By Michael Bike path, Palatine, Illinois, Tuesday morning. Mom and four little tots on bicycles. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but I’m gonna assume for the sake of this post that the children are hers. I’ll also assume that she loves them. You can tell, because she’s at the street with all…
Category Archives: Michael
Chicken Butts are Forever
By Michael We’re sitting on the tarmac in St Louis. It was supposed to be Chicago, but one of those summer storms that sweeps across the Midwest sent us into a holding pattern and then we ran out of fuel and, well, American doesn’t fly ultralights, so we stopped at the nearest filling station. I…
What We Learned Here…
By Michael I had the opportunity to spend some time on the radio last week, doing an interview about life lessons and taking calls from listeners. We didn’t get a lot of calls in our short time on the air—some loudmouth was monopolizing the conversation to drive book sales—but it was interesting to see what…
$600 for Binoculars? YAKM!!
By Michael My Sunday magazine supplement had a great article over the weekend about the best gift ideas for “dads and grads.” Notice how dads rank so high that we don’t even get our own gift list. Even worse, note how graduating females are assumed to want the same gifts as both 18-year-old high school…
So Why Should I Thank You?
By Michael Ours was the solitary flag flying on my block yesterday, and I only counted two others as we headed out the various side streets to the main road. Yesterday was Memorial Day. I guess everyone else forgot. In my neighborhood, like 80% of the country, we tend to think of ourselves as Middle…
I Need a Fix
By Michael Every so often, I want to rent a baby. Or a toddler. Or a kindergartner. Just for a day, maybe four hours, but enough time to revisit the pure joy of an unexamined life. I suspect there’s not a real business like this, baby rentals, although I guess I could hire myself out…
The Parental Gods Have Spoken
By Michael Jill’s crib is in the basement. We took it from her folks’ house with every intention of using it when our first child was born. Then, the crib police decided the slats were too far apart, or maybe it was too close, and we had to go out and buy a new crib….
They Like Us. They Really Like Us.
By Michael I decided my book on life lessons would be the absolutely perfect gift for graduates this year, so we conducted a survey of recent graduates to find out what life lessons they wish they’d known before they reached the ripe old age of 22. People who graduated over the past few years provided…
Plotting Against the Children
By Michael Marketing a book of life lessons takes you to all kinds of websites; none of which can compare to this one, of course. Recently, I ran into a troubling conversation that merits our consideration here. The topic was forcing your children into situations where they are certain to fail. The idea, as I…
No More Opinions
By Michael When the girls were younger, I told them they could be anything they wanted to be in life. They decided they wanted to be themselves. And so, when I pointed out that Susan Brooke Rosenbaum was a great name for a Supreme Court justice, Susan would cry, because, “I don’t want to be…