A death in the blogging community

One thing about blogging–and particularly blogging about something as personal and unpredictable as parenting–is that you do feel affinities for wide circles of people you’ve never met. One such person is John Cave Osborne, who blogs about his triplets and more out of Tennessee. Through him comes word of the death of the son of …

World’s Best Cities to Live (or, perhaps, to die of boredom)

Some unfinished business from last week, when Forbes.com annoyed the Mozartskugeln out of me with their list of 10 best places in the world to live. Now, I should know better than to get exercised over listicles. They are linkbait and pageview-generators, not meant to be serious or informative. And listicles also made up much …

Worst Father’s Day Gift Ever?

In my line of work, silly season has always kicked off right about now: It’s summertime, when Washington goes on recess and news outlets start writing about the stupidest things imaginable. My dear alma mater Time practically defined this category with its urgent and breathless reporting, in summer 2001, of the great danger posed to …