The last couple weeks have brought a new development to the family. Son (son!), he's a climber, yeah? We're on the point of exhaustion from constantly picking him up off the table, prying him free of bookshelves, and rescuing him from sharp, shiny things on window sills. Like potted cactuses, or priceless antiques.

But he's also using language in a new way. He has probably about four words, really. "Mama" he uses now with more focus -- it's more a title for a person than a simple unstructured declaration of want. Not so much "mamamamamamama -- give me that milk there, you!" as "Mama... more

From Mo's blog comes word of Hines Ward, a wide receiver who's doing something about something.

The injured wide receiver, who had knee surgery Monday, is playing host to eight biracial children visiting from South Korea.

"Christmas came early for me this weekend," a smiling Mr. Ward said as he greeted the children, ages 9 to 16, and the local families with whom they are staying during their time in southwestern Pennsylvania.

...

The inaugural trips are sponsored by the Hines... more

I just stumbled across the Addicted to Race podcast. I'm not exactly sure what to make of it yet. It's chronicling America's obsession with race, by people who are... obsessed with America's obsession with race?

They are race experts, which seems like a strange profession, but there you go. The podcast site features lots of links to other internet projects by their parent company, "New Demographics," who put out things like Racialicious (looking at race in pop culture) and ... more

Big table, much food, map of early American territories.
The white cylinder to the left is not a mortar; it's a Dobsonian telescope.

American children, playing outside in America.



We've been digesting for days.

Today's multicultural England: not more enlightened than America.

I'm just waiting for this kind of thing to happen to me & my kids. I regard it as a kind of inevitability.

Police have apologised to a white dad who was quizzed by officers after taking his two mixed-race daughters out for a pizza.

Paul Wrightson was questioned by the officers because they thought a white man with two Asian girls was suspicious.

I took the girls to Pizza Hut for a treat and I had just finished my pizza when I noticed... more

This is what nights are like at grant's house:

She loves the slumber party scene in 13 Going On 30. Lord help us if she ever discovers Freaky Friday.

She has her own slumber party with the people on the television.

"We are young," she is screaming. "Heartache to heartache!

"Firteen going on firty!"

She is operating the remote control better than her nai-nai and ye-ye.

... more

Ok, there are only three so far. Thanks to a new camera, which I'm not asking My Penurious Spouse how we can afford.

But here:

A somber, princely pumpkin: It's the stateliness that gets me.

The pumpkin can see you now. Yes, he IS great. Indeed.

A scary pirate (boots and short cutlass just out of frame) (and luckily, we had a spare eyepatch we'd gotten at a wedding in Minnesota, because she lost the first one): ... more

Anybody else been following that Heroes show on NBC? I've been watching the episodes online and I'm mulling over the whole, "I just got off the phone with your biological parents" thing.

Because, of course, orphans are always superheroes. We've established that. With mighty powers. And specialness.

Hmmmm.

Of course, it's Halloween, and we have a scary pirate in the house, and a sweaty pumpkin, and the camera breaks.

So, no photos, unless we can bum them off other people.

To make it up to y'all in the lamest way possible, here's a blurry picture of The Boy (age 12) and the Christo pool fence (not actually by Christo). Yes, those are Tibetan prayer flags flapping prayerfully overhead.

I'm going to miss this yard.

Well, bless them for trying.

Now, I'm usually first in line for the "information wants to be free" and big on the anti-censorship thing. But I've also got The Boy (age 12) who has a problem with Runescape in much the same way that Charles Bukowski had problems with women and beer. Only with less poetry, since it involves absconding with the laptop in the wee hours of the night and lots of spyware scanning and stuff.

I've actually heard of virtual sweatshops in China, where computer gamers are paid to level up characters, build things and acquire goods in multi-player online spaces,... more