Awkward Moments in Parenting

It’s happened to me a couple of times now already. And it’s been weird. And, I know, it’ll happen again, and that there’s nothing I can do about it. Yes, it’s true—I’ve called my wife, Jean, by my daughter’s name. There are, I think, reasonable psychological explanations for this embarrassing slip. Usually, it happens when …

Evolution, What Have Ye Wrought?

Long ago, in our distant, pre-Homo erectus past, when we were all just chimpanzees, or whatever chimpanzees were before they were officially chimpanzees, we didn’t have much. Dirt, seeds, nuts, leaves, and rocks. And, if you were a lucky young female chimp, you had a stick—a stick that (says Science) you carried around as if …

SpongeBob, Super Martian Robot Girl, and Other Mysterious Phenomena

In fatherhood, there are many mysteries. Inexplicable circumstances. Things that make me just throw up my hands and say: WTF?!? Like my wife’s sudden predilection for sketching SpongeBob SquarePants. It began on the flight to L.A., when Jean, stuck watching Nickelodeon on her seat-back screen, discovered the strange yellow kitchen cleanser. Not for the first …