Brian Sweany's influences include but are not limited to John Barth and John Hughes, Chuck Palahniuk and Chuck Woolery, E.L. Doctorow and Cory Doctorow, Kurt Vonnegut and Kurt Cobain, Cormac McCarthy and Jenny McCarthy, William Faulkner and William Shatner, Philip Roth and David Lee Roth, Orson Welles and Tori Welles, Mark Twain and Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch, Edith Wharton and Edith Bunker, Donnie & Marie Osmond, David & Amy Sedaris, Jenna & Barbara Bush, Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen, On the Road and Road House, A Charlie Brown Christmas and Charlie's Angels, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Scott Baio, applewood-smoked bacon and Kevin Bacon. Brian has a BS in English and History from Eastern Michigan University, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1995. A former semi-professional student, his collegiate tour included stop-overs at Wabash College (the all-male school that reputedly fired Ezra Pound from its faculty for having sex with a prostitute), Marian University (the former all-female school founded by Franciscan nuns that if you don't count Brian's expulsion has fired no one of consequence and is relatively prostitute-free), and Indiana University (via a high school honors course he has no recollection of ever attending).