We’ve been taking care of some friends’ chickens and dogs and cats while they’re on vacation. The chicken coop is attached to a fenced yard, and in the evening I have to close the door and brace a piece of wood against it, because it doesn’t latch from the inside. Then I have to climb …
Here’s a dad who knows how to enjoy the state fair.
You’ve probably never heard of Blackstreet Capital Partners, a private-equity fund in Maryland that buys underperforming companies and attempts to make them profitable. And you’ve almost certainly never heard of a company they own, SFCA Inc. But perhaps you’ve heard about infants dying after being strangled in bassinets made by a company once known as …
It’s time for another edition of News by Osmosis, wherein I, a dedicated avoider of newspapers, share with you my understanding of the news gleaned from random bits of information that assail me despite my best efforts to ignore them. The big news this week is that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are in love. …
It’s accepted American wisdom now that smart people are not to be trusted. Thus our presidential candidates sprinkle the occasional “ain’t” when speaking to the little people, and strive to project the image of someone who did not spend his formative years in prep school. And everyone knows it’s a sure-fire formula in action film-making …
Sunday morning I woke in the early light to see Isaac sitting in our bedroom. He was clutching his lamb and waiting for someone to wake up. I beckoned him to bed, and he curled up next to me. I wrapped my arms around him and snuggled him in tight. His bare little arms and legs were …
I don’t care if Hemingway, Chandler, and Vonnegut hated it; I heart the semicolon.
So I’m a Marxist. You probably are too. If you don’t believe me, check out my latest essay in The Wall Street Journal. I hope this doesn’t mean I have to don a Che t-shirt and start anointing myself with patchouli oil. I don’t even know where one buys patchouli. And Che was a twit.
I’m painting in my new writer’s haven (read: small corner office in our barn). Isaac is standing right beside me, which is apparently his favorite place. “Careful Dad, that’s a wasp.” “It’s a spider, Isaac.” “No it isn’t. It’s a little wasp.” “It’s a spider.” “Nope.” “Son, I’ve been alive for 40 years now, and …
Dear SanDisk Corporation, I have admired your thumb drives from the beginning. They fit in my pocket. No more inadvertantly inserting a data CD in my truck and wondering if I’d accidentally purchased some kind of post-Modern German techno-punk-death metal fusion music. You were providing the public with a much-needed product. But you couldn’t stop there, …
I’ve just finished Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire, a novel about the Battle of Thermopylae that is far more faithful to history than the stunning film, 300. The story is told from the vantage point of a single survivor, who has been kept alive by the Persian King Xerxes to understand his Greek foes, in …
Last night the boys and I played a rollicking game of Sorry. It went something like this: “ONE!TWO!THREE!FOUR!ELEVEN!NINE!…” “Isaac, slow down. Count one for each square.” “Okay Dad. ONE(whack)TWO(whack)THREE(whack)…” “He’s shaking my pieces off the board!” “Gently, Isaac.” “Okay.” (whispering) “one(tap)two(tap)three(tap)…” “Your turn, Eli. “Eli… ” “Eli?” “Elijah!” “Oh.” The boy draws a Sorry card. …
After catching some of his interview with Rick Warren, here’s my impression of breakfast in Barack Obama’s house: “Barack honey, would you like some scrambled eggs?” “You know, my grandfather worked very hard to instill in me a strong work ethic and American values. Watching the Veteran’s Day parade with him always filled me with …
I confess that I’m not a French movie buff. I’ve never seen La Veuve de Saint-Pierre or Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge. I never bothered with The English Patient, for that matter, or Chocolat. For all I know, Juliette Binoche was brilliant in each of these films. Asking her to play opposite Steve Carell and …
The language-lovers (and mourners) among you may enjoy this article on the various linguistic abuses afflicted by corporate types. The author really leverages her knowledge to dialogue about the paradigm shift in communication practices, impacting anyone who wants to optimize value creation through words.
Caleb is adamant about the Christian rock. Someone gave him the digits for the big Christian rock station, and so now he dials them in on his radio. Ordinarily I wouldn’t allow any radio other than baseball games, but since it’s rock about Jesus, I feel wicked telling him no. It’s not the Jesus part …
I remember back when Wife and I were younger, how terrible we thought it was when we saw older couples sitting wordlessly in a restaurant. “I can’t believe he’s reading a newspaper,” I would say. “We’ll never be like that when we’re older,” Wife would affirm. We said these things because we were stupid. I …
