How to deal with bad DNA

My wife's cousin, Dosie, and her husband Sonny, have four kids. (A quick side note: Dosie is a nick name for Dorothy and Sonny is a nick name for Sigmund). We really like them - all of them in fact - the parents and the kids.

As you can imagine, managing four kids is challenging. This is made even more of a test because one of their sons, Jack, has Down Syndrome. So, as with any challenge in life, they have come up with a variety of ways to deal with managing the kids and managing the stress surrounding life with a big family.

My favorite thing they do is this: if one of their kids is acting up, misbehaving, or otherwise being unpleasant and Dosie or Sonny can identify and attribute the trait directly to the DNA of one of them, that's the parent that has to deal with the issue/behavior.

For example, if Ethan is acting up, hitting Emma let's say, and Dosie can say, "Hey Sonny, you're the one who used to get in fights as a kid, I used to stay inside and read and was a geek," then Sonny is the one that has to deal with it. If Sydney is lagging while getting ready for school and Sonny can say, "Hey Dosie, you're the one who can't get out of the house without an hour of preparation, it takes me 30 seconds to shower, dress and get in the car," then Dosie deals with it (and takes this opportunity to tell Sonny, that the reason it only takes him 30 seconds to get ready is because he's bald and has no taste in clothes).

A good way to divide and delegate some of the harder things to deal with as a parent and just plain funny.

Red Tricycle

As most of you loyal KroBlog readers have discovered, the KroBlog is quite possibly THE preeminent source for life insights and insights on what to see and do across this great planet of ours.

This week I will pimp a friend of mine's site called Red Tricycle. Red Tricycle started in Seattle in 2006 and is a twice weekly email newsletter with, in my friend Chris' words: "Pint sized news for savvy grown ups."

The newsletter features events, lifestyle, shopping and things to do with kids on the weekend - "a must read for any parent," says Chris. In addition to the newsletter, there's a good amount of updated suggestions on the web site itself.

Their newest market is in San Francisco.

Check it out and subscribe here.

Please come back, John Hughes

If I was on a deserted island and could take only one director/writer's movies with me, I would most likely take Steven Spielberg's collected works.

But, if I could take two director/writer's anthologies, the second set would the movies by the great John Hughes. Let's take a minute and digest some of his master pieces in order of my favorites, starting at the bottom (which is silly because all his movies are pure genius) and ending with my favorite of favorites:

• Home Alone - a bit violent for certain, but a strong effort from Joe Pesci.
• Uncle Buck - John Candy in good form.
• Pretty In Pink - Molly Ringwald as a poor girl who has a chance with richer, popular guy.
• Christmas Vacation - any scene with Randy Quaid is worth watching.
• Vacation - Anthony Michael Hall gives a solid performance in his first appearance in a John Hughes film.
• Some Kind of Wonderful - just like Pretty In Pink but this time the guy is poor and an unknown and the girl is popular.
• Planes, Trains and Automobiles - really good, funny movie, especially during the holidays. John Candy delivers.
• Weird Science - so many quotable scenes. The acting is impeccable.
• Sixteen Candles - I could watch this every day and find more layers with every viewing.
• The Breakfast Club - this movie spoke to me as a junior in high school...I could relate to every character. It's as if John Hughes was inside my head.
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off - every scene is like a stand alone movie.

John Hughes was a loyalist as well - he made stars of Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald, Eric Stoltz, Robert Downey Jr., and helped out the careers of John Candy and Chevy Chase. Hughes has been a bit of a hermit since 1994, and I wish he would come out of hiding.

So few people

I am one of those people who worries. One of the things I worry about is overpopulation. Overpopulation in the Bay Area. Overpopulation in California. Overpopulation in the US. In China. In India. The whole world! It's too damn crowded!

But one place that isn't overpopulated is Greenland. I don't have to worry about overpopulation in Greenland. Guess how many people live in Greenland?

BTW, according to The Economist and Wikipedia, it's the world's largest island. I had always thought Australia was the world's largest island, but apparently by definition of land masses Australia is part of the larger continent of Australasia??? Alas I digress...

Guess - how many people? 10 million? 1 million? Not even close...56,000 inhabitants. It's a country for goodness sakes! (Or is it a country? Or is it part of Denmark's monarchy? Or a province or something...?)

For certain, Greenland is NOT overpopulated...

How old is our great civilization, the US of A?

My friend, Chris, sent me this tid-bit this morning...Chris is a right thinking chap, and I think sent this to me as some type of blast on Obama, but all of the free money craziness that is going on today is under Bushie. But no matter which way you lean, you'll find this quote appropriate in light of what's going on in Washington...

"When the original thirteen states adopted the US Constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, made the following comments about the fall of the Athenian Republic:

• a democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government
• a democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury
• from that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship
• the average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years"

So when did the US start getting great? In 1787? After the Civil War? After WWII?