One of the ways college kids made money back in my youthful days in northern New Jersey was to "shape up" at one of the many local warehouses and shipping terminals. When one "made the shape," he was presenting himself for work loading or unloading trucks. The pay was halfway decent, and therefore very good for a college kid, but the work was backbreaking awful and often took place in the middle of the night.

I never shaped up -- not even once-- because I had the good fortune to land myself a job as a newspaper reporter about halfway through college. But my cousin James, of Parkway Rest Stop fame, shaped up one summer and now lives to tell the tale. A dang good one, too. As with his boot camp stories, let's hope there are at least a few installments on this one.