With apologies to Groucho ...

... I'm not sure I want to be part of a group that would have me for a member.

A few days ago, I joined Facebook. Mostly I did it because Number One Son has been on it for quite some time, and when a family member recently told me how "popular" NOS is -- apparently he has upwards of 800 "friends" on Facebook -- curiosity got the best of me, as it usually does, and I signed up.

Once there, I was hooked. In a serious, whoa, back off kind of way. I was clicking all over the place and inviting people I barely know to be my friend. But presumably, that's what people do. Several of my new friends have considerably more than 800 friends. So maybe I'm not as pathetic as it may seem.

Anyway. In the course of all that clicking around, I not only found lots of new friends, potential friends, and other people's friends, I discovered that Facebook is also littered with "groups." Which apparently you can join in the same way you can ask to be someone's friend.

Okay. I could see right away that membership in a group attaches a certain label, shall we say, to you. So if you're like me, you might be cautious to the point of paralysis about just which groups you elect to join. Being that the label part is all some people might see.

Still, one group that caught my eye -- and which I almost decided to join -- is called "Barack Obama and I both went to Punahou." Here's what it says on their Info page:

"I believe that the carefree childhood I experienced in Hawai'i, and the wonderful education I received at Punahou, should not be left to the luck of the draw, but should rather be every child's birthright. I believe that only in a country in which we can appreciate differences of race and religion and ethnicity, while still insisting on our common humanity, will my own soul feel rested." --Barack Obama

Admit it. You find yourself looking for ways to casually mention that you went to the same high school (and middle school and elementary school) as a major Presidential candidate. In Hawaii.

And it is kind of trippy that Mr. Kusunoki, the guy who taught you to "keyboard" really fast, was Obama's homeroom teacher.

And you hope he wins. Maybe it's because he's the kind of Presidential candidate only a school like Punahou in a place like Hawaii could breed. Or maybe just because you like the idea of a "Pun" in the White House.

Yup, you went to the same school as Barack Obama. You're secretly just a little proud.

I was going along with most of that right up until "you hope he wins." The thing is, I agree with a lot of the above, even the secretly just a little proud part, and it would be great to have a Pun in the White House. Just not that one.

So I'm not joining that group. Even though I did go to the same school, and our time there overlapped a bit even, and I have a close relative and several pretty good friends (the real life, non-Facebook kind) who were his classmates. But the connection stops there. I "hope he wins"? Bite your tongue. Again and again.

I did join a group though. And although this post is no indication, it's a lot more "me" than the going-to-the-same-school-with-Obama one: "I judge you when you use poor grammar."