Just in time for Father's Day

Bottoms up! These clever glasses are available at Home Outfitters. Hurry in, while supplies last!


While we're on the subject of that ever-popular beverage, how about a glass that matched Dad's iPad?

Wednesday WIN

It's nice to read about old-fashioned fathers.

This is real, right? It must be. Still, I wonder...

Some fathers do 'ave 'em

How indeed? Doesn't the Boy of Steel look smug? Does anyone know where Pa Kent can buy a kryptonite paddle?

Since I will be busy hosting brunch this weekend -- and you're all invited -- I am sharing my Father's Day post a couple of days early.

Michael We Hardly Knew Ye

I don't usually talk about personal matters here, but since today is Father's Day, I want to share this with you.

A while ago, on an impulse, I typed my father's name into Google. The result was his obituary in a newspaper published in the city where he lived. He had passed away a few days earlier, and the funeral was scheduled for the following Saturday. My name didn't appear in the notice. I signed the online guest book with my maiden name and left my email address.

I'm not telling you this because I want sympathy. You can't miss something you never had. My parents split up shortly after my birth. I have only one short memory clip of my father; I was about two years old at the time. We have had no contact since. So it's not as if I can grieve for him.

I have no idea what it would be like to grow up with two parents. I don't really know first-hand what sort of role fathers play in families. And of course, back then that role would probably have been quite different from what it might be today. I often wonder what our relationship might have been like. Close? Tumultuous? Indifferent? I've been told by relatives that we are alike in many ways. It is never meant as a compliment but I choose to think of it as one. Would I have been a better, stronger, happier person if I had known him? Would I have turned out quite differently? Would my family have been less dysfunctional, more so, or simply dysfunctional in another way?

I have sometimes thought that my penchant for spanking had some of its roots in the desire for a father figure - a male disciplinarian. When I was much younger this was quite a desirable characteristic in any partner I might have considered, and things ultimately worked out that way. Ron is just the right number of years older, even though our life together does not involve any hint of age play or discipline. Although we are equal partners, he does exert his dominance from time to time, and I am comfortable submitting.

Ron assures me that all my good qualities were inherited from my father. It feels good to hear him say that.

Good-bye Michael.