If my wife had been as discriminating picking husbands as she is picking Christmas trees, I can only assume we wouldn’t be married. Continue reading “My wife knows how to pick a fine specimen (a Christmas tree, of course).”
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Tag: family
A good way to spend a minute
I first read ‘Your Blinded Hand’ by Tennessee Williams in The New Yorker six years ago. It’s proven to be unforgettable. It was published 18 days after the arrival of my first-born son, and I read it while still floating, amazed by my joy, which is partly why it has left such an impression, I guess. But regardless, it’s a powerful depiction of our desperate belief that, in the face of disaster and despair, we will not be alone. It both warms and haunts. I thought it should have a place on this blog. Continue reading “A good way to spend a minute”
Riding bulls and inhaling bugs: 10 Lessons from Cub Scout ranch-camping
We hit the road for our first Cub Scout camping trip, to Westgate River Ranch, an outdoor oasis in the middle of anonymous, sprawling scrubland — a wonderland of vast fields, bulls standing sternly at fences daring you to come just a little closer, a rodeo arena with its dazzling orange dirt, a saloon, all on the wide and wild Kissimmee River. Other than a lesson on the joys of being immersed in the outdoors while with a couple hundred outstanding people, here’s what we learned: Continue reading “Riding bulls and inhaling bugs: 10 Lessons from Cub Scout ranch-camping”
Shocked? That’s good.
The fires, the hurricanes, the earthquakes, the shootings. The calamities have been so repetitive that together they’ve created a numbing rhythm, one reliably following another, like the ticking of a clock.
It’s hard to be shocked these days. Continue reading “Shocked? That’s good. “
Even after the Vegas carnage, I’m glad I let my kid shoot
I let my 6-year-old shoot an air rifle for the first time on Sunday. Later that day, the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history took place.
Talk about giving a liberal dude some doubts. Continue reading “Even after the Vegas carnage, I’m glad I let my kid shoot”
Hillbilly Elegy, my sister, and the ‘Obama is a Muslim’ myth
It came out before Trump became president, but the New York Times best-seller Hillbilly Elegy has become a Bible of sorts for trying to understand the plight of poor, white people and their choice for president. I’m one of the perplexed liberals who looked to it for answers, too, even though I’m white and I grew up poor myself. Continue reading “Hillbilly Elegy, my sister, and the ‘Obama is a Muslim’ myth”
Post-Irma: Tales from the Crypt
I guess this is what writers do: They use the last 10% of computer juice to write blog posts about the mundane. Continue reading “Post-Irma: Tales from the Crypt”
