Husbands

This post isn't about fathers as much as husbands, but this article in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is interesting.

A journalist was tired of hearing this stereotype of husbands as lazy chumps only interested in sports and beer. So he interviewed scores of men about their marriages and summarized his findings in a book.

This is the latest in a trend of questioning this dumbed-down image of men. Norah Vincent's book Self Made Man chronicles the year-and-a-half she spent disguised as a man to see how they really live. Her findings are apparently complicated, but she does explode the myth that all guys are emotional Neanderthals.

Getting Old

James Lileks, a columnist for The Minneapolis Star-Tribue, is also a prolific blogger. His Daily Bleat usually rambles on about noir film, politics, local history, sci-fi, and fatherhood, often all in the same entry.

Today, he takes his daughter to Chuck E. Cheese's, where he makes the unhappy discovery.

"Definition of parenthood, that: you become convinced they’ve rigged the Chuck E.’s Duckies game, because you’re not scoring as high as you used to."

When my kid starts beating me on the Xbox, I'll just have to assume it's because the confounded machine is handicapping me because I'm older.

Testing

Hello? Hello? Tap tap tap. Is thing on? It is? Ahem.

I don't actually have anything to say at this point. It's probably best if I start out slowly and work up, you know?

I do want to thank Middleman for inviting me aboard Daddy-O as a regular. I've been trying to get him blogging for a couple of years now. I find it interesting that his impending fatherhood -- not his interest in foreign affairs, domestic politics, or living the expat life -- provided the impetus to get involved in the medium. Maybe he'll branch out eventually.