Archive for January 2023

I was on the floor, doing push-ups, watching the NFL’s AFC championship game on Sunday night when Elysha asked, “How are your football games going ?” My answer: “I really don’t care.” It was true. I was hoping for a good game, which means one wherein the score remains close enough to keep it interesting,…

In the spirit of complimenting someone in the moment: Clara, Charlie, and I were eating dinner at a local restaurant on Friday night. I spent way too much money on grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese (which would’ve cost me about 12 cents had I made those meals at home), but my soup and wings…

A reminder about apologies: They can come at any time. If you did something rotten or thoughtless or irresponsible a week or a month or a year or three years ago, you can still apologize. There is no statute of limitations on saying you’re sorry. I understand that Fragile Ego Impairment and Crippling Cowardice Syndrome…

I was thinking about all the things that I had lost over the years, wondering how many of them actually meant something to me. What do I really lament having lost? Four items came to mind. Interestingly, none of them have any monetary value. Roscoe: Roscoe was a small, orange stuffed dog that I would…

The climate protesters who opt to use famous works of art to publicize their protest – mashed potatoes on Monet, soup on Van Gogh, and gluing their heads and hands to a Vermeer – are very dumb. Their cause is certainly just. Their sense of urgency is understandable and necessary. Their alarm is needed more…

My little girl turned 14 years old yesterday. Fourteen years ago, she was born into this world. Thankfully, I wrote everything down that day and posted it to Greetings Little One, a blog (and now a collection of books) written to my children during the first six years of their lives. This was the first…

Yesterday was National Compliment Day. In that spirit, here are a few suggestions when it comes to compliments: If you think of something kind to say, tell that person right then. Otherwise, you risk forgetting. Or getting hit by a bus. Or the person deserving of the compliment getting hit by a bus. Don’t delay.…

People are fond of talking about how busy they are these days. More specifically, they enjoy lamenting about how busy the modern world has become. I’m not a fan of this complaint. I suspect that the colonists of the early eighteenth century – who grew all their food, made their own clothing, heated their own…

Years ago, Elysha and I were waiting in the green room prior to a Moth GrandSLAM in Brooklyn. One of our friends was telling a story, and in the midst of it, Elysha asked him to explain a word she didn’t understand. Our friend paused in disbelief. “What?” Elysha asked. “It’s just so odd to…

My children don’t yet own phones. They are 13 (14 in three days!) and 10 years old. Too young in our estimation for unfettered access to the sometimes beautiful, oftentimes dangerous, disastrously distracting, and all-too-often soul-crushing world of the internet. But when they are home, they can send text messages to Elysha and me, as…