WHERE TO FIND FREELANCE DAD THIS WEEK   

As close watchers of our right sidebar are already aware, we've been collaborating with Disney's juggernaut Family.com site for some time. Starting today, we're going to be providing a new series of articles to that site, as part of its "Comment Mania" contest. Here's how it works: Nationally beloved parenting writers rotate sharing stories both tart and sweet about life with their kids. Family.com visitors read the pieces, then share their own comments on the topics raised. Best comment wins a fabulous prize from the people who brought you not only "Enchanted," but also this delicious Kool-Aid we've been drinking here at FD.com HQ all week.

We urge all of our FD.com readers to hop over to Family.com right now (here's the link again) and share their own comments on this week's piece, which happens to be a heartwarming tale of middle-child neglect, featuring an all-new photo of Tiny Girl. OK, get going!

November 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Subscribe to RSS

THIS ARTICLE HAS INSPIRED US TO TELL FELLOW THAT "LYCHEE" IS THE MOST VULGAR WORD THERE IS

Jon Ronson of the UK's Guardian recently wrote a hilarious column about dads, boys, and swearing. Turns out, his son was pestering him to share the worst "swearword" in the world, so he fed the boy a nonsequitir, which the kid proceeded to use, repeatedly and hilariously, until he made a discovery of his own. Go ahead and read the whole thing: It's got the FD.com Punchline of the Month.

(via radosh.net)

NOW THAT'S WHAT WE CALL BURYING THE LEAD

Near the end today's Times article, on the 10-year-old boy who apparently set one of last week's California wildfires by playing with matches, was this chilling nugget (emphasis added):

. . . . “A 10-year-old boy is in a whole other psychic realm,” said Dr. Jeff Victoroff, associate professor of clinical neurology and psychiatry, at the University of Southern California. “At least one study suggests that if you take a population of boys between kindergarten and fourth grade, 60 percent of them have committed unsupervised fireplay, which is to say that fireplay is a common and absolutely normal part of human development.”

So, friends, where are you storing your matches these days?


BROOKLYN'S SYRIAN JEWS ARE REALLY ONTO SOMETHING—BY VIRTUE OF THEIR GENETICALLY-DETERMINED INTELLIGENCE, NO DOUBT

Everyone within screenshot should dig through their pile of unread Sunday Times magazines and fish out the piece on the city's Syrian Jewish enclave and its iron-clad "Edict": Marry out of the faith and you're dead to us. Period. Next question. The article digresses far and wide as it tries to find out why—or even whether—the community is as wealthy as it appears, but it's the ramifications of the Edict that make the feature fascinating, especially inasmuch as members of the enclave, of all ages and political persuasions, seem to embrace it, if begrudgingly, for having kept their community united and loyal to the faith.

But according to Slate's brave and bold William Saletan, the financial success of a wholly Jewish community should come as no surprise, since the Jews, or at least the Ashkenazi branch (of which the Syrians are, admittedly, not a part) may in fact be genetically more intelligent than the average Joes, by as much as 15 IQ points per capita. But our hay fever scores? Off the charts! Gevalt!

November 1, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Subscribe to RSS