Pot Luck Becomes a Man (sort of )

Yesterday was the long-awaited/feared day when we had to bring Pot Luck in to the vet for his operation.  There was a scissors icon drawn on the date on the calendar for the day Pot Luck would become a man… or not.  Sort of.  It’s the responsible thing to do, in any case.
I heard Celie [...]

Bad Parenting moment #1016

Celie was trying to sing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and couldn’t remember all the words.  I couldn’t either, so I found a couple video versions of it on Youtube.  I left for 5 minutes and came back to find C&I watching Pokemon cartoon footage of creatures hitting one another in the face to a [...]

My Father, My Attack Dog

David Berman of the Silver Jews (Pavement-associated indie rock group, basically just Berman) has announced his retirement from music and followed the announcement up with this remarkable anguished confession:

My Father, My Attack Dog

Now that the Joos are over I can tell you my gravest secret. Worse than suicide, worse than crack addiction:
My father.
You might be [...]

Fated to Pretend

New Pazz and Jop Village Voice rock critics’ poll.  I contributed to this for years and was always thrilled when the editors chose a couple of my elaborately-wrought witticisms/quips for inclusion in the commentary section.  The only one I remember is something I wrote about Pavement “giving the Badfinger to the rock and roll singer,” [...]

More Animal Slaughter in the Wizard of Oz

Just had to write again about the amazing emphasis on animal slaughter in The Wizard of Oz.  It’s practically like Tintin in the Congo (in which the jungle animal body count increases steadily throughout).
Here are a few scenes from the climactic Chapter 12, “The Search for the Wicked Witch,” as she sends out waves of [...]

Killing a Cat to Save a Mouse in the Wizard of Oz

We’ve been reading the girls The Wizard of Oz.  They are entranced by it, especially in this neat Dover reprint that includes all of the original gorgeous W.W. Denslow illustrations and plates (many of the pages of text are printed over/under illustrations, which creates a dazzling effect).
You probably know some of the disturbing/controversial facts about [...]

Swimming at the Y/ Adios Amigas

Had a fun afternoon swimming at the Y with Celie and Iris.  They have started swimming lessons which they are very excited about.  They can kind of/almost swim, at this point.
The pool had just opened when we arrived and no one else was in it but a middle-aged mom and her daughter.  Iris whispered to [...]

Love is All “Last Choice”

Love is All are a punky Swedish pop band led by Josephine Olausson, who has a somewhat Bjork-like presence and warbling singing voice.  Amazon tells me that people who buy their second album A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night also buy Los Campesinos!, so I guess I’m predictable in my affinity for Western [...]

Football with Headscarves

Love this photo from an article about public charter schools in Minneapolis:

We’ve applied to a new charter school in town for Celie and Iris next year (not that we’re sure we’d send them if they got in, yet).  I doubt it will be full of Somali or Hmong immigrants, however.

Fun with Mac Photo Booth

This is what happened when we left the girls to play with Photo Booth on my laptop while Sarah and I ate dinner.  They spent at least a half hour and must’ve taken 100 photos.  It eventually turned into “strip Photo Booth” but I promptly deleted those ones.