Blog 3734 – 01.31.2026

It Is Almost A New Month, Honey!

As we prepare to turn the first page on this year’s calendar, memories of what took place on this date in years past flood in upon us. We, in this western culture, make such a big deal of December thirty-first the last day of the year, counting down the moments till January first as the new year arrives. We often give far less attention to the ending and the beginning of all the other eleven months.

In my thirties I met and worked with a man my age named Tom Spillane. He was from New Jersey and had a wonderful sense of humor and great comedic timing. He borrowed from many Saturday Night Live skits that he found particularly funny. I recall one where the cast did their version of the Uncle Tom’s Cabin story. In their version the star of the skit when anyone called him Uncle Tom would say, “That’s Thomas J. Bourgeois the Third to you, Honey!” Tom love to repeat that phrase anytime anyone said his name.”

Tom Spillane’s comic lines had a way of morphing and evolving over time. As an example he and a lady co-worker loved to give every new employee a nickname. There was a TV show popular at the time when I first started working with them called The White Shadow. Since my last name was White and the young Latino lady thought I looked a lot like the shows lead (She probably thought all white guys look alike) named me, The White Shadow. Tom took to calling me that all the time. Soon it evolved into Shadow and then finally to just, Shad. I never took offense at that particular moniker for I knew the way Tom used it that it was a term of acknowledgment and even endearment.

I said all that to show how Thomas J. Bourgeois the Third came to refer to beginning of each new month. In that loud and unmistakable Jersey accent he would announce, “It’s a new month, Honey!”

Indeed it is, Tom and all you honey(s) out there. And it is my intention, prayer, and hope that it is a honey of one for the all the Universe, myself, and everyone every where.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White