Dog ate it.

Yep, that one’s in there. But with Brookville providing much of the setting, so is “ lion was blocking the road.”

“Excuses Excuses Excuses” is Mark McLane’s most recent literary effort and another In-Between book released by In-Between Books Publishing. So named because they can be knocked out “in between”lunch and dinner or “in between”takeoff and touchdown on a short air destination.

Compiled within the 61 pages of his latest are an array of excuses McLane recalls from over 50 years as an English teacher at Franklin County schools and later as adjunct English professor at Ivy Tech Community College.

“Some are honest, some made up, some excusable, others not,”writes the revered educator on his back-cover blurb. “Some honest and excusable. Some made up but still excusable. Some are simply too far-fetched to even attempt to contest it. Others simply too blunt to excuse them.

“But who am I to judge? The bottom line, we all need excuses,”he adds, before exhorting readers to find an excuse of their choosing within the book’s pages.

Just don’t take the lion one; that’s already been claimed.

It may sound like an urban myth, but to the contrary Lion Man and his main man Leo were very real off a few miles to the southwest of town. As the story’s told, Leo got out and an Uncle Ronnie driving the bus urged the terrified student to hop on while he deftly pinned the big cat against a fence until his owner arrived.

Other beasts beside dogs curbing academic progress were wandering cows, Billy goats and even an African gray parrot.

When McLane delves into his community college days –by this time the excuses largely come in email format –he lists many falling on the more serious side of life; he ranks “death in the family”as the second most common excuse only to illness or trips to the hospital.

“Cleo’s (student names were changed) aunt dies three times in the first semester,”he writes. “but …it’s possible. Maybe Cleo really did have three aunts die.”

Then in a graver tone on the same subject, “…It does evoke sympathy. You don’t roll your eyeballs when you hear it. You’re concerned that he or she will break out in tears at any moment and you don’t want to be the reason for it.”

McLane can also commiserate with the death of a pet, revealing he shed a tear or three when his longtime Golden Retriever companion Maggie passed to dog heaven.

The author poignantly adds comments on the semantics within the excuses, noting it’s hard for him to excuse a misspelling of his last name, it being “right there on the syllabus and all handouts.”

Nor does he feel entirely comfortable being addressed as Mark: “It isn’t a dealbreaker, but I do like to maintain a professional distance. Maybe I shouldn’t be such a stooge.”

McLane gives special thanks to his editor Simone Arias and credits the “Legend”Bjoern Kommerell of  LA for the cover photo. The book is dedicated to Jens Trumpa, who folks may remember as a Scandinavian exchange student at BHS in the late ‘80s.

“Excuses Excuses Excuses” is available at amazon.com or by visiting inbetweenbooks.com.