Family Matters
By Popular Demand: The Mickey Mouse Watch
Friday, August 20th, 2010In my (almost) annual post about Beloit College’s Mindset List, I called attention to an item suggesting that today’s college freshmen don’t have an instinct to look at their wrist to tell time in the same way that, er…, those of us “of a certain age” still do. This prompted my blogging buddy, Jason Bennion, and I to start a small discussion about cool wristwatches, in which I mentioned my custom-made Mickey Mouse watch. Jason said the story sounded “intriguing,” and well, as anyone who’s ever read this blog knows, I don’t need too much of an incentive to tell a story.
So, here goes: the story of my watch. First, let us take a moment to pray that the copyright gods are dealing with something much more important (like whether or not Wikipedia can display the FBI’s seal?) OK, let’s go…
Categories: Family Matters, The Disneyverse | 8 Comments »
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Friday, July 2nd, 2010One of the things I love about summertime is getting the kids out to a few baseball games, which is why I have a feeling these next few weeks are going to be remembered for quite some time:
- June 30 – Went with my Dad to see the Yankees play the Mariners at Yankee Stadium. The kids couldn’t come along to this one because they had camp the next morning, and also because we got the tickets from a source other than our usual one and there weren’t enough seats for them. That’s OK, though – I’ve been going to Yankee Stadium with my father for more than 30 years, so it’s good to add yet another memory. Even if the Yankees did lose a yawner that night…
- July 3 – Taking the kids to see the Washington Nationals play the New York Mets in Nationals Park in Washington, DC. A new baseball stadium for all of us (just so happens to be a New York team visiting), plus the latest rookie phenom, Stephen Strasburg, is pitching. And we get to spend a fun afternoon with our friends from Virginia. Should be a great day…
- July 11 – “Family Day” at the Staten Island Yankees. Minor league baseball is fun once in a while, especially with the kids. The game is much more accessible – the players are closer, the stadium is smaller, and the minor league teams tend to involve the fans a lot more (most of them let the kids run around the bases after the game is over, for example). We’ve never seen the Staten Island Yankees play, so this should be a treat. Also, a chance to spend some time with another group of (Yankee-fan) friends.
- July 23 – Yankee Stadium, this time, with the kids. We try to go to about one game per month, the Yankees’ schedule and our kids’ ever-growing schedules permitting. Our last game was May 31st, Avery’s 10th Birthday, so we’re a little overdue this time. But the other games (above) should more than make up for it.
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of streamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come…
Categories: Family Matters, Sports Talk | 3 Comments »
Brandon’s Blog
Sunday, June 13th, 2010
Last night, my younger son, Brandon, asked me, “Daddy, can I have a blog?” When I asked why he wanted a blog, he told me he wanted to post pictures of baseball fields and funny houses. Of course, no father could possibly argue with such sound logic, and so, without further adieu, I present to you all: Brandon’s Blog.
It also has a place of honor on the top menubar of this site, in case you lose the URL and need a fix of ballfields and funny houses.
In the spirit of encouraging young bloggers, if you’re reading this and are so inclined, please take a peek over there, rate some pictures (Funny, Cool, or Interesting), and maybe even leave a comment. I’m sure he’d get a kick out of that. Thanks!
Categories: Blogging about Blogs, Family Matters | 5 Comments »
Another Perfect Day at the Stadium…
Monday, May 31st, 2010We celebrated our son, Avery’s tenth birthday today with a day at Yankee Stadium. We left the house at 9:30AM, got there when the stadium opened, toured the Yankee Museum (including the newly added 2009 World Championship Trophy and a special exhibit on Lou Gehrig, about whom Avery’s brother, Brandon, had recently completed a book report), grabbed some lunch, and enjoyed a picture-perfect afternoon as the Yankees crushed the Cleveland Indians, 11-2. Alex Rodriguez put an exclamation mark on this awesome day with a grand slam home run to blow the game open in the seventh inning.
Our own, personal fireworks came in the middle of the fifth inning when, unbeknownst to Avery, we added his birthday to the list of “Fan Marquee” announcements they make each game:
Click on the picture above for some great shots of a great afternoon at the ballpark…
Categories: Family Matters, New York, New York, Sports Talk | 3 Comments »
Disney 2010 – Frozen Mouse Ears
Monday, January 18th, 2010So what have we learned from this trip? That depsite being “The Most Magical Place on Earth,” Disney does not actually control the weather in Orlando, Florida (or, as my friend Adam posited, they do control the weather, but turned the thermostat down two weeks ago so they could restock all their ice cream fridges without running out). Also, we learned that if Mickey does, indeed, have teeth, they don’t chatter. And finally, the University of Pennsylvania Band can play in the cold, the wind and the rain – even simultaneously!
How cold was it? This cold:
Click on the frosted mouse ears above (or click here) to see 57 of the 400 pictures I took over six days. And be thankful I spared you all the video…
See ya’ real soon!
Categories: Family Matters, The Disneyverse, University of Pennsylvania | 1 Comment »
Happy 2010!
Monday, January 4th, 2010Before I say anything else, having just been reminded of the annual “first sentence of each month” meme, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone who’s reading this is December, 2010 a happy Holiday Season!
There, now that we’ve taken care of our administrative tasks, Happy New Year to all! Here’s a ninety-second summary of how I spent my New Year’s:
I hope yours was just as full of friends and fun. Here’s to a great 2010…
Categories: Family Matters | 3 Comments »
Figuring out the world at Age 9 – Part 692
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009My older son, Avery, asked me two interesting questions about Christmas the other day. I’ll remind you that we’re Jewish and don’t celebrate Christmas religiously, although he does have a lot of Christian friends.
Q1) Daddy, what does Santa Claus bringing presents to kids have to do with the birth of Jesus?
My answer: Nothing at all, Avery. Nothing at all. They are two completely separate parts of the Christmas holiday. And oh, by the way – excellent question.
Q2) Daddy, do YOU think Santa Claus is real?
My answer: first, I made him read this world-famous New York Sun editorial from 1897. In it, editor Francis Pharcellus Church writes:
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus.
[...]
You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.
[...]
Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
The language is a little esoteric for a 9-year old, but it led to an interesting discussion. I asked him if he thought feelings like love and happiness were real. He said yes, of course, so I asked him how he knew, given that he’d never seen either of them. He essentially said, “I just know.” And so, I explained, that billions of people all over the world give presents to their friends and families at Christmas time, and have done so for hundreds, if not thousands of years. And the feeling that makes all of those people do this is Santa Claus.
Interestingly, he asked me if parents bought their kids gifts at Christmas time during The Great Depression. I pointed him to the history of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, which he has seen lit several times. The first tree in Rockefeller Center was erected in 1931, during the heart of the Great Depression. It was decorated with cranberries, paper garland and tin cans – all items that could be found readily at hand without spending much money. Avery concluded that Santa Claus made the workers put up the tree, so people would feel good during the holidays, even during the Depression.
I realize this is not the high-pressure question that it would be for a Christian family, but I feel pretty good about the conversation, and I think that Avery (and his younger brother, Brandon, who was listening to the whole thing) understand it pretty well now.
Categories: Family Matters | 14 Comments »
Thanksgiving in New York
Friday, November 27th, 2009Before filling up on turkey and stuffing, it’s nice to check in with a mouse, a frog, an ogre, and all of their friends.
Click the picture above (or click here) for a full slideshow of the festivities.
Categories: Family Matters, New York, New York | No Comments »
It was the Autumn of ‘69…
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009Here’s how the last few months of 1969 went: On October 16th, the New York Mets won the World Series. And as if that wasn’t crazy enough, thirteen days later, a couple of computer geeks in California connected two computers together using a brand new network called ARPANET (which, despite popular myth, does not stand for the Al Gore Really Planned it All NETwork). ARPANET would later turn into a pretty successful project known as the Internet. Twelve days after ARPANET, a cute little children’s television show called Sesame Street debuted on public television. And eight days after that, I was born. Not a bad couple of months, I think…
So, on this, the occasion of my fortieth birthday, the traditional thing to do would be to consider all of the things I had planned to do by the time I was forty, sum up my regrets and failures, wallow in a pool of self-pity, and whip up a respectable midlife crisis, complete with the irresponsible purchase of a completely impractical sports car. Or, as my nine year-old put it the other day, “Daddy, most people die in their eighties, so you’re halfway done!”
The thing is, I have no memories of making grandiose plans for my milestone birthdays as a kid. I have a vague memory of computing how old I would be in the Year 2000 (thirty-one!) and marveling both at how far away the Year 2000 seemed and how old “thirty-one” sounded, but that’s about as close as I came.
So, it would seem, I’m left without the necessary ingredients to make a good crisis. Instead, this seems like a pretty good time to review the decade of my life that will forever be known as “my thirties.”
The first and most obvious difference between 11/18/99 and 11/18/09 is the presence of my two wonderful children, Avery and Brandon. To consider that when I turned thirty, neither of them were in my life is to realize just how long a decade it has been. Their growth from infants into happy and enthusiastic young boys colors every single memory I will ever have of my thirties, and makes the rest of my life before that pale in comparison. Which is, of course, exactly as it should be.
The rest of the family has had a good decade as well. Since that day, ten years ago, there have been various new nieces, nephews, and cousins born, and all the celebrations that come with all of that. And with the sad exception of my wife’s grandfather, everyone who was around for my thirtieth birthday is still alive and kicking on my fortieth. Again, I am truly blessed.
Speaking of blessings, I consider the party my wife threw me on my 30th birthday, and the various celebrations that have occurred over the past few weeks for my 40th. Many of the friends who attended back in 1999 had some part to play in 2009, and while there are some who are no longer in touch, there are many more whom I didn’t know then, but consider good friends today. No disrespect to Facebook, of course, but I can tell you without looking it up that my list of actual friends continues to grow unabated.
Other aspects of my life have progressed in similarly gratifying ways – my career has advanced nicely, we’ve significantly upgraded our home and I’ve got some shiny new toys that weren’t even invented when I turned thirty.
So, color this forty year-old content. All I need now is a song from some childhood friends:
Ah yes, that hits the spot…
Categories: Family Matters | 3 Comments »
Field of Dreams
Monday, November 16th, 2009This past Sunday, my friend Mike gave me a birthday present to remember. He enrolled me in the 2009 Damon Runyon 5K Walk/Run for Cancer Research, which took place inside Yankee Stadium. Part of the 5K course, which included stairs, ramps, and several laps around the stadium, was two laps around the warning track that circles the field of play. We took full advantage of this unique opportunity, and brought our kids along to share in the experience as well. Here’s a quick (less than two minute) video montage:
Photos are also available here, or in the Featured Photos link on the left navigation bar of this site.
Thanks, Mike, for an awesome birthday present and (one more time…) Go Yankees!!
UPDATE: I just received an e-mail from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, asking me to add a link to their foundation to this blog post. Done! Anything for a good cause…
Categories: Family Matters, New York, New York, Sports Talk | No Comments »