As someone who has definitely expended too much of my life on the watching of Gilligan’s Island, this is heartening news. Shirky argues that there has been a cognitive surplus in the developed world and for the past 50 years we have been soaking up that surplus with situation comedies and that now we are [...]

A personal story in the Times talks about the impact of having a severely sick or injured child on parents. There isn’t any data, only personal stories, but startled me into recognition of my own condition. I still sit upright in bed in the middle of the night recalling the five seconds when I turned [...]

The little man had taken his blanket into the living room and I brought it back to him at bed time. As I was leaving he said, “Love you, Dad.”
Without betraying his confidence, I’d just like to thank everyone who made this moment, and all of the similar moments of the past months that have [...]

One of the perks that I receive by virtue of being the President of the parent’s organization at my children’s school is that I occasionally get to attend presentations on education and parenting that I might not otherwise.
A couple of months ago, I heard a woman named Madeline Levine speak about her book about teenagers, [...]

I’ve been thinking over the past month more about experience, permanence and regrets.
The conventional wisdom is that in a person’s life, they make mistakes when they are young, which they regret, learn from and never do again.
This sounds great to me. Let’s encourage everyone to make as many mistakes as possible, then they [...]

The holidays are over. Happy New Year to everyone.
Our holidays were interesting on a number of fronts. I took a great number of pictures which I’ll try to put up on flickr soon.
My oldest daughter has recently acquired a number of tattoos. Over the holidays these were brought up a few times, always with [...]

I have lived longer in my current home than any other place, 8 years.
We moved quite a few times when I was a child. I changed schools twice in third grade then went to a different school for fifth grade. We also moved during fourth grade, but it was just up the street, so I [...]

Today’s Washington Post has an article about home funerals. This strikes me as a good idea. Senator Santorum must agree.

Kindergarten
Birthday for the summer - 8
Two other mothers & I
They brought donuts and juice
Juice was late
Sitting at the table, neat rows
Waiting for Donuts, Waiting for juice mother
Rythymic chant “Donuts! Donuts”
Donuts served.
More waiting. No donuts eaten.
Juice
No donuts eaten.
“Happy Birthday” sung. One candle blown out. One card, signed by the whole class handed over and admired.
No donuts [...]

Lots of blogsphere reaction to last Sunday’s New York Time Magazine article about Rick Santorum.
This is the quote which is getting most of the attention:
The childbirth in 1996 was a source of terrible heartbreak — the couple were told by doctors early in the pregnancy that the baby Karen was carrying had a fatal [...]