House of Cosbys has and will always entertain me — but it also taught me a valuable lesson: The more you repeat something, the, um, less special it is. It is with this warning that I present to you “Tyler Chatwood in the Woods, Surrounded by Chats”.

“I went to the woods because I wished to chat deliberately…” –Henry David Thoreau

For better or for worse, this has been a NotGraphs post tagged as Men Surrounded by Things.

If the Population Reference Bureau is right, 108 billion people have lived lives on earth, and of those, about 296 million were born on April 24th. I reached that figure by dividing 108 billion by 365.25 and then rounding up. Math! Point is: Birthdays aren’t so special if scarcity is the only criterion for specialness.

However, of those 296 million people, only one of them is named Francis Arthur “Pug” Griffin. He was born in 1896 on April 24th. Pug Griffin is a special name, if only because no name better combines mythical majesty with unhelpful genetic skull mutations. Personally, those are my top two criteria for specialness.

To honor Pug Griffin NotGraphs will do as NotGraphs does, and  surround him with Pug Griffins. Or Pug Gryphons. Whatever.

This has been Pug Griffin Surrounded by Pug Griffins. Happy Birthday, Pug Griffin.

It came to my attention, while doing some very important, not-at-all bullshit research, that there was once a baseball player named Tim Spooneybarger. As he was not a baseball player that long ago, I would like to think that I once knew this already, and his existence has been simply washed from my conscience by the cleansing waters of bourbon.

Nevertheless, the fact that Tim Spooneybarger once was and still is a man, and the fact that that once and future man has the name Tim Spooneybarger, makes him a prime candidate for our Men Surrounded by Things series.

This has been Men Surrounded by Things. Now go take a cold shower.

In this, the latest episode of Men Surrounded By Things, we present nine-year major-league first baseman and outfielder Pete LaCock surrounded by (as you have surely imagined and feared) …

Le Coq Sportif athletic footwear! Look at Pete LaCock, happy to be surrounded by Le Coq Sportif athletic footwear.

This has been Pete LaCock surrounded By Le Coq Sportif athletic footwear. This has been Men Surrounded By Things.

I have deemed it too long since the last installment of NotGraphs’ Men Surrounded By Things series, so I present the Cubs’ first base prospect Rock Shoulders surrounded by wrestler/actor The Rock’s shoulder. Both subjects are delightful mixes of muscularity and artfulness.

This has been Men Surrounded By Things.

I bid good weekends to you all.

We present an inglorious return to the non-cherished genre of “Men Surrounded By Things.” In today’s episode former Expos third baseman Coco Laboy is surrounded by, as you might expect, cocoa and boys …

This has been Coco Laboy surrounded by cocoa, boys.

The category “Men Surrounded by Things” — known colloquially and widely as “The People’s Category” — returns today with the nearly great Urban Shocker surrounded by things both urban and of a shocking nature …

This has been “Urban Shocker Surrounded by Urban Shockers.” This has been “Men Surrounded by Things.” This has been my toil.

Often, the sub-genre “Men Surrounded by Things” involves images of men surrounded by things. On this fine day, though, “Men Surrounded by Things” brings us a man surrounded by another man and his puissant essence. Bear whetted witness:

Now go and ponder love and those who make it.

The spats-wearing reader will recall the writer’s affections for a certain base-and-ball-ist and member of the landed gentry by the name of Malcolm Clapsaddle. His name, you will agree, is wondrous, a cornucopia within which are numberless sets of Russian nesting dolls, and within each of those: multitudes.

And so, still, yet, alas, thus, and alack this is Malcolm Clapsaddle surrounded by the things that one would suspect: Malcolm McDowell, a devastating gonorrhea culture and a saddle. It is thus because thus it is:

This has been Malcolm Clapsaddle surrounded by Malcolm McDowell, the clap and a saddle.