Given our low opinion of Rocket and Light of Doom, we were disappointed to see them go through to torture our ears and aesthetics for another week at the cost of The Likes of You and Hatch. On the other hand, I lost some of that disappointment when Hatch was given an exiting word and…
The Annoying Side of MySpace
Loretta keeps telling me I should get a Facebook account instead of MySpace, because it’s less annoying. But until today, I hadn’t had an annoying experience with MySpace, since I use it largely to keep track of news from my favorite bands, not as a social networking forum. And I haven’t minded when a band…
Trick or Treating at the Mall
I’ve never done trick or treating at the mall, and I never intended to. But yesterday, a fluke of circumstance had Neil and Kelly among a horde of costumed kiddies popping into places like Target and Bath & Body Works for treats. The circumstances that put us in this unexpected place was the Halloween party…
Earthquake!
Last evening, just after we’d put the kids to bed, we had an earthquake that rattled the house, had us all running outside, and trembling. Peter was surprised it scared me more than the now-legendary Loma Prieta earthquake, which was technically bigger, and I was surprised when I checked the USGS Quake info site (the…
Journeyman
Both Peter and I are enjoying the new science-fiction TV show, Journeyman, in which a journalist gets unexpectedly transported back in time to change lives in one way or another. Understandably for us, one of the things we really enjoy is that the show is set in San Francisco, and it explicitly shows the locations….
Uesugi Farms Pumpkin Patch
One of the many things I didn’t realize came packaged with American parenthood is a mania for pumpkin patches. They were invisible to me before I had Neil, but by the time I had Kelly, especially as she started learning to walk, I couldn’t get to them quickly or frequently enough during the Halloween season….
Biological Warfare and the Cost of Insured Medical Care
A few weeks ago, at one of Kelly’s many preschool storytimes, a young boy sneezed without covering his mouth and covered me and Kelly with, um, germs. Kelly escaped the biological onslaught somehow, probably with the magical phrase of admonition: “That was yucky!” I wasn’t so lucky. The next day, I had a sore throat….
Singapore Maths
It was with some reluctance that I sent Neil back to the institution that is public school this year, but we were lucky enough to get the one good teacher that was willing to challenge him. Unfortunately, I underestimated the influence of the great schools bureaucracy. In short, when it became clear Neil was quickly…
Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen at Stanford
On Monday, Peter, Neil and I went to see a “conversation with Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen” at Stanford. The next night, a performance of selections from Cohen’s poetry The Book of Longing set to Philip Glass’ composition was scheduled to be performed in the same theatre. Amazing, the tickets to the talk were free….
John Simpson Leaves This World
This morning we got word that John Simpson, a ComicBase customer who had become a family friend had died. In Spring, when he knew his illness was incurable, he gave Peter a letter to publish upon his death, which Peter did. I didn’t know him as well as Peter did, but Peter’s description of him…