“Uncle Bill.”

Everyone seems to have one.

Well, now I’m going to be one.

At a press conference this morning my sister announced that she was indeed pregnant. Sources close to her confirm that she has been aware of this for some time now, but the information was not disclosed to the public until today.

So that means I can now discuss with you how excited I am.

Because let’s face it, what better relative role is there than the aunt/uncle?

You get to spend time with the kid. You can spoil him or her. You can take credit for stuff he or she does, but receive zero percent of the blame for foul-ups (instead just throw your sibling under the bus (which at this point in life is standard operating procedure)). You don’t have to give out money every time you see them like you will with grandkids. And while the grandparents are still around, you are less likely to be asked to babysit.

It’s the perfect blend of benefits and responsibilities (heavy on the former, light on the latter).

… So this is where I thought I’d search for the most famous ‘Uncles’ in history and comment on the list and we’d all delight in a good time… Unfortunately, my searches yielded no such list. The best result I came across was Uncle Sam.

Speaking of which, do you know the origin of that iconic character? According to Wikipedia:

A businessman from Troy, New York, Samuel Wilson provided the army with beef in barrels during the War of 1812. The barrels were prominently labelled “U.S.” for the United States, but it was joking said that the letters stood for “Uncle Sam.” Soon, Uncle Sam was used as shorthand for the federal government.

The man himself looked nothing like the gaunt, steely-eyed patrician of popular lore. The Abe Lincoln look, along with that fantastic star-spangled outfit, was a product of political cartoonists like Thomas Nast.

Interesting, no?

I Love America.

Okay, enough of that. Any Uncle’s or Aunt’s out there? Have any advice? Anecdotes? Thoughts at all?

Leave ’em all in the comments below.

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TV Reminders:

Hung – I mentioned this before when it first premiered, but this show is getting better and better. If you have access to HBO you have to watch it (from the beginning). I’m bringing it up again now because this past Sunday’s episode was solid gold. It’s getting better and better while Entourage is slowly falling from grace…

Mad Men – Season 3 premieres on AMC this Sunday night, August 16 at 10 PM. Some of the best television you’ll find out outside of HBO’s original programming. Season 2 recently came out on disc and it has been available on iTunes for a while. Get caught up and get on board. It’s quite enjoyable.