chicagodads

[Editor’s note: Even though I’m taking semi-holidays, through this week at least I’ll be alternating posts here and at my home blog, Left Cheek. So please read there every day you don’t find anything new here.]

I was trying to find the best way to recap what I’ve been thinking about in terms of schooling, but I think that - in essence and in brevity - laurel said it best already: Every school is different. Pretty much everything that I wanted to say in the posts was said in the comments in one way or another, so I didn’t want to rehash that so much. (I did forget to add this story from the Tribune, which mentioned that researchers found there was no difference in test scores between charter and neighborhood high schools even though charter schools had half the amount of impoverished kids and significantly fewer special needs and English as a Second Language students.)

I need to take a semi-break from blogging for a bit. At least on this site. The funny part is, the number of visitors to this site have once again gone up, just as they were starting to the last time I had a blogging slow-down (which, ironically, was because my computer was in the shop).

For now, I’ve got four long-form works that I want to concentrate on for the next two weeks at least. I’ll intersperse with short posts as I find interesting stuff (and there’s a couple in the pipes already). And hopefully I’ll find more time to visit your posts as time allows. A lot of interesting stuff going on with many of the writers here at Today (which I find refreshing, to be honest).

How do you define success in education?

The way I see it, if you leave out of a classroom (or wherever the learning is taking place) wanting to know more about what you have learned, if you desire to continue that learning throughout your lifetime, if you, in essence, become more curious about a study or area of study as a result of schooling, then your education was a success.

Just a short story, shared from the perspective of one of my best friends.  (I’ll try to do her justice, although the words are from memory, so there’s a lot of meshing around in my head.)

I hated history; didn’t understand it. Never really knew much about history until recently. I went to Catholic school growing up - at first. And whenever time came for us to study history, they would have us reading outloud from the textbook. Each student would sit there, terrified and waiting for their turn. And then we would read our little passage, and then the next person would read. That was our education. He would give us a short quiz at the end of the class to make sure we were listening, and then that’s it. So I hated school and really hated history.

I wanted to get out and go to a public school. My parents were raised up having to go to public school and they wanted the best for us, so they tried really hard and sacrificed to get us into the private school, but it wasn’t working for me. I begged and begged and begged my parents to take me out, but they were sure it was good for me. Then I just started dropping grades; I guess I was so frustrated that my grades suffered dramatically. So then they pulled me out.

Even after she went off to public schools and university, she was so tainted by her experience in history that she never really studied it. It is only now that she is showing a general (albeit deep and wide) respect and admiration for the study.

Now, I understand that there are many success stories in the realm of private education, but I drag out this story to illustrate my point, I utterly believe that we should continue to look for the best options for our children (and for the larger world in which they inhabit) and I think that to assume that one way is naturally better than another is toxic.

What are your thoughts, impressions? And further, how would you define a successful education?

Sounds fascinating, eh?

And then you consider that this being Chicago, not so cool. Our political system is in complete disarray, so no politicians can be trusted. We do not have the space to create a real Olympic Village, so an entire neighborhood will be displaced. To be replaced with a $1 billion temporary housing village and temporary stadiums. The village, they tell us, will be bought out by an as yet unnamed (because no one wants to commit to it) developer who will convert it to condos, etc. And the temporary stadiums? Well, good thing that they’re only temporary because we don’t have enough green space as it is.

Did I mention that this plan is hinged on displacing an entire neighborhood? I guess that’s not such a big deal to the proponents of the plan because it’s only a black neighborhood anyway, so why should it bother us, right?

Great article at the Chicago Reader.  Tell all your friends and peeps.

Oh, and don’t forget the $10.5 million to be spent on a mascot. Can’t wait to see what loopy/sexually-frustrated creature will arise as a result of this!

Energy, health care, education. There’s a lot to be said as a parent about any of these main points of the president’s speech last night. But, since we’re on the topic of education right now and since I wanted to hit this point anyway, I noticed that under Obama’s talk of education reform, he hinted at “expand(ing) our commitment to charter schools.” I was not aware that the federal government has a commitment to charter schools in the first place, but with former Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan now in charge of the Department of Education (and a $100 million bonus), I guess that shouldn’t surprise me.

This is an observation I have from talking to many parents and interested parties in Chicago: the assumption is that a charter school is necessarily a good or bad thing. Now, for proponents of public education, because of the way that charter schools are set up, they may be a bit dangerous, and certainly a threat to funding. But, if the districts and the nation were as dedicated to quality education for all as they like us to think that they are, it shouldn’t be a problem. For the time-being though, I’m going to concentrate on shorter-term issues rather than meta- and structural issues.

A charter school is primarily a different way of governing school. A group will come to a school district and say that they want to run a school (or a few). This group may anywhere down the line from a for-profit company interested in education to a rag-tag group of dissatisfied educators (I know of one such in a south-side neighborhood). Often this group has a driving philosophy and several ideas of how to practice schooling that are different than how they see the district performs and views schooling. The views could be anywhere as distinct as a sense of maintaining ethnic pride (much how the Catholic schools started in the 19th C.), to a return to a strict adherence to ‘classic’ education, to specialized mini-schools based on professional options, to running a 4-12 grade college-prep school (under the notion that a 9-12 grade prep school leaves too much time to gap in certain schooling areas). The district allows these associations to run a school  (usually a “failing” school or vacant campus) with public money under that group’s charter (including budget, philosophy, rules, etc.) of how they will run the school.

Now, because of the way budgets are set up in most school districts - especially Chicago’s - each school gets a certain amount of funding related to how many students they bring in on a typical day. So if another school opens up across the way from yours and then you are forced to compete with that other school, but your hands are tied behind your back as to how you may compete (as most brand-new schools now secure grants to get them brand-new equipment and as charter schools pay their teachers less so that they can spend more on equipment), well, guess who may win in the short-run?

That is the essence of what a charter school is. And, as you can probably guess, the concept of charter schools is only as good as each local charter school is. A charter school for a charter’s school sake is not necessarily a good thing, and in fact, can be dangerous. At the very least, with our child(ren), we will take the issue of whether to send her/them to a charter or non-charter school on a case-by-case basis.

I was raised in the city. I wish I could say that I always felt home here, but that isn’t true. I wanted to live in the ‘burbs during my teen years. I wish I could say that it was always easy living in the city, but that wouldn’t be true either. I also wish that I could tell you and certainly my daughter that I have always felt safe here, but I’d be lying through my locks.

My brothers and I grew up and habituated in some dangerous neighborhoods (understood of in terms of plenty of poverty, gangs, drug-dealing, homelessness, etc.), but I’ve been fortunate enough to not really have to face much personal violence. Been the victim of a string of burglaries during my teens, never really had to deal with gangs (perhaps it was the whole geekery and/or the church-boy thingy, but they just left me alone), got mugged once (considering the places I’ve been and the hours I’ve been down them, it seems to me that the odds are better getting struck by lightning), a couple attempted and bungled pick-pockets (though I did become the victim of poaching once, it wasn’t in Chicago).

All to say, I turned out all right. But, I understand that not everybody feels as nonchalant about being near such circumstances, especially when it’s your kids on the line.

But I also know a little about the— shall we call it, seedy underbelly of growing up in gated communities. The drugs might be sold, for example, in the inner city, but that isn’t necessarily their end destination. Then there’s the suicide rate, and this general (but perhaps unquantifiable) feeling of angst, meaninglessness, and boredom that young ones feel - which is why so many of them move to the Big City at first chance, only to return to the ‘burbs (or extend the suburbs into exurbia) once they have children.

Which finally brings us to our point (I so don’t like to beat around the bush…): one of the primary decisions on where a child attends school literally centers on the location of the household. Many of those who can afford to relocate so that their children can attend the best schools do so. Even those that I know that could not afford to pack up and move packed up and sent their child to a relative who lived in a preferable district or neighborhood.

“Let’s Go To Work Boys” by Senor Codo via Flickr.

The reasons for moving are myriad: the cost of raising a family in the city is prohibitive for some (as I imagine it would be in New York, or if one was looking to own in Chicago, especially in a nicer neighborhood); others have carefully gauged all factors (I know a father that got out a very intricate spreadsheet and mathematically mapped it all out); some are worried about their children not fitting in a particular location (where there are few others like them, or too many like them); perceived or real notions of superiority of education based on empirical, intangible or imagined factors (I have some friends that I love dearly leave the city under the notion that any public school in any suburban zone is preferable to any public school in Chicago. I tried to convince them of the foolishness of that decision, and that was before I became a teacher/advocate. I am even more convinced now that they were wrong); cultural issues (for us, this is a paramount reason to stay in the city. We want our daughter to be able to understand that the world is filled with people who do not necessarily look or act like us, and that that is both a good thing to know and a good tool to have); and, finally, to be honest, safety issues.

But I’d like to know what you think: Have you chosen a route, did you regret it, will you choose, have you given it much thought, etc, etc.?

Did anybody else catch Hugh Jackman talking to Bahbawa Waltehz before the show about adoption (specifically, he and his wife adopted two mixed-race children, he says, because they were told few possible adopters wanted them. I wasn’t able to catch everything he said thereabouts, and I can’t find clips of that part. Anybody else catch it)? It warmed my heart to hear him (and, yes, other big-name celebrities) talk so openly about adopting. This, I believe, is a big step up from my parents’ generation, when adopting was looked down upon as being less-than “real” parenting, at least in mainstream society. It seems that the stigma is still there (I really can’t imagine why else fertility drugs and in vitro, etc., are so popular), so I applaud the Angelina Jolie’s, et.al., for taking a public stand for adoption when so many children are (to be quite frank if not PC) in need of parents.

What do you think of celebrities and this new fashion (so to say) of adoption? Is it mostly just another guilty-trip cause, an accessory, a noble idea that should catch on?

1) New Wave Cafe. It’s big for a brand new coffeeshop, first off. My wife and I were comparing it to two other coffee institutions (well, at least in this ChicagoDad’s world) Letizia’s Natural Bakery and Cafe (one of the first in Ukranian Village and my normal home away from home when I lived, worked and worshiped there) and Starbucks (previous to this opening, one of the only spots open for coffee - if you include Dunkin’ Donuts - in Logan Square). When I say that it’s big , I mean compared to, say Letizia’s which literally started as a take-out spot and then gradually upped itself until it used two spaces plus the outdoor cafe (in the spring to late fall) to accomodate its patrons there for the deelish natural baked yummies (fresh muffins were to die for! and totally worth the 2 bucks). Later, it morphed into a wine eatery, but, oh well. They still served Intelligentsia Coffee (some of our finest roast here in Chicago) and wonderful paninis, pizza blocks and cranberry cookies. But I think the difference in this regard is that Logan Square has long been ready for a cafe to act as a sort of cultural center. Add the new wave (read: 80s) kitsch , the not-too-loud music, the nice staff, the fine Metropolis roast (so much of a relief after Starbuck’s bitter roast. I’ve had two cups so far of their coffee and not once had the urge to spit it out), and the fact that there’s plenty of open space to chit-chat or work/study, I think this may be my new spot. Did I mention I had a blondie with bacon in it? WOW! Nice, huh? [Edit: So, apparently, some friends and readers informed me that 1) bacon is interspersed in various baked goods at New Wave and the menu changes constantly and 2) bacon in baked goods is become quite the vogue fashion - and therefore unfashionable - throughout Culinary World.]

The downside is that although it’s fairly close, it’s not that close.  It’s about a mile away, though if I need to, the bus and train are both kiddy-corner and a direct stop in front of my place.

2) The other spot we’ve been to recently (for a kind of neighborhood association mixer) is a nueva Mexicana BYOB called La Estrella Negra . As you can probably tell from its name (the Black Star ), it’s got kind of a quirky, dark theme - actually a Dia de la Muerte theme all over the place. The decor (including paintings displayed prominently not just on the walls but also the tabletops) is whimsically self-decorated by the multi-talented owner (who also plays in a band that sometimes performs there, apparently) and friends.

I thought the food was a bit pricey and the service a bit slow, but the La 25 tacos de pollo we ended up leaving with (we could only stay shortly as it was cutting into the baby’s sleep time) were quite delicious and featured - of course - bacon strips. Not sure that paying 10 bucks for three tacos is desirable (especially if you wait almost an hour for them), but I think the place has some promise as an ocassional spot. Especially if they find intriguing things to do with bacon.

Hey all. Sorry I haven’t been blogging recently. I like to think that we actually got some momentum going and then…  POOF! up I go.

But the truth is I got sick, the baby got sick, and my computer is down again. So regular blogging became less of a responsibility and sleep became more of a responsibility. I like sleep (and I think I need more and more of it), so I’m not going to disagree.

For the near future, I would love to do a series on schooling. In Chicago especially, we are inundated with questions - almost daily it seems - of whether we should send our kids to a local public school, magnet school, charter school, private school, or go out to the suburbs or home school. I see why one would prefer one option over another, but I sometimes wonder if we don’t closely investigate if one general option (say, suburban schools) is always better than an alternative option (say, city schools) when research and experience tells me that a) is never always better than b). And there’s a bunch of other questions that I’m just starting to wrestle with as a young parent. But that’s for a later time. I would love some feedback on that.

Shortly, however, I want to talk about a couple new spots I’ve had the opportunity to visit this last week in my own little neighborhood, and where bacon was a feature (at least in my experience).

Until then, I got some cleanin’ and daddyin’ to do.

So, apparently, I may have spoken too soon. It seems that Rolan Burris did talk to Blagojevich (or, in this case, his proxy, also named Blagojevich, Rob Blagojevich. Try saying that Happy-Potted-Hippopotamus line eight times fast.) about financial aid before accepting the Senate appointment . Talks of Burris doing fund-raising for the then-governor broke down because of gathering heat, apparently. And now the Illinois legislature seems to actually be in a silent tizzy about this all.

And I could see why they’d want to keep their mouths shut. It is embarrassing to the entire state and it could lead to further investigations, as long as the spotlight’s on Illinois (and not just Chicago this time). Let’s hope that this cheap sweater gets unraveled.

When I was a teacher, I fell victim to all forms of minor viruses all the time. It may begin to manifest itself in the middle of the day, at the end of the school day, just as the week was ending or even beginning. If there was school to be taught, I would try to see my way through the day, but it isn’t healthy for myself or my students to continue to spread virus - especially since I’m really good at forgetting where I left that kleenex and my students were really good at using all my antibacterial soap for their desks. But when I got home, I would climb into bed and become the biggest baby. The next morning, I would kick-test the old body to check if all the systems are go; if not, I’d call in sick for that day.

The Lord bless my wife. She’d mother over me and allow me to sleep the next day away even though she may have disagreed. I don’t think she ever understood even up to this day why it is that men turn into the biggest cowards when we confront the smallest colds.

But here’s my question: what happens when the male domestic becomes sick? Who then takes care of him? Especially if his wife is depending on him to clean up the home and the baby needs him to attend her.

Time to clean the house and make my own soup. (Is this how Midwest mothers learn their Martyr tone of voice?)

I pray that you are enjoying your Valentines Day the way it was meant to be enjoyed - at a White Castle .

Apparently, it’s a regular, annual thing at some locations. Yes. Yumm.

If you made the reservations in time (and there may be time out in the West Coast - but I doubt that they have what you crave out there) you get a preferred table (complete with a candle and tablecloth) and a staff member to wait on you like at a real restaurant!

And, the slider is referred to as a Greeseball Royale…

From where I sit, our country is divided over a lot of different issues. Pro- v. Anti-. You name the controversial subject, we’ve got some kind of war going on, whether it be abortion, living wages, extension of government, illegal immigration, the death penalty, health insurance, gay rights. As Wilco put it succinctly a few years ago, we’ve even got a “War on War”.

But one of the more scary ones for me is tied up with this notion that we should not allow our children to become vaccinated (or at least with certain vaccines) because it doesn’t really lessen the chances of them catching the disease and yet raises the risk of leading to autism. The alternative in this no-win situation is that a mass group of children will not take necessary vaccines and all of a sudden we have the Second Coming of Polio coming down on us like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

So, in a sense I am glad that a US special cases court has ruled against the vaccines-as-cause-to-autism group . Not that I know that they are right (I have a weird trust/mistrust issue with anything from authorities - specifically when those authorities exchange a lot of money), but this is a public health issue as well as a private health issue, and I’d rather that people not use my child as a guinea pig for their pet farms.

So, in other words, though I’m not sure about this issue, I can feel safe(r) picking a side. And maybe I can debate why that’s wrong or right another time, but Valentines is going to be a long day, and it’s already started.

7:40 am:

The little mama has been blocked up for almost two days now. Since she’s not eating bread  her fiber intake has reduced significantly. But because she has been insistent on at least one banana a day, well, like I said, she’s blocked up.

I gave her an orange this morning (rather than just juice, which has no pulp and therefore no fiber), and I’ll make some pancakes (not a lot of fiber. Maybe I can sneak some in somehow).

Makes me wish I had some wheat germ…

8:46

Finished breakfast. Still no sign of poo. Off to Jewels.

10:55

Just got back from Jewels (several miles, had to take public transportation). From what I could tell, no luck yet. The running consensus in the comments section is, I believe, to use dynamite. That may be an option. Time to strip the little mama.

11:20

Nada. Zip. Zero. On the plus side,  we’re eating cucumber. On the negative side, cucumbers are harder to peel than bananas.

12:26

I wish I had thought of prune juice. For lunch, we shared some oatmeal - but I don’t think I wanna wait three days for those oats to take their course. Although, come to think of it, it is called “Instant”…

2:16 pm

She hasn’t gone to sleep yet. She’s too busy making growling noises. If it weren’t so aggravating, it’d be really cute.

Too bad it’s so aggravating.

4:19

Still aggravated.

5:43

Rescued her about an hour ago. For not having a nap, she’s in a decent mood. But we’re kind of taking precautions.

I heard someone talking about how doctors don’t really know what a sickness is nor what caused it, but can only take educated guesses based on looking at the symptoms, patient history (past occurrences, related occurrences, events surrounding the malaise…) and then reactions to various treatments.

Gonna run and go get some prune juice soon (as well as bacon…).

8:44 pm

Jennie put the baby down earlier. We’ve had company over for the last two hours, so I haven’t asked nor observed that Joss went number 2, but I doubt it. Poor girl :(. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

February 15th

8:50 pm

Meant to update earlier, but was - umm… - held back. (Should I have put a caveat at the beginning of this post? Of the whole blog, actually?) She woke up from a relatively short but late nap before three and was walking really, really funny at first. By four, she was done making her first - and stinky - diaper. Really, like a normal day’s stool. Expected more. Got more a couple hours later.

She was really sensitive for a while there. (By the way, no prune juice. Just didn’t get around to finding any. But I’ve managed to get the fiber count back up, and will try to keep it coming.) I’m certainly more relieved. I know she is.

Apparently, one should never blow one’s nose .

Seriously. Serious cavity damage could result. The kind that doesn’t happen when you’re just sneezing away. Or sniffling. Or achey…

Instead, experts say, you should drain your nose one nostril at a time.

Good luck trying to look cool doing that, daddies. Glad I read this in time - we were going about training Joss the wrong way all along.

Now your curiosity can be at least partly sated.

Among the revelations are:

• Bert and Ernie were not named after minor characters in It’s a Wonderful Life. (Seriously, I was sure they were. Maybe subconsciously though.)
• Rizzo the Rat, however, was named after Dustin Hoffman’s character in Midnight Cowboy (Ratso Rizzo). (Haven’t seen it as of yet.)
• Miss Piggy’s backstory is too sad to tell on this site. At least in my opinion. But I’ll say this much, it involves her being a beauty queen. 
• Animal = Keith Moon? Possibly, but not certainly. An-nee-mal! An-nee-mal! An-nee-mal!

The stories surrounding that last one, though… I don’t know if the Muppets would be such a good influence on my baby…

Shortly after I woke up yesterday my wife told me about an opportunity to meet up with a few of the other mothers and from our church and their little ones at the zoo.* The feisty weather reached a peak somewhere in the 60’s I believe. It was pretty windy, but miraculously, Jocelyn’s hair was pretty relaxed throughout. Wish mine was that cool and forgiving. I mean, after all, she uses my conditioner.

I like Lincoln Park Zoo. It’s been a while since I’ve gone, so everything seems so much smaller. Not that I’ve gotten taller - I don’t think - but it may have been a dozen years and a hundred pounds ago. There is much to remember and enjoy about our innumerable trips to the bayside and free zoo. It’s no San Diego Zoo nor even Brookfield Zoo, but it has its little cozy glories, such as the rental paddleboats. And, did I mention that it’s free. As in, absolutely free. And the fact that it’s fairly accessible by public transit. Personally, Joss and I got there in just a few minutes by taking the Armitage Avenue bus east for a few miles. This bus doesn’t run all night (although I believe and am happy to report that it seems that they’re finally extending the hours. It used to shut down at very unpredictable times around 6 or 7pm), but then again, neither does the zoo.

.

I was very glad that we got to go and meet up with the other families. Kind of bummed that I didn’t think earlier to take more pictures. Amused (and a bit worn-out from the chasing) that she was way more into the tons of other kids than into any silly cockatoo or wild African dogs, oftentimes leaving her own pack to hang and run around with other strangers.

*This was actually the first of our two very impromptu trips yesterday. Both times it almost came as a shock that my job is primarily taking care of Jocelyn now. Not that they should apologize, but maybe they should read this blog . Also, there was another article I read yesterday that ties into that. We should get into it tomorrow.

I missed this one. It’s not particularly potent or insightful, but it’s funny and a little bit removed, safe.

The other day, one of my friends asked what I do with the child all day. And the truth is:

Well, we usually just go hanging out behind the 7/11. Smoke. Those little candy puffer things. Get some slurpees. Act cool, act bad. Tell kids to stay in school because they don’t want to end up like us, washed up, nothing to look forward to. It’s a hard life. And we do hard time.

Some of my happiest memories when I was a child were when my father would wrestle with us. This was in the then-monthly window of time best described now as between having one drink and one drink too many. After a while, he would shut down and then shut us down, but while we boys were all wrestling, it was fun, knocks, flops, rolls, handcarts, tucks, dips, bruises, pins, crawls. Fun. Hanging out. That’s what we were doing during those early evening hours.

Just hanging out.

I was reading a parenting book a couple months. It said that when my child was upset and started making displeasing sounds (y’know, screaming, growling, howling, shrieking. All the fun stuff) I should mimic her. Not in volume or intensity but in tone. Let her know that I understand where she’s coming from. That I respect her.

Normally, I’m pretty darn good at mimicking. I’d be on SNL if I didn’t have such a wimpy, nasally voice. And I know that I generally get some kind of reaction when I playback people’s words and voices back to them (it slowed down my students, often causing them to laugh or question what’s going on. When I do it now for a special somebody, though, she just doesn’t find it to be so amusing). And Joss may have slowed down and been initially curious, but it didn’t keep her from screaming nor help me to find the real issue bugging her at the time.

But an almost incidental statement I came across in the book did make sense - to make eye contact at her level. When she screams, I’ve found it rarely does good to bring her up to my level, and it does no good to keep static. What I’ve started doing is sinking myself down to her level. Hanging out with her where she’s at. And she’s happy again. And she’ll play, or get a book and sit on my lap so we can read together. And/or grab a plush doll and sit on my lap. Or open up my shirt to play with my fat belly. You know what we do?

We just hang out. On her level. And it’s awesome.

The Family Guy’s Stewie nails and hangs me right here. Well, I’m technically not working on any novel, but I’ve got four small pieces floating around (essay/memoirs, one children’s book and one young adult novella [maybe]), plus some ocassional poetry. And sometimes, there’s that internal voice in my head going around. I don’t know how many other stay-at-home fathers are feeling like this, but I sure am:

Click [edit] here if because file doesn’t play.

Edit: It didn’t take too long to find it on Youtube (although the quality is pretty crappy):

Again, if file doesn’t play, click here .

If it still doesn’t play, it’s because you’re trying to watch it at work and somebody’s watching you…

Comic books have historically been dark. Batman operated within line of the pulp novels and for a few issues in the earliest episodes of the late 1930’s even carried a gun. And the moral code that he and Superman are known by now (never taking a life and doing everything in their power to save all lives, even those of the most dangerous villains), well, he didn’t have it for a little bit longer and acted accordingly.

It was in the post-WWII era that the Comics Code came out and they “cleaned up” their acts. The comics became purely a pre-adolescent medium, strictly for the kids. Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s inventions at Marvel grew up the kids a bit and talked about more grown up issues (Spider-Man’s coming-of-age fables, the X-Men as outsiders and racial [and then sexual] identity , nuclear-age worries and rage with The Hulk).

And maybe that’s where I see the golden age. Because I’m just not into the thrills of ultra-violence and uber-navel gazing that so many of the “more important” comic series have taken since the nineties - especially with the advent of Frank Miller (”Sin City”, “The Dark Knight Returns”, “300″) and Alan Moore (”Swamp Thing”, “V is for Vendetta”, and most relevantly for this discussion, “Watchmen”).

I know that much of it is art, it is good, it is worth musing over and pontificating. I’m not lecturing. I mean, I’ve read much of these (I’m in the process of reading through “Watchmen” and the trying-to-outdo-each-other series “52″). It’s just that, if you didn’t know, the comics aren’t necessarily for the kids anymore. And, for what it’s worth, that’s kind of sad for me because comics are how I learned to read. Seriously.

Also, I definitely won’t be taking my daughter (or wife) to see the Watchmen movie.

And not so sure that I wanna go myself.

Edit:

Just in case you were still wondering if I’m a nerd, I love everything this guy puts out: