Friday Four

1. Little Man, save for a short nocturnal stint, has always been a far better sleeper than his older sister. Even now, he seems to be "sleep training" himself. Wednesday evening, around his usual bedtime, he kept arching his back uncomfortably as I tried rocking him to sleep. Eventually, I put him down and he walked over to the couch and climbed up there. I sat next to him and watched him fall asleep. I have since rocked him to sleep, but I think I am near the end of an era. I will miss some aspects of rocking babies to sleep. I will not miss having to -- or failing at it for no apparent reason.

2. Call it a form of "parentsplaining" if you must, but this post -- on things a stay-at-home dad would love to say to many of the mothers out there -- helps me see that one man's tedium is another man's fellowship. The following especially cracked me up:

#10. If I never see your husband at after-school potlucks or fundraisers or Sunday afternoon birthday circuits, I start to think he may just be a loser. (#10a. Unless he works for Goldman Sachs and really is out making millions -- but then why don't you have a nanny?) [reformatted]

Not all of these resonate with me, but several did.

And don't get me started on sippy cups, most of which I detest almost as much as folding laundry, a task which is amazingly resistant to my efforts so far at usually doing efficiently. (Mental note: Now that I think of it, I really should look at this some time.)

3. Hah! This brings back an old memory from college that still makes me laugh: There is now a web interface for the old game of Diplomacy. (It looks good, but it will never live up to the real game. Read on.)

Back in the day, one of my circles of friends liked such games. That circle included a guy obsessed with war, an obsession that manifested in everything, such as the papers he wrote for both of his majors, every Dungeons and Dragons character he ever created, and ... the way he approached this game. In short, he took alliances in games too seriously, making him a ripe target in a game like this. He was Russia and I was Turkey (or was I the Ottoman Empire?). Together, we were steamrolling westward, he throwing everything up front and I with lots of units hanging back.

And then I struck.

He immediately screamed, momentarily placed both hands around my neck as he gurgled, picked up the board, and then threw it across the room like a frisbee.

Having no hope of ever replicating such success again, I retired from the game then and there.

4. The latest gem forwarded by my mother is the following joke titled "Male Logic", which also appears here:

Woman: Do you drink beer?

Man: Yes.

Woman: How many beers a day?

Man: Usually about 3.

Woman: How much do you pay per beer?

Man: $5.00 which includes a tip.

Woman: And how long have you been drinking?

Man: About 20 years, I suppose.

Woman: So a beer costs $5 and you have 3 beers a day which puts your spending each month at $450. In one year, it would be approximately $5,400. correct?

Man: Correct.

Woman: If in 1 year you spend $5400, not accounting for inflation, the past 20 years puts your spending at $108,000, correct?

Man: Correct.

Woman: Do you know that if you didn't drink so much beer, that money could have been put in a step-up interest savings account and after accounting for compound interest for the past 20 years, you could have now bought a Ferrari?

Man: Do you drink beer?

Woman: No.

Man: Where's your Ferrari? [minor edits]

This joke reminds me of the following economics joke:

Two economists walked past a Porsche showroom. One of them pointed at a shiny car in the window and said, "I want that."

"Obviously not," the other replied

Although this joke has stuck in my mind for over two decades, I am not sure I agree with the point it is supposed to illustrate.

-- CAV