Slow Times at Ridgemont High

April 11, 2010

Andy recently picked up a marked-down copy of Fast Times at Ridgemont High as a bit of a joke and so we all cozied in together for family film night last Saturday—a rare window with no sleepovers or plans and both kids willing to do the same thing as both parents (for example, they all […]

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It really is cool (and successful) to be kind

April 10, 2010

A NY Times piece on Ellen DeGeneres, “Ellen, ‘Idol’ and the Power of Niceness,” offers some significant hope in a time of bullies, backsliding and bullshit. The central point is that in a world as catty and hokey as “American Idol,” even if Ellen’s shtick is as calculated as everyone else’s, she chooses to go […]

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Hurt People Hurt People

April 9, 2010

Andy and Will went on a road trip up the coast with some friends recently, leaving Nate, Agnes and I to fend for ourselves for a few days at home.  Nate is not really a huge movie fan so, in contrast to our watching the men’s and the women’s college basketball finals together, he was […]

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Love that makes us crawl

April 8, 2010

A reader inquires, “When is enough ever enough?  My eight-year-old is driving me nuts with this stuff!  No matter how great the holiday/vacation/ meal/present (fill in the blank) there is ALWAYS something lacking in his eyes.  It was either not what he expected, not what he really wanted, or isn’t as much as someone else’s. […]

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Is parenting an unpaid internship?

April 7, 2010

A NY Times article on the potentially illegal growth of unpaid internships caught my parenting eye. The criteria for an acceptable unpaid internship include, “that the internship should be similar to the training given in a vocational school or academic institution, that the intern does not displace regular paid workers and that the employer “derives […]

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After all it was you and me

April 6, 2010

I found the case of a young girl’s suicide in the wake of being relentlessly bullied, to be just heartbreaking (see New York Times: 9 Teenagers Are Charged After Classmate’s Suicide). While there are many different questions raised by this tragedy, my aim in blogging about it here is to challenge us to consider our […]

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Moving to where we already live

April 5, 2010

A recent post by Lindsey at A Design So Vast captured my imagination as it introduced us to her sister’s friend (and now Lindsey’s friend) Luana, who is spending a year with her husband and children living in France. I suppose I’m something of a Francophile, as I’ve certainly fantasized my own year in Provence, […]

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Egg Men

April 4, 2010

Happy Easter.  I thought I would honor this day by way of the Beatles.  If you’re like me you probably have little idea about what the full lyrics of “I Am The Walrus” even say, much less mean (having listened as a kid on the radio and coming away with little more than “I am […]

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Problems with no name

April 3, 2010

I must admit that I balked at reading Jonathan Rauch’s article in The Atlantic, “Letting Go of My Father” because I knew it would cut close to the bone… and it did. It’s well worth reading, but his central point is that caring for his aging father pushed Rauch to the breaking point… of actually […]

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Leaving Las Vegas on Passover

April 2, 2010

As readers may recall, when offered a weekend father-son bonding trip anywhere within a few hour plane ride my younger son chose Vancouver.  My older kid, nearly sixteen, was inclined to pass on the opportunity altogether—no way to Santa Fe, hell no to San Francisco… Portland, Seattle or Phoenix?  He sooner have snot in Kleenex. […]

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