As I'm driving into my office this afternoon - yes, it was NOON, have I mentioned how much I love my job? Too bad it's almost over. But back to my story... So I'm in my pickup truck and the song "Good Riddance" by Greenday comes on the radio. I'm sure most of you have heard it, it's the tune that blends all of the successful musical variables (fake British accents, violins, an accidental outtake intro, and heroin) into one tantalizing arrangement that repeats the "I hope you had the time of your life" chorus as if it were a magical password that opens up the gates of both Heaven and Hell.

I've gone off on this rant before, so if you've already heard it, congratulations, you win a snowcone...

So here's what cracks me up about this song. When it first came out sometime in the mid/late '90s, the punk community was outraged! Here you have a "Punk" band playing a string-accompanied prom-dance ballad instead of the usual two and a half minute ditty about setting stuff on fire. But here's the thing: when punk first emerged as a musical genre back in the '70s, it was all about rebellion and pissing people off, primarily society as a whole. But as time's gone by, this once small tribe of punkish people has turned into an entire society in and amongst itself. So Greenday, a punk band, writes a tune that pisses off this new punk culture/society. THEY OUT PUNKED THE PUNKS!

If punk music is anything that it started out to be (and what the 'punks' of our day still say that it is), than this is the greatest punk song written in the last 15-20 years. It's something designed to irritate the culture of the time, and obviously it succeeded.

So next time you're at the local skatepark, library, or petting zoo (or wherever the punks hang out in your neighborhood) I urge you to look past their fashionably spiked hair and trendy offensive jacket buttons and see them as just as you would see yourself, an individual equally adapt at getting "punked." While you're at it, give this person a hug, chances are that they are so depressed from 1) being outpunked by Greenday, 2) years of physical abuse by the smallest kid in their 3rd grade class, and 3) the rising cost of hair dye that they need someone to hold them and say "Everything's gonna be OK."

That's all for now - keep rockin' and rollin'