Defending the Caveman

Quick Post-Hiatus Note

I'm back! Returned last night from a brief visit to Chicago too late, partly due to a flight delay, to post or to do any catching up on matters blogospherical. Between setting up a complicated new experimental protocol at work this week and some extracurricular business that needs attending to, I'll be a little slower than normal answering email and comments over the next few days. It might also be a few days to a week before I return to my normal blogging pace.

Not much time this morning for the proper return posting I envisioned, but I would be remiss not to mention....

A Hilarious Show

After visiting with my family in Mississippi for Christmas, Mrs. Van Horn and I went to Chicago to see her parents on our shared wedding anniversary. As I once noted here, my mother-in-law always lines up really good things to do during our visits and this time was no exception. One of the highlights of this trip was Rob Becker's Defending the Caveman, a one-man show starring Chris Sullivan we watched at the Lakeshore Theater.

I had heard of the show before this visit, but I had never even experienced so much as the urge to google it. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Would this be thinly-veiled male-bashing? An equally annoying sermon from the men's rights movement? Happily, it was neither. And it was hilarious. The show is a humorous and very engaging exploration of the differences between men and women. Being neither philosophically nor scientifically rigorous, it would fall more in the category of "astute social commentary by a layman". In other words, while it does not do a great job of explaining why men and women differ culturally and psychologically, it does do a great job of pointing out that they do, and in what ways they do. It's something that many women and men ought to learn more about. Many couples would do well to see it, and not just because it's a blast.

The web site for the show highlights some reviews here, and then, for balance (and comic relief), is a review by a sourpuss who does manage to get in a good point or two despite his obvious misandry.

-- CAV