Book excerpt: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and as kids we thought we were invulnerable, unbeatable, immortal. We did so many crazy and dangerous things that could have—should have—killed us, all in the name of entertainment. Somehow, we survived. Surviving Stupid strings together a series of short stories and anecdotes about all the stupid stuff we got up to back in the days when we were thrown out of the house and told not to come back before dinner! We were all kinds of stupid as kids—it’s just the way of nature. By making mistakes, we learn, and the more painful the mistake, the more the lesson sticks. A memoir of his childhood messing around in rural Manitoba in the ’70s and ’80s, author Mark Parsons will regale you with sticky situations that will inevitably remind you of all the shenanigans you got up to when you were young. Laugh-out-loud funny and full of wisdom thanks to 20/20 hindsight, Surviving Stupid will bring a smile to your face and guffaw to your lips as you shake your head at the folly of youth.