Drayton Michael DuPree

He has no idea I'm posting this... and he doesn't read this blog so he will likely never know. But I think he deserves a blog post dedicated to him and his vast stores of knowledge.

I got the inspiration for this post just moments ago when a fellow twitter-finatic (TheGreatBohac) tweeted this: "Its hard to tell when some one who "knows everything" actually gets something right or not." Of course I thought of my little bro Dray.

I used to tell him he was making things up, but that would only ensure me a one way ticket to lecture-ville for the next 20 minutes all to come to the conclusion that I'm an idiot, he's a genius, and I shouldn't try and correct him... EVER. Hahaha... you know the best thing about those situations is that he wasn't offended that I didn't believe him, nor was he mad at me for having the "I'm older and therefore always right" attitude that I had 90% of the time. When I didn't believe him he was only concerned with making sure I had my facts right, and that if I ever happen to need to know the dietary habits of an angel shark that I would have the correct information.

I mean how many of you actually have a brother who likes to go through and find historical or biological mistakes in National Geographic magazines? For example, at breakfast one day my dad Wade(who can be just as nerdy, although he has slightly more socially acceptable interests) started reading an article on the oldest hair ever found. Well he's reading away about this new mummy they've found that still has it's hair, and Drayton all of the sudden stops him with...

Dray: WHAT?!?!?! A mummy that is 9,000 years old?!?! That's historically impossible since the oldest artifact, let alone mummy WITH HAIR, that we've found in Egypt is only 6,000 years old!
Wade: Oh no, it says here that it was in China.
Dray: Are you kidding?!?! This has to be one of the most nonfactual articles ever! When did the Chinese mummify??? I mean I took Ancient Chinese History and they have their entombment processes but they aren't classified as 'mummies'!
Wade: Oh sorry I read it wrong, it's Chile.
Dray: Oh ok... good. I mean in Chile it would be fairly easy for them to find a mummy that old because they had a different process of mummification, and we find civilizations there that date back 12,000 years. But they need to specify that it's Chile first thing in the article, because anyone reading would know that there aren't mummies that old in Egypt which is where most people assume all mummies are from.
Me: Um... I wouldn't have known that.
Dray: Are you kidding? Well then you might have believed it was found in China too!
Me: Oh well probably if that's what they said.
Dray: Great... history is dead.
Me: Sorry, I hope I didn't kill it.

That is just one of many things to love about him... but I have to admit we (meaning my 3 other brothers and I) often take advantage of his passionate disposition. I think he didn't speak to us for at least a day because we wouldn't take the rapid death rate of coral seriously. We were just being facetious, I mean he had all of his facts and in 100 years when all life on earth is dead we'll all know that he warned us.

And no matter how much we protest he insists on playing fact/trivia games at the dinner table. And if we can't get out of it we at least get a good laugh out of the fact that he's the only one giving serious/appropriate questions and answers. And for all his efforts to further educate us, he still takes it like a champ when we ignore it.

So this post is for Drayton, when he get's his doctorate in some field that I wont be able to pronounce I promise to call him "Dr. Dray" in my most gangsta style and give him all the street cred I can. Because no matter how much we tease him he still remains one of the coolest guys I know.