I didn’t play with many fashion dolls as a little girl. I had the mandatory Barbie as specified in the Federal Mattel Act of 1959, but the way she dressed she really didn’t count as a fashion doll. My Barbie lived in a little blue steamer trunk along with her collection of clothes. No [...]

  “Why is my curfew nine o’clock?” my eighteen-year-old son asked. “On a weekend. In the summer.” “Because I need my sleep,” I answered. When my kids are out at night, I’m restless and sleepless until they come home. By this point in my life I had expected I’d be sleeping like a baby. Of [...]

  Happy St. Patrick’s Day I always believed in long engagements. Until I had an actual, living, breathing fiancee of my own. At that point if it had been possible, the wedding would have taken place before the proposal. I wanted to seal the deal before she discovered my failings and inadequacies. You guys know [...]

  I’ve been thrust back into the world of dating. So has my wife. Being happily married we didn’t expect to have to deal with the pressures of institutionalized romance again. What we hadn’t counted on was being involved in our children’s dates. It turns out that “dating” has gotten a lot more complicated in [...]