The Dog has developed a habit of kidnapping The Girl’s stuffed animals. We find them scattered around the house, sometimes with their eyes missing. The motive is unclear, and the dog isn’t talking.
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In a meeting this week, a frustrated professor described politics as “trying to get one group of rich guys to convince another group of rich guys to do the right thing.” I thought he nailed it.
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This year’s Daddy-Daughter dance was lovely, though notably different than the last few. In previous years, The Girl danced only with me, and happily so. This year, she alternated between dancing with me and dancing with her friends.
And so it begins...
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Life’s little ironies. My publisher has given me a fish-or-cut-bait deadline on the book. I’m making better progress than I thought, but it requires some extended periods in which I shut myself in the dining room for some quality time at the keyboard. So I have to tell the kids to leave me alone so I can write wry and insightful prose about work-life balance.
That just seems wrong, somehow.
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Gremlins attacked the campus email system recently, so the system has been down. Having been without it for a while, I’m not entirely sure I want it back. Without email, I’ve been weirdly uninterrupted and able to complete a few thoughts. Even better, I’ve been able to have longer-than-usual, unpressured conversations. Yes, arranging meetings by phone is cumbersome, but if it cuts down on the number of meetings, this may not be altogether bad.
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From out of the blue, The Girl asked me what causes wars. I said that wars happened when countries couldn’t use their words. She said that was silly. I couldn’t argue.
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I’m looking forward to the League for Innovation conference in Philly in March. If you want to find me, I’ll be the middle-aged white guy.
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The Boy blasted through the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books some time ago, and recently finished the Hunger Games series. He’s looking for something new, but I don’t have any ideas. Any suggestions for action-packed fiction for an unusually literate ten year old boy?