Story, But Not That Kind of Story The other day I rented Yankee Doodle Dandy to show my older son, who knows some of the songs from school. I’d forgotten how much the movie was a New Deal, WWII film, using George M. Cohan’s Irishness, and his WWI patriotism to speak to Americans dealing with [...]

What I Learned Buying a DVD Player In the swirl of last second tasks before we set off on vacation, one of my chores was to buy a portable DVD player and a few disks — to keep the boys happy during some long otherwise difficult stretch. The trip to the store fit perfectly with [...]

Time Thanks to all of you for posting about nonfiction, books, teenagers. My boys are a long way from teenage — as I am — so while I did not experience the current homework load, I do see it when visiting with friends who have teenaged kids, and I have just the early hint of [...]