I think I'm turning into my dad. There's nothing particularly wrong with that. He has some fine qualities.

But it can be a little disconcerting, though, to see your life's principles turn toward the more conservative after years as a raging liberal.

A few months back, we were in my wife's vehicle, and she cranked up Metallica's cover of "Whiskey in the Jar," a metal treatment of an old Irish folk song. I got irritated by James Hetfield's pronunciation of the word "jar" — "ja-war."

I found myself yelling at the CD player, "It's ‘jar,' not ‘ja-war,' you pinhead." My God, I sounded just like my father, all those years ago, exclaiming about the Beatles and their "loud ‘yeah yeah' music."

The better question, in regard to "Whiskey in the Jar," should have been "what the hell does ‘musha ring dumma do damma da/whack for the daddy 'ol/whack for the daddy 'ol/there's whiskey in the jar' mean?" OK, I'm pretty clear on that last line, but "whack for the daddy ‘ol? Really?