Kid stories

The cuteness lately has been in just leaving them alone and watching how they interact.

They run after one another and wrestle like puppies sometimes, or sometimes they'll sit together and flip through a book "reading" to one another.

Mari fell down the other day and Austin asked if she was okay and offered to kiss her to make her better. And then last week at dinner I was trying to persuade Mari to eat more and then Austin stepped in:

"Mari, do you want some dessert? Will you eat some broccoli first?" She eats some broccoli. "Will you eat some carrot?" She shakes her head. He runs around the table, stabs a piece of carrot with her fork and feeds it to her.

And then this morning, Julie reports that Austin showed off the giant Lego robot he made last night. "Look what I made, Mari!"

Mari ran over to him, hugged him and said, "Good job!"

Dumb Art History PhDs

So it turns out the juror from the Scooter Libby case who didn't understand what "avoid media about the case" means is an "art curator" with a "PhD" according to NPR reports yesterday. Dum like rox. This is why we get mocked by Click and Clack, people!

Coupling

Oy,

I'm shoving the last picture of the kids off the front page of my blog. I'll have to remedy that.

But first.

I have to admit I had ulterior motives for that post last week, the one about books about games.

This is the motive: B-list celebrity stalking.

I don't really care about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston and all those people. They don't seem like real people anyway (or rather, what I know about them is probably about as real as a silicon breast). Also they have doofy celebrity couple names like "Brangelina."

However, I'm fascinated by couples who are under the mass media radar. Like Bob Harris and Jane Espenson. Bob wrote Trebekistan and Jane writes for TV, and also a blog about writing for TV. One huge thread in Trebekistan is the love story of Bob trying to find someone like Jane. And now I know that the first day they met she was the first person to recognize his Jeopardy buzzer simulator (a ball point pen with click removed and covered in masking tape to get the weight right) for what it was and they spent the day drinking champagne and making up names for the thing. I also now know that Jane used to name things for a living and is responsible for "Zima" (Bob doesn't write that straight out in the book but how many other carbonated alcoholic beverages rhyme with "Squeema"?)

Celebrity couple name: "Bane" or "Job."

Okay, the thing is, I'm reading the book because Jane's blog recommended it. That's not quite so fascinating.

Much better is the secret thrill I get on Friday afternoons when Stefan Fatsis talks about sports and the business of sports on NPR's All Things Considered. The thrill being, he's married to Melissa Block! They never put them on together for that reason, I'm guessing. Fatsis writes in Word Freak about meeting local New York radio journalist Melissa Block and getting together. At that point Melissa was mostly just known to listeners of WNYC but then she got a kickass promotion and thereby giving me a secret thrill each week.

Celebrity couple name: "Stelissa" or "Mefan." Even better: "Blotsis." (Last option not suitable for family blogs.)

See that's better because I knew about them separately and then it turned out they got together. Also, because they work in different media. However, I have to admit, I probably paid attention to Fatsis' book because I knew him from the radio.

Similarly, and on the radio, Terry Gross is married to Francis Davis. Davis writes jazz reviews (and books, like this one on my shelf) and I started reading his work before I ever listened to NPR, I think. And I always wondered why he didn't appear on Fresh Air since Terry is such a jazz fan. And of course, now I realize one reason why she has such good taste in music and people to profile -- Davis must have some influence on her.

Celebrity couple name: "Tancis" or "Frerry" (both very awkward, unless he goes by "Frank" or "Fritz" in which case: "Tank" or another unsuitable option).

Here's a weird one: Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker [sorry, you have to click through to see how ugly this new cover is] and Moneyball, is married to Tabitha Soren (boy what a bad Wikipedia stub), of MTV news fame. I was probably reading his book and getting the news from her at the same time! I have no idea how they met, so this makes it even more odd. She's working as a photographer now, by the way.

Couple name: "Mabitha." There is no other choice.

Oh, and he wrote about the father's role in the birth of his children in Slate here and here and more. (Cliffs Notes version: shut up and get out of the way.)

Okay, now that my unhealthy obsession is revealed, look for more posts on this unhealthy topic.

Disneyfication

We're leaving for Orlando on Thursday (and by we, I mean me and the kids -- Julie's working and won't join us in Florida until next Tuesday). That means this week I've been going nuts buying anything I can think of to distract the children on the plane. I know, I could bring a portable DVD player, but considering I need to bring diapers, change of clothes and snacks, the machine won't fit in the backpack and I refuse to bring a huge bag (well, a big duffle to check in, but not a big carry on).

So here are some of the things I bought: comic books (Simpsons and Mickey Mouse), magic coloring books (those things where you use a marker that brings the color out of the paper), a Superman action figure, a little dog that laps at a baby bottle, a book of crossword puzzles for myself and three Little Golden Disney picture books and one modern one.

The reason for all this Disney hyping is that the kids haven't really been exposed to much Disney -- Pixar, yes, but not Disney proper. And they will need to know the iconography for our trip. So I quiz them to identify Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and we've been reading Peter Pan, Dumbo and Cinderella to them. Mari LOVES Cinderella. As soon as you finish reading it she says, "Again!" Austin loves Peter Pan and the pirates.

BTW, the Little Golden books have stiff covers and the artwork is really beautiful, painted with lots of beautiful details like Tinkerbell flying around the margins. The Cinderella, in contrast, is a modern Random House edition, with a paper cover and drawings that look like cels drawn in South Korea by 12 year olds. Talented 12 year olds, but they can't compare. Oh, and the Little Goldens were half the price of the crappier Random House ($2 to $4 at the New England Mobile Book Fair).

Books about games

I'm now reading Prisoner of Trebekistan by Bob Harris and quite enjoying it. He writes about his wins (and losses) on Jeopardy and mixes in personal memoir and exercises for memory retention! It's an easy read and, although I'm not crazy about the hyperbole-humor, a lot of it is funny and strangely useful (the memory stuff). And a lot is quite affecting. He writes about how he did well in school to prove himself because he was a scholarship kid among privileged prep school jerks who took their position in life for granted and then a page later he's completely ashamed when he realizes his older sister never watches Jeopardy with him and his parents because she never had the education her brother had -- he's also a jerk taking his gifts for granted. Good stuff, the game descriptions are surprisingly tense and he does some interesting things skipping through time to pull out emotional material in the middle of the telling of a trivia game. Works to slow the reader down and think about what's going on, reminding us that, after all, it's only a game.

Trebekistan is much, much better than Crossworld by Mark Romano. Clearly going for a Word Freak vibe, Romano explores the world of competitive crosswords. The reason I finished the book is that the characters and subject matter is so compelling. The book has a lot of good details about tournaments and people, but the film Wordplay is a lot better. The introduction of John Delfin, a piano accompanist and crossword champion and constructor gives so much insight into his mind, his life and his personality in under three minutes. He seemed like a fascinating guy in Crossworld, but Romano never gets this deep. The other thing about this book is that Romano's voice really bugged me. He's constantly complaining about how smart he is (yes, that's what I wrote) with the point being that a) there are smarter people out there and b) book smarts isn't what always wins crossword puzzles. He also has a need to be one of the cool kids smoking in the back of the room. Not Stefan Fatsis.

Fatsis' Word Freak is about Scrabble, specifically competitive Scrabble. And Fatsis dives into being a geek. He's NOT as smart as these other people and they're weird but he wants to be like them (unlike Romano who is always trying to keep a cool distance, except when he's kissing Will Shortz' butt). I saw Fatsis at Wordsworth Bookstore (RIP) when the book came out and he was very engaging and a good reader. The book has lots of great characters and makes you want to play Scrabble. Also, now when I heard Fatsis on NPR I feel like I have some insight into his weirdest habits.

Oh, and another thing that bugged me about Romano's book is a totally nonsensical interpretation of the Disk of Phaistos.

Galactica Gag Reel

Baldwin sent me this link to a Season 3 Galactica Gag Reel. He says it's worth the 13 minutes. I say it's not long enough.

Test Tube Baby Babies

For anyone who saw the movie Test Tube Babies on AmEx (streaming online!) or just interested in IVF, turns out that Louise Brown (TTB1) just had a baby herself. This news clip says that Louise's sister was in fact the first TTB to give birth.

More Galactica

Ronald Moore and David Eick are interviewed by the Chicago Tribune here. The fate of Kara Thrace hangs in the balance...

(Spoilery summary: something will happen to her, she will not appear in the final three episodes.)

Al Gore video

I hate to rehash this, but these two videos shot by Spike Jonze are a great reminder of what a decent person Al is.

Income and Happiness

Christoper Shea wrote a column in the Boston Globe a few months ago (Oct 15, 2006). This is the passage I found particularly relevant:

Several economic studies affirm that the correlation of income and happiness is nowhere near what people think. One finds that in developed societies there is slightly more happiness at the 75th percentile of income than at the 50th, but that above the 75th percentile more money doesn’t matter.

This of course begs the question of where on the scale of income you are. In this case, I'm actually going to cite Wikipedia, because this article has charts taken directly from the US Census site and the original Census pages are .pdfs (easily found by Googling "income percentile census" or such). In 2006, households at the 75th percentile were earning $77,500 a year.

Of course the argument about happiness has to do with basic comfort levels being met and then envy for material things versus time and peace of mind. This means that your happiness will also vary a lot based on the cost of living where you live and the people you hang out with (those charts break income down by race, for example).

In related links, financial columnist Scott Burns also has a chart on his site that cites the level of prosperity based on net worth, something most easily figured out if you're using Quicken or another household accounting program.