Our Daughter The summer our daughter turned three, she made her first frienemy.  They had too much in common, too much time together and, I now realize, a fascination with manipulation. One bad day on the preschool playground, she said, her bossy friend told her they could play house or police.  If they played house, our mature daughter had to be the baby.  If they played police, our innocent daughter would have to go to... READ MORE

The year I was born John Wayne accepted his only Academy Award, for his role in the blockbuster True Grit.  Tough guys were cool in 1969.  The little boys I played with in our neighborhood spent a lot of time imitating John Wayne, running through backyards wearing cowboy hats and slinging pistols.  We pretended our banana bikes were horses.  Jump ropes were rattlesnakes lurking in the bushes beside the driveway.  Teachers did not worry... READ MORE

A genius possesses rare talents of the mind and heart. They are usually awkward introverts, strange, muttering fellows who boil vast quantities of complex information down to a simple, useful truth. Stephen Hawking fit the universe in a nutshell. Charles Darwin explained the evolution of all life through the wizened smile of a tortoise. Jonas Salk pondered millions of polio cells and created the tiny vaccination that rescued humanity. Genius and talent are not commonly... READ MORE