DGIF

OK---it's official---Trump will take the presidential oath in January and a lot of women are not happy about it.  Why? Now I for one, did not get how upset people were about this election.  I participated in the election, but on election eve I had one of my suicide prevention talks to give at Furman University and by the time I got to the hotel room, I was wiped out.  I turned on the TV and the election was still too close to call so I turned it off and passed out. Woke up the next day and Trump is our guy.  Got in the car and drove to my next talk in Charlotte.  I purposefully avoided all news stations so I could enjoy the ride. We did our suicide prevention thing in Charlotte for the construction industry, drove home and logged into Facebook and Twitter only to find out it was the end of the world.  People were freaking out about his election since early in the morning and the majority of them were women.  I did not get it. Why? Because I...

First of all, are we still using the word homies?  You see I have a confession to make, I am not hip.  In fact, I am closer to needing a new hip than being hip.  My name is Dennis Gillan and I am a 53 year old Caucasian who never heard of Kid Cudi until last week and now I want to shake that young man’s hand for bringing the topic of mental health to the forefront.  I’m not talking one of those hand out, bodies apart handshakes.  I’m doing the full brother on brother handshake that includes the half hug and I am not letting go until he does. Quick backgrounder for square old farts like me, Kid Cudi is a rapper and apparently he is pretty darn good at it.  A quick check of his Twitter feed shows that he has 1.54 MILLION followers, move the decimal over some to get to my grand total of 149 followers.  Kid Cudi was born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi on January 30, 1984 in Cleveland and he is a certified star.  If you need to know more about this ca...

This is a tough week for America as we mourn the 2,996 lives lost on 9/11/2001, a day that will also go down in infamy.  I read several accounts on social media this week of people recalling exactly where they were when they heard the news that a plane had struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.  The time was 8:46 a.m. EDT and the way we lived was forever changed.  As for me I was an hour behind living in North Aurora, IL. preparing to head out and go into downtown Chicago for a trade show.  That trip was replaced by endless hours glued to the TV set wondering how can people be so damn mean.  So now you know where I was on 9/11/2001 and now I want to know where were you on 9/16/2001?  9/11 was a Tuesday thus making 9/16 a Sunday.  So where were you?  I can’t tell you everything about that day but I do know I went to church that day and it was packed.  I was sort of a regular and you can thank my Catholic guilt for that, but I m...

Hump day message US Tennis Open Version. Ok, tennis is my new drug but this is not about me----it’s about you!  The US Open is going on right now and I am totally bummed about the lack of US men who can challenge for the title, but on the women’s side the good ole’ USA has hope.  We have the Williams sisters and a handful of young upstarts like Coco Vandeweghe, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and Madison Keys to name a few.  This story involves Madison Keys as last week she was in a tough spot.  Tennis scoring has always been goofy, so let me break it down how bad it was for Madison.  The women play the best of three sets and Madison and her opponent, Naomi Osaka, each won a set going into the third and deciding set.  So for those keeping score at home it’s 1-1 and then next match determines who moves on and who goes home.  In tennis, the first person to win 6 games usually wins the set.  There are tiebreaker rules, etc., but for simplicity ...

I need your help and here is the situation:  77% of all suicides here in the states are completed by men.  Data geeks----here is where I got this number:  Total number of suicides in America = 42,773.  Number of men completing suicide = 33,113.  Do the math and here is the source:  http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/fatal_injury_reports.html Mark Twain once said "There are three kinds of lies:  lies, damned lies, and statistics! So enough about statistics---one suicide is too many, but here is the part that keeps me up at night.  When you do something to help prevent suicide about 77% of the people who show up are women .  Wonderful, caring women who are mourning the loss of a loved one to suicide and they are going to do something about it.  Women are doers, nurturers, and flat out kick ass and take names when it comes to social causes---heck all causes---but where are the men?  Where the hell are the men? Background info: ...