Livin’ on a Prayer

Jon Bon Jovi will be performing at an Obama for America event in Iowa this Friday, if you’re in Iowa and simultaneously spiritually in New Jersey.

My cousin was working as a hostess at this bar and grill in Toronto called “Sticky Fingers” (it’s not there any more), which boasted both menus and signage in Comic Sans. And, one night, this sixth grade graduation booked the place out and tore it up. We’re talking forty, fifty kids, stoked to be done with sixth grade, slam-dancing their little hearts out to “Livin’ on a Prayer,” and singing along with “WE’RE HALFWAY THEREEEEE.”

Which, right, is heartening, because, for those kids, they really are halfway there, if “there” means the end of compulsory education. As opposed to when people sing it at weddings and reunions and Zumba classes, where it may have a less fist-pumpy connotation.

Death.