parenting
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Great Moments in Parenting (A Jacke Wilson Objectino)
Today’s Objectino* includes a video! A JACKE WILSON OBJECTINO Two young parents are admiring their sleeping six-month-old boy. FATHER: He’s getting so big—pretty soon he’ll be learning how to read, and we’ll be watching all those great educational shows, like Sesame Street and Electric Company… MOTHER: Oh yeah! Electric Company. Those two silhouettes talking to Continue reading
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The Cladogram (A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #27)
I was a young father raising a toddler in New York City. I was also a broke, miserable student buried under an avalanche of student loans. In my filthy, sleep-deprived condition I suddenly remembered Thomas Hobbes’s description of life, which I’d read years earlier. What was the line? Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and…something else. Continue reading
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Thanksgiving Week 1: Kids
I’ve got a big December planned here on the Jacke Blog. So I’m taking a breath and celebrating my favorite week of the year. Thanksgiving! Time to bring in the harvest, start up a fire, watch a little football, and keep the kitchen bustling. So today I’m giving thanks for children, who make all this Continue reading
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The Offering (A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #26)
And then something happened that changed everything. I wish I could start the story that way, because that’s how it felt when it happened: startling, vivid, breathtakingly transformative. Even now it makes my heart race, the moment when I looked down and saw what I saw on our front porch, and the follow-up moment when Continue reading
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Brush with Greatness: Harry Shearer and Me!
On Tuesday I launched into yet another high-flying ode to creative freedom and the indie spirit. I railed against the curtailing powers-that-be, those nattering nabobs of negativism, wherever they may reside. I talked about my own experiences with indie publishing, and I cited the example of Martin Short and Harry Shearer, who found the freedom to Continue reading
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Writers Laughing: George Orwell
Okay, the degree of difficulty is off the charts for this one. This is a man who agonized over politics and the English language. Who loved England and democracy but spent his life fighting against oppression and tyranny and the dangers of lazy thinking. Laughing? George Orwell was shot in the throat while fighting in the Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #21: The Speed Trap
Some advance warning: I’m going to stop this story and start over because it’s the only way I can figure out how to tell it. So it’s 1980, morning in America, and I’m riding in a car with my grandfather. We are on the way home from the golf course. It’s sunny and we’re in Wisconsin Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #14 – The Bass Guitar
Are you familiar with the Suzuki method? I wasn’t. Oh sure, I’d heard of it—all those cute little violin prodigies, and something about kindergarteners learning how to play by ear that sounded impressive—but I didn’t know many details until I signed my kid up for piano lessons with a Suzuki teacher. It turns out that Suzuki Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #9 – The Intersection
I missed The Lion King the first time around, but they re-released it for people like me. Parents with young kids looking to kill an afternoon at the movies. A new generation. “Jeremy Irons is in it,” my wife says, trying to generate enthusiasm. “Oh yeah. Him. And Randy Newman songs?” “Elton John. You know, Continue reading
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A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #8 – The Burger Car
Home from traveling, I jump into the gray Corolla. I’ve been a Five Guys Dad lately, flying to Los Angeles for work and back home on weekends to take the boys to soccer and movies and the library and their favorite restaurant. It’s not an ideal way to parent, but what can you do? My Continue reading
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