Skip to main content

Fatherhood is a Gamble

My daughter is like a slot machine: old people love her, she makes 
a lot of loud noises and I keep pouring money into her.  But lately, parenting is feeling even more like a gamble because she won’t let me hand her food directly. I have to put whatever I want her to eat on the tray of her high chair, then she picks it up herself, inspects it and decides if she’ll accept it. It’s like handing a blackjack dealer money in Vegas: sometimes some of what I give her comes back to me, but mostly I just get back shit.

Comments

More Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dad...

Beware the Red Undertow following A Blue Wave

I hate the current Commander in Chief.  It’s visceral, my desire to rebel. But in America, the idea of the current Resistance actually leading a conventional revolution against him becomes problematic under this President because all those Americans most prepared to revolt, those in the armed forces and police, people with the know-how and weaponry to lead a rebellion largely support his agenda.  “We’ve got the guns but they’ve got the numbers.” Jim Morrison sang to rally up the youth, forgetting of course that they’ve got the guns! When they have a monopoly on bullets, the only option is the ballot. But after the election there’s still the guns.   Say you run a grassroots campaign with socialist candidates using many small donor contributions and face-to-face politics to get the message of big love government out to the masses and there is truly a blue wave in this country. That’s not it, it’s not game over.  The people who support this president would then p...

Been Meaning to Update this Site...

Been meaning to update this site, it’s just I woke up last September to find the dog had crapped on the rug so my wife and I set to work cleaning that up with water and vinegar and that smelled terrible then the baby woke up and needed her diaper changed and didn’t exactly smell great and she got very upset when there was a picture of Minnie Mouse on her diaper instead of Doc McStuffins so I calmed her down and got her dressed and my wife took her to daycare while I went to yoga then took a shower and tried to do the dishes but the disposal was broken so I called the repair guy Steve and made an appointment then got an email from my dad soliciting a list of grievances I have with him – he thought maybe I’d have 25 of them – so I wrote that salivating and contemplating and what I sent was whimsical and empathetic and downright kind yet he complained it was too mean even though he asked for a list of grievances and all I want is for him to take some basic accountability for being woefu...

Hop on Pop as Queer Children's Lit

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss has been delighting children for generations and my daughter is no exception. I've probably read it to her 100 times by now.  Unlike many children's books, each new reading of Hop on Pop reveals something new in the text.  Buried in the subversive narrative, I think I've found evidence which can prove Hop on Pop is an early example of Queer Children's Literature.   First, let's consider the title.  The idea of 'Hopping' on pop is subversive as it suggests leaping atop conventional symbols of power, in this instance "Pop."  The title also connotes "Daddy" imagery which is popular in gay culture.   In further examining Hop on Pop's homosexual connotations, we come to Red, Ned, Ted and Ed, four males seen here sharing a bed.  It's possible this image is just a rendering of young boys at a sleepover, perhaps there's nothing sexual or gay about it.  However, considered in the larger context of the na...

Dad Rock, Revisited

One of the few upsides of having been a real judgemental dickhead when I was younger is there’s all this great art I dismissed out of hand then that I can discover now.  Here are some bands and albums I used to hate that I was big time wrong about. Fleetwood Mac    I used to joke that I lived my life in a Fleetw ood Mac Free Zone, which was constantly moving, three foot radius that revolved around me.  Their hyper-produced, glistening blow rock was antithetical to everything I thought popular music should sound like. Though I’ve always loved, “Dreams” because of Stevie Knicks witch-like hypnotic abilities, the rest of their songs seemed like they were written to be listened to when you’re half asleep.  Somewhat ironically, I fell in love with “Rumours” on a trip to Los Angeles which was full of spiritual awakenings, largely triggered by a very, very stoned listening to “Rumours” on vinyl. This listening, and the guttural sobbing which accompanied it,...