Book excerpt: In a series of essays, Runyon, reflects on the frank, often outrageous opinions of his “old man,” who knows a thing or two about just about everything—and even if he doesn’t, he’ll tell you anyway. Damon Runyon's "old man" is neither a small-time Broadway crook, nor a modest Brooklyn Babbitt… He is a salty old commentator on men, women and manners, who says what he thinks with more force and frequency than tact. My Old Man is a classic collection of humorous observations about life from bankers to windbags, and its as relevant and funny today as it was when it was first published in 1939.