell to stay away from the crime boss who would later be tried and convicted on 31 counts of racketeering, money laundering, extortion and weapons charges, along with 11 murders (that many believe to be more in the hundreds). He was telling me a story about how on one Summer day he was outside one of the finest restaurants in all of Boston when Whitey pulled up at a stoplight in a convertible with one of his mistresses in the passenger seat. He said that Whitey got out of the car, mid-traffic, grabbed a machine gun out of his trunk and drilled a man smoking a cigarette outside the venue. The cab driver told me there might have been three hundred witnesses. But, that not a single person would talk to the police. (Years later, the world would discover that Whitey was untouchable by the Boston Police because he was an FBI informant.) I don't know if my cab driver was completely and totally full of shit. But, what scared me, was years later turning on The Irishman and discovering that "painting houses" was an innuendo for being a professional hitman. The human race has forever had this strange obsession with criminals, particularly the American mobster. I wish I could pretend that I'm immune to this obsession; that I'm above it. But, I'm not. Goodfellas will forever rank as my favorite film, ever. I've wondered, from time to time, about my own fascination with the mobster and what it potentially says about myself. I finally got my answer last night when I heard the line I shared at the beginning of this piece uttered by Jack Nicholson... Our fascination –– or at least my own fascination –– with the American Mobster isn't the murder and the drugs and the money and the crime but instead their relentless refusal to conform to a specific set of rules and standards and norms. So many of us go about our lives never pushing back on the boundaries the people (no smarter than us) created in our environments and when we turn on the screen to see folks, very evil folks, willing to risk it all to live untethered, to create a world of their own making rather than being apart of someone else's... there is a part of us that longs to do this too in our own lives and worlds. I'll be sticking to writing and advertising. Blood makes me squeamish. But, I will forever remember Nicholson's words... "I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me." But, I digress Cheers, Cole. P.S. Keep scrolling for more badasses. [Or, follow me on Instagram.]( Now for a short commercial break. This newsletter is free because generous folks like you say "thank you" by coughing up their hard-earned money on a few lovely little trinkets I sell. If you'd like to say "thank you", here's what's currently in stock... * [Snow Cones]( (my copywriting course)... $97. * [Freelancing to $100k]( (my freelance course)... $97. * [One Minute, Please?]( (my book of poetry)... $20. * [Quarantine Dreams]( (my "ebook" of poetry)... FREE. * [Chasing Hemingway]( (my exclusive newsletter)... $10. * [Buy me a Moscow Mule]( (a "tip" basically)... $15. Now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast... [I always appreciate a shoutout on Twitter, too.]( Rumor has it that Al Capone shot a man for brewing rotten beer. In the heat of prohibition, Al Capone shot one of his beer distributors who kept brewing rotten beer. His gang’s lieutenants thought he was going mad because selling alcohol was illegal and there was no competition (and because if competition did pop up, they’d just shoot the competition). However, Al Capone had big dreams and when Prohibition was one day lifted, he had ambitions to be the “legal” king of the beer industry –– something that could only happen by selling quality beer that went down easy. Murdering, sex-trafficking, stealing and drug-hauling aside, Al Capone knew something that a lot of entrepreneurs never figure out… [Quality matters.]( Hawaii's Mongoose problem is a reminder to be weary of trading out your problems for bigger problems. Mongooses (Mongeese?) might be the biggest badasses in the animal kingdom save for the Honey Badger. They're also taking over Hawaii and here's why... Back in 1883, Sugar Cane farmers on the Hawaiin Islands noticed they had a serious rat problem. So, one of the farmers got creative and hauled an assload of Mongooses to the Hawaiin islands, letting the little weasely fuckers hunt and kill the rats. The Mongooses have not only avoided the rats altogether, but they’ve begun gobbling up many of Hawaii’s bird eggs by the dozens (including 8 federally listed endangered Hawaiin birds). So, now, Hawaii has a rat problem AND a mongoose problem. In closing, remember that some solutions are just bigger problems... [Mongooses or Mongeese?]( "It takes more than that to kill a bull moose." Nearly a century ago, before taking the stage to give a presidential speech in Milwaukee, Teddy Roosevelt was shot at close range in the heart. Fortunately, his glasses case and his bundled up speech manuscript nestled in his coat pocket, slowed the bullet enough that it didn’t kill him. While the failed assassin was quickly detained and taken into custody, Teddy turned down any immediate medical attention and decided to go ahead with his speech (with a bullet hole in his chest, mind you). His closing line... "It takes more than that to kill a bull moose." [Make the reaper's job hell.]( [Share.]( [Share.]( [Tweet.]( [Tweet.]( [Forward.]( [Forward.]( Copyright © 2021 Honey Copy, All rights reserved. A while back you opted into a weekly email called "Sticky Notes". Remember? If not, you can always unsubscribe below... and risk breaking this writer's heart. Our mailing address is: Honey Copy 3116 N. Central Park Unit #1Chicago, IL 60618 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](.