John Hughes wrote and produced some of the most classic 1980’s “Slice of Life” movies, telling the stories of teenage dreams and angst in generic suburbia. He’s also the writer behind National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, basing the screenplay around his short story Christmas ’59.

It’s probably deserving of its own longer essay, but we’ll save that for another time. For now, I love the irony that the older I get, the more I am turning into Margo and Todd than Clark Griswold.