Monthly Archives: September 2002

Of all nature’s gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children? – Marcus Tullius Cicero My three sons teamed up with my wife to give me an anti-gravity chair for my birthday last week. … Continue reading →

The new issue of Time magazine has an article titled An Rx For Teen Sex: Doctors are joining the abstinence movement. Here’s why they’re now telling kids, “Just say no” . It’s focused mainly on Worth the Wait, a sex-education … Continue reading →

I stumbled on the pro-marriage website and weblog The Marriage Movement, from the Institute for American Values. It’s academic/research oriented. Colleague Bill Doherty pointed me to a site by psychiatrist and married man Scott Haltzman called The Secrets of Married … Continue reading →

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions — the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge Minute fractions? I’m still too often in ‘significant accomplishments’ mode, … Continue reading →

If you need inspiration to find a new job or career, read this piece by Washington Post columnist Richard Morin: Boring jobs can kill you. And then gitcherself over to Dick Bolles’ web site and get to work.

Some observations after reading this story on Randy Moss’ public apology this week. His apology wasn’t really an apology for his behavior… just that his getting into trouble brought embarrassment to the team and disappointed the fans. He shows no … Continue reading →

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Which is why I need to keep writing and walking alone, even though I now have a two-hour morning drive 4 days a … Continue reading →

We had our first frost this morning… a little earlier than usual, which, given the healthy crop of mosquitoes still pestering us, is most welcome. My daughter’s carpool has fallen apart so I’m driving her to school 4 days/week — … Continue reading →

I’ve never been one to immerse myself in my kids’ homework, like the dad in this NY Times piece, Am I Dad, or a Tutor? Yeah, like some of these people who wrote Letters to the Editor in response to … Continue reading →

I guess he’s better than most of the daytime talk shows that I never watch but after reading Blunt Advice and No Pity Get Ratings for Dr. Phil in the NY Times this week, but I just don’t resonate with … Continue reading →

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose – a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Maybe this is why I’m feeling a bit scattered these days — … Continue reading →

I had lunch with my mother on Thursday. Just the two of us. Not a big deal for most guys my age but a huge event for us, since I don’t remember ever doing it before. Literally. Maybe once in … Continue reading →

Ellen Goodman takes a well-deserved whack at former GE Chairman Jack Welch in her recent Battle of sexes and excesses column, as does (somewhat) The Economist this week in a piece titled A helluva problem. I wrote about Welch back … Continue reading →

One of the most wonderful things about latter life lovemaking is that foreplay can last up to a month. – Tom Paugh See an except (and more funny quotes) from Paugh’s book Loving Life after Sixty.

I don’t get HBO so I’ve never seen The Sopranos. But this Newhouse News article intrigued me. Maye I’ll have to get the DVD and catch up with the culture. The most gripping sequences in HBO’s smash gangland series… take … Continue reading →

The Sept 11 edition of Utne Web Watch Daily points to an essay titled, Crossing Division Street by Jim Schutze from The Dallas Observer. It’s included in a new anthology just published titled, “When Race Becomes Real: Black and White … Continue reading →

In a perfect union the man and woman are like a strung bow. Who is to say whether the string bends the bow, or the bow tightens the string? – Cyril Connolly This metaphor would seem to work for any … Continue reading →

Last week’s post on relational disorders brought this response from family therapist and U of MN professor Bill Doherty: Griff, The other side of the relational disorders issue is that it’s a Trojan Horse into the medical model, undermining the … Continue reading →

A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer. – Joseph Addison And I pray that our collective post-9/11 temper keeps us moving towards finding silver linings.

Amitai Etzioni, founder and director of the Communitarian Network has a new study that I saw blogged on the Putting Family First web site. It’s titled American Society in the Age of Terrorism and since, like Andrei Codrescu, I’ve been … Continue reading →

On NPR’s All Things Considered today, this piece aired and resonated with me. Commentator Andrei Codrescu addresses “9/11″ in a poem in the style of the late Allen Ginsberg, reciting the ways the commercial and media digestion of the date … Continue reading →

There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight. – Vaclav Havel I wonder if … Continue reading →

I’m working on it, but it’s taking waay longer than I expected, as I’m trying to incorporate scene-writing into it, as per my homework. Hope to have it by Friday.

This week’s Time Essay I’m O.K. You’re O.K. We’re Not O.K. mocks the American Psychiatric Association for proposing that a category called “Relational Disorders” be added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the profession’s official guide for defining emotional … Continue reading →