A Different Street

From a “getting to know you” survey my son filled out this week:
I admire:  my dad
I feel embarrassed when:  my mom dabs at my face with a napkin

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Chuck Currie asks some pointed questions about McCain’s continued association with former Pat Robertson and Jack Abramoff associate Ralph Reed.

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A guy on a street downtown staring at my daughter’s breasts. Ew! Dude, she’s not even a teenager yet!
Edited to add: I might mention that she was not wearing anything revealing or provocative, just an ordinary knit shirt at which no one would (should!) bat an eye.

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Back to school shopping is an experience I have dreaded more and more as my daughter ventures deeper into adolescence. Neither of us is gifted or even much interested in fashion, which can be an enormous social obstacle in middle school.
This year, I had the inspiration of inviting the charming and extremely [...]

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I’m not fun.
I can enjoy time spent with my own kids, and occasionally even other kids, but I lack that skill that some have of just evoking spontaneous or creating planned fun.
I first noticed this when my kids attended a co-op preschool where I worked as a parent helper once or twice a [...]

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One of the worst things about being a parent is watching my kid(s) struggle for the lack of skills I can’t teach them. This week my daughter has been training to be a counselor at a girls’ camp. She did fine with the younger girls until she was paired with another counselor-in-training who [...]

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I’ve long been aware that there is tension between my mother-in-law and her mother, whose 90th birthday we just celebrated. As far as I can tell, this tension dates back roughly to my mother-in-law’s birth, so neither my spouse nor I is directly involved, but indirectly? You bet.
I wasn’t particularly aware [...]

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I’ve never particularly enjoyed piñatas. The wild scramble for the goodies after it’s destroyed reminds me of every competitive trauma I ever suffered, and I think that in general they send the message that “the strong get more, while the weak ones fade.”
Nevertheless, I’m helping to plan a party next weekend, and I’ve agreed [...]

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In the normal way of things (and more often lately in the name of household economy), the Pooch bats cleanup in the food department. Bread heels, leftovers, the burnt bits: these generally fall to the Pooch. This is how I am able to report that stale Honey Nut Cheerios, eaten dry, actually [...]

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Editing his older sister’s Mii (personal avatar for the Wii game system) to include warts, wrinkles, and facial hair.

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