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The Dude, like all men, is diminished by the minvan.

Jeff "The Dude" Black

Dude: pronounced [djuooo'd]/n. sl. 1. a fastidious aesthetic person,usu. male; a dandy. 2. a holiday-maker on a ranch in the western US. 3. a fellow; a guy. [19^th c.: prob. f. G. dial. dude fool]

This morsel from the OED doesn't even begin to plumb the depths of The Dude's psyche, and truth be told, it is not entirely accurate. 2. doesn't really apply at all -- Jeff hasn't been farther west than Chicago. Be fair, 1. isn't very close either; replace the words "fastidious aesthetic" with "nebulously gauche" and we get closer, though. Take out dandy -- there isn't a thing foppish about The Dude. The Dude is above all, a guy, but not necessarily a tubular, surf-riding kind of guy. He’s the kind of guy that likes nothing better than squeezing rope in Canadian Tire. The sort of man who is diminished by a minivan. (Warning: one should bear the Gaelic roots of the word in mind when trying to decipher The Dude's cryptic comments -- of course, in Shakespeare, the fool is often the wisest character.)

Best example of a "nebulously gauche" utterance from The Dude: insinuating the word "landslide" [pronounced: la-aaa-nd-slide] into a conversation, just loud enough that a well-endowed woman sitting nearby could hear it.

The Dude is way to laid back to be contacted by email.  Check the information line to reach him.

--"Scholarship" by the Squire

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