Atticus

Existential Question

August 21, 2009

Leave it to a child to ask an existential question that reverberates louder than the Pacific surf:

Will there still be waves if everybody’s dead?

Atticus, in the midst of his first beach vacation, received a truthful answer — and a question. Why did you wonder such a thing? Silence, except the sound of waves arriving and retreating.

Atticus at blow hole

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Nature of Man

August 19, 2009

Our son Atticus, now 4, watched part of Finding Nemo tonight. The story’s setting was relevant given the roaring surf outside our rented vacation house on the Oregon coast. Judging from his reaction to the dramatic scenes (shielding his eyes with a blanket and whimpering occasionally), we’ve overly sheltered him from TV and other insidious [...]

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Might-Have-Been Fireworks

July 4, 2009

I would have stopped there if I had been a few decades younger and still reckless and easily thrilled by mega-fireworks. It was one of three stores on the Nez Perce Reservation in tiny Lapwai, Idaho, competing to sell the really good stuff for the Fourth of July. I passed it ten times during a [...]

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Blissful Ignorance

July 3, 2009

Seeing the world through the eyes of four year olds must be like looking through a peephole. This narrow, constrained view also bestows them with blissful ignorance. Take as evidence an exchange today involving our little boy and his friend:
NPR, soundtrack of our life, blares in the kitchen. Michael Jackson’s name is mentioned, again. The [...]

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Alternate Universes

May 24, 2009

I pass the bathroom door. Our soon-to-be four year old, Atticus, is seated naked on the toilet. His mother is next to him. Atticus is holding her iPhone, which is playing a YouTube video of Sesame Street, a technique for scaring off the constipation spirits.
Surely no one forecast such a scene more than a half-century [...]

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Dog Boy

April 25, 2009

I swear it’s true: Dog Boy, aka son Atticus, asked to enter a dog carrier. (Please, no calls to  the child abuse hotline.) His mother consented (arrest her, not me). Photographic proof here:

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Making Trouble

April 19, 2009

Cracked Window celebrated its one-year anniversary today without fanfare. That’s because I stayed away from the keyboard and enjoyed the outdoors on a beautiful spring day in Portland. It was my first nothing-but-shorts-and-tee-shirt day of 2009.
Random projects, including installing two trellises on the fence two years after I bought them, were too much to resist. [...]

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Obama and Torture

April 10, 2009

A sometimes irrationally exuberant supporter of Barack Obama, I’m puzzled and dismayed at his administration’s failure to address the torture scandal. Repudiating torture isn’t enough. Finding the truth and punishing lawbreakers are only way to right terrible wrongs.
The most lucid assessment of the administration’s failure comes via the always-trenchant Scott Horton. He accuses the CIA [...]

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Media Bashathon

March 25, 2009

I usually wield no club in the intensifying mainstream media bashathon. But Todd Gitlin, whose journalism bona fides make his views worth a read, rightly hammers Big-Time Reporters’ coverage of President Obama’s press conference last night.
Petulance born of arrogance is especially repugnant when it leads to stories focusing on style at the expense of substance. [...]

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Lunar Mission Gone Awry

March 9, 2009

Our little boy, Atticus, spots a bright moon at dusk. He’s holding a toy modeled after one that was around when I was a kid, the Dan Dare Planet Gun. Pull the trigger and it launches a spring-powered propeller disk.
I’ve wound it to the max. From our front steps he aims at the moon and [...]

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An Unspoiled Mind

February 19, 2009

Sometimes I need reminding how wonderful life is for those not yet afflicted with cynicism. The reminder came from our son, Atticus. “Where do dreams go?” he asked soon after waking this morning — a question I don’t recall contemplating at any age. Then he answered his question: “A dream is a cloud with tiny [...]

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Naked Artist at Work

January 28, 2009

Someone might question a father who posts a photo of his naked toddler online. But I’ve cropped it tastefully, which helps focus the viewer on Atticus’ intense gaze as he loses himself in shower-time “drawing.”
I captured the image last night not with my expensive Nikon but wimpy iPhone camera. Besides the photo’s unusual quality (to [...]

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Another Holiday Rule

December 28, 2008

I drilled into our little boy today another of my dead mother’s irrational holiday rules: everything Christmas related must be taken down before the new year begins. Otherwise, the most dire bad luck will ensue.
Atticus accepted the rule as if our very existence hinged upon it, and we did mom proud. As a bonus, he [...]

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