DadTalk

Trout Fishing and Indian Spices

Can two men sound like an entire band? Sure, when they’ve been playing together for almost 30 years.

Can two men keep 100 children – and 100 parents – occupied and even dancing during kiddy witching hours of 3-5 p.m?

Sure, if they’re Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet, who form the Arkansas duo Trout Fishing in America. If you never heard of these guys, or listened to them, now is a good time as any. Click on this link, and then click on “Launch Trout Radio” for a sample.

Trout Fishing is one of those bands I never would have heard of if it wasn’t for a publicist – I’m not even sure which one – sending me a CD. I’m pretty awful that way: someone sends me a CD and I get around to listening to it weeks or months later.

Music That Works for Me

For the last year and a half, I’ve had an office to myself, something I’ve never had before. One of the best things? I can listen to music in the background.

I tend to love Ambient radio stations on iTunes because they help me concentrate.  Usually, I listen to Groove Salad on SomaFM, because the music plays well in the background.

After being out sick for a WEEK, I came back to discover Gotradio – The Big Score. I’ve only been listening to the station for 20 minutes, and love it so far.

Not because the tunes remind me of movies – heck, I’ve hardly seen any in recent years – but because the music is often so rich and interesting. So far, the station is picking out songs that generally play well in the background.

The only problem? I keep checking to see what’s playing. As I’m writing this, I started thinking, “that sounds familiar.” It was a song from Lord of the Rings.

I may never get up again.

Book Review It’s Good to Be Bad

I reviewed this book for my wife’s site, Bookbuds.

Evil Genius
by Catherine Jinks
Harcourt Children’s Books

Evil Genius is a better-than-usual attempt at capitalizing on the Harry Potter phenomenon. In this version, Cadel Piggott, who is being raised by nasty, uncaring parents, is directed toward the Axis Institute, a school for criminals seeking world domination.

Cadel hopes to find acceptance at his new school, but intrigues – such as the rapidly declining student body – test the boy’s super talents. Along the way, Cadel learns about his father’s evil plans, a little humility and more importantly, about his true nature.

While the discovery process is fun, creative characters and complex subplots blow by without much clarity; it’s a wonder an adult, much less young adult, can follow without a scorecard. Worse, it’s hard to really like and identify with any characters in this 496-page book. Still, I can’t help suspect that Evil Genius will be enjoyed by bored, smart teenagers who dream of running the world. 

Stumble It!

Valentine’s Day Will Never Be the Same

Where is my wife this Valentine’s Day? Behind a computer … but for a good reason. Today Cybils announced the winners of the book contest Anne has been organizing with another blogger, Kelly Herold. Cybils, by the way, stands for Children’s and YA Bloggers’ Literary Awards. Try saying that 10 times fast.

So if you’re interested in buying books for your kids this year, jump on over and find out which are the best of the best. Then order a book from the site, which will help pay for the awards. You better, my nearly-over Valentine’s Day depends on it.

Next year, I’m hoping my wife will pick a holiday that is less romantic, like President’s Day.

Book Reviews Toxic Invasion Damages Everyone’s Health

Have you ever held your breath for 35 minutes? In a manner of speaking, I am right now (Feb. 7) as I ride a Chicago bus so noxious with fumes, I vacillate between not inhaling at all and being forced to take a shallow breath to avoid passing out. I’m convinced the tailpipe is connected directly to the heating system.

I wish I could say this was an occasional occurrence, but alas at least once a month my fellow commuters join me to win the jackpot: most polluted bus in the Chicago Transit Authority fleet.

I find it quite ironic, therefore, that on today’s bus ride I finished reading How Everyday Products Make People Sick by Dr. Paul D. Blanc. While the book is largely a way-back trip through the horrors of the industrial workplace, it also is revelatory as to how toxic poisons became part of our daily lives.

Blanc reveals how perfectly safe products such as animal- and plant-derived glue became a toxic substance made from coal-tar and petroleum by-products. Bleach, used in the homes pf most Americans, originally killed workers by the score. Both of these products can be as health-damaging to the consumer as the workers who first discovered the side effects of these chemicals. Bleach when mixed with other common cleaning products can cause a form of asthma.

By sifting through the historical record, Blanc exposes how politicians and industrialists repeatedly fail to learn from the side effects – brain and nerve damage, impotence, chloracne, mill fever and of course death – that befell those who made household products such as plastic, glue, rubber, cotton, fuel additives and bleach.

One would think these problems are a thing of the past, but apparently not. Blanc makes clear that there is a cycle of forgetting safety lessons and letting businesses return to their bad ways. Or industry simple exports the side effects to poorer nations.

Are we heading back into one of those periods of forgetfulness? Consider that thousands of new untested products are hitting the market everyday.

Another book that reveals how unnatural chemicals and products are infiltrating our lives is The Hundred-Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald, which I mentioned here.

The toxic bus is the least of our problems, according to Fitzgerald, who reveals that we’re poisoning our water, food and air with pharmaceuticals, home products and cosmetics. But scientists have little understanding of how these chemicals interact once they’re in our body. Just about every aspect of our lives polluted with chlorine, pharmaceuticals, synthetic chemicals, flame retardants and other chemicals, Fitzgerald says.

No need to persuade me that the dangers are real: I’ve thrown many products away – think bathroom cleaners, shampoos and dashboard conditioners for the car – after discovering they affect my breathing or irritate my skin. We’ve had to change diaper brands numerous times for both of our kids because of horrible skin reactions. (We think it might be the bleach used to make diapers white.) The list is endless.

I’ll warn you in advance: Reading these two books will be unnerving for some and a lesson in anger management for others. While there may be a touch of alarmism in The Hundred-Year Lie, Blanc takes a very sober approach in How Everyday Products Make People Sick. Both books, though, shed light on my contention that Something Odd Is Happening to US.

It’s morning now, 12 hours after the bus ride. All night long, I could taste the industrial fumes. The off-taste is slowly fading, but my lungs are clogged and my voice has dropped an octave, which happens when I talk too much or breath bad air. After reading these books, I can only imagine what those fumes are doing to mine and everyone else’s health.

A Review of ‘Crawling’

Several weeks ago, I received in the mail Crawling by Elisa Cooper, a children’s book artist and author. While I’ve had opportunities to read other daddy books, this is the second or third I’ve read all the way through.

Why? Well, it’s short for one; but also it’s a fun read without being drippy or annoying. The writing is straightforward without all the snarkiness so common today.

Anyway, I bring this up because I have a review of the book in today’s Los Angeles Times. Hope you like it – the book and the review.

Read This Post to Learn Magic Word of the Week

Before I tell you the magic word, let me provide some background. Moving to Chicago has been expensive, really expensive.

In fact, until the new business is off the ground, we are living in the red. Serious, brightly-hued red. We knew the risks going in, but bleeding cash hourly is, well, stress-inducing. Consider unexpected expenses: a dental problem (me), broken glasses (Anne), and preschool (Seth.) Okay, the last wasn’t unexpected, but the price was shocking.

Which brings us to the magic word. I had mentioned to my wife, Anne, long before we came out here that if the money situation looked too ugly, she would have to go back to work.

Did you catch the magic word? W-O-R-K. Why is it magic? Because Anne, who has claimed for years she wants to go back to work, now believes that swimming naked in Lake Michigan during the middle of the winter would be preferable to a 9-5 job.

Not that what she does isn’t work. She’s a full-time mommy and blogger. But as we all know, neither pay. At least, not in this country.

As soon as I started mentioning the magic word, though, Anne suddenly became immensely motivated to kick life back into her blog – er blogs. You can read about BookBuds relaunch here. You can read about her idea for an entirely new blog here, here and here. And you can see the new blog here.

If you don’t want to jump to the links, let me sum up quickly: Bookbuds reviews children’s literature. Her relaunch offered two books in a contest format. The new blog, called the Cybils, will honor the best children’s and young adult literature of the year.

Will it bring in any money? Well, we’ve had a $5 tip already. If we can keep that up for a year, we’ll have $1,825 a year. Um, okay so we can’t retire yet. (Actually, the amount is even less since Typepad took 40¢ of the tip. Grrrrr)

I can’t wait to see what happens next week when I bring up the next magic word: “poverty.”

‘Below’ Is Above Board

I like to plug my wife’s website BookBuds, which is dedicated to analyzing children’s literature. Today I have a post on her site about “Below,” a charming books by Nina Crews that captures the imagination of a young boy. If you’re planning to buy a book or two for children, please head over to my wife’s site and look around.

Thanks.

The Write Stuff

In preparation for our trip, I wrote an advance review for my wife's site, Book Buds, which reviews kid literature. Click on this link if you want to give it a read. Thanks.

Learn How Organic Industry Grew Up in United States

If you ever wondered about the history of the Organic movement in the United States, you might want to read Organic, Inc., by Samuel Fromartz. I reviewed his book here, which ran in the Los Angeles Times while I was traveling much of April.