The Old Man and the Sea

I spent the day with my young son yesterday, cruising around for books, going out for pizza, and then topping off the afternoon with a stop in Newport Beach. My son was so excited to walk around the pier, see the fishermen and examine their catch, and, most of all, rekindle some memories of previous visits down to the water.

We've taken away my son's digital items for a couple of weeks, because he's been having issues. No cell phone. No iPad. No tablet. He can watch television, but there's no inter-connectivity, which is good. It's amazing how much fun it is to just unplug. He was joyous. You talk. You communicate. You reminisce about the good times and you create new memories. I love my son so much and want him to be healthy and happy. Disconnecting helps.

More later. Have a wonderful day.

Just got home from the beach. Hey, that’s the old man and the sea! #NewportBeach #California pic.twitter.com/QIHEwrppy3

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 27, 2017

49ers Wide Receiver Marquise Goodwin Played Sunday After Death of Premature Son (VIDEO)

This is a good family. And this is a heartbreaking story. They have faith. Their faith helped make it through the crisis. And his prayer in the end zone Sunday, seen at the video, is for the ages.

Wow.

At CBS This Morning:

Excited for Christmas

Via London's Daily Mail, on Twitter:

We all have one friend who's already this excited for Christmas! 😂😂🎄 (Listen with your 🔊 on!) via @DailyMail pic.twitter.com/vXtqoETq9F

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 5, 2017

Disneyland

Here's your humble blogger, yesterday at Disneyland, for my young son's 16th b-day.

A good time was had by all.

Disneyland Today

We're celebrating my youngest son's birthday.

I can't remember the last time we went to Disneyland. Weird. I lived for that place when I was a grade-schooler.

In any case, don't know what time we'll be home, and I'll probably be beat anyway. Head over to Instapundit for your blogging and news, the only "principled conservative view at this point." (?)

Is there even a principled conservative view at this point? Who should I be reading?

— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) August 5, 2017

Folks Need to Get Busy!

Lol.

At LAT, "Americans keep having fewer babies as U.S. birthrates hit some record lows":

Hey stork, you’ve been slacking off — and U.S. health officials know it.

For the second year in a row, the number of babies delivered in the U.S. fell in 2016, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics. For some groups of women, the birth rate reached record lows.

The provisional figures released Friday include 99.96% of all births in the United States last year. Here’s what they show:

Overall births

The total number of babies born in the U.S. last year was 3,941,109. That’s 37,388 fewer babies than were born in the U.S. in 2015, which represents a 1% decline.

The number of births tends to rise as the population rises, so statisticians like to make historical comparisons by calculating the general fertility rate. This is the number of births per 1,000 women considered to be of childbearing age (between 15 and 44).

In 2016, the U.S. general fertility rate hit a record low of 62.0 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. In 2015, the general fertility rate was 62.5.

Another useful statistic is the total fertility rate. This is an estimate of the total number of babies that 1,000 women would have over their lifetimes, based on the actual birth rates for women in different age groups.

In 2016, the total fertility rate for American women was 1,818 births per 1,000 women. That’s the lowest it has been since 1984.

In order for a generation to exactly replace itself, the total fertility rate needs to be 2,100 births per 1,000 women. The U.S. has been missing that mark since 1971 (though the country’s population has grown due to immigration).

More older mothers

The ages of women giving birth in the U.S. has been skewing older for several years, and that trend continued in 2016.

Birth rates for women 30 and older hit their highest levels since the 1960s, and women in their early 30s had the highest birthrate of any age group.

In 2016, there were 102.6 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 30 and 34. The last time it was that high was 1964.

There were also 52.6 births per 1,000 women ages 35 to 39, the highest that figure has been since 1962...

Teenage birthrates are declining, so that's good news.

But keep reading.

Happy Father's Day!

I don't know where this photo was taken, or when exactly. But my dad would have been in his 40s, it looks like (or maybe early-50s).

Have a wonderful Father's Day everybody!

#HappyFathersDay. Miss you, Dad. pic.twitter.com/3ySnXwitQf

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 18, 2017

San Carlos #KinderCare Cited for Numerous Violations (VIDEO)

My kid used to attend #KinderCare back in the day, in Fountain Valley and Irvine. It's such a nightmare sometimes. If you don't have family in the area, and you have a career --- as both my wife and I do --- it's a bummer to put your child in the hands of strangers. You have to be super vigilant. With luck, you'll wind up with excellent caregivers. We finally found a daycare center in Irvine with the owner who had her own special needs children, so she made sure our son got the attention he needed. But it takes a while until you can find the right place. This center in San Carlos should be shut down. Either that, or parents should bail out until it goes out of business.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

Can't Get Over How Much Ivanka Looks Like Her Mom in This Photo

Here's the story, at NYT, "Ivanka Trump, Shifting Plans, Will Become a Federal Employee."

It's just the resemblance to her mom Ivana is uncanny.

Ivanka Trump is becoming an official government employee, joining her husband in serving as an unpaid adviser. https://t.co/HEcwwVh4ZE pic.twitter.com/p8VsiI2Whu

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) March 29, 2017

Four-Year-Old Minnesota Boy Accidentally Hangs Himself (VIDEO)

Just devastating.

At CNN:

Tom Shillue: Stop Comparing Yourself to Others (VIDEO)

He's a wise dude.

For Prager University:

Have More Children

Hey, we wanted more, but kids aren't cheap, and we have no family nearby to help at home with the children.

But yeah, folks should have more. Environmentalists love abortion because women can murder their unborn children because climate change. (Yeah, leftists are evil like that.)

At Quillette, which is a great magazine (that I don't read enough):

If You’re Reading This Essay, You Should Probably Have (More) Childrenhttps://t.co/tQ1uGRS8D8

— Quillette Magazine (@QuilletteM) February 2, 2017

Nikita Coulombe, 'Why Feminism Wants to Dismantle the Family'

Here's Ms. Nikita, at Medium, "Like many isms before it (Communism, religions, cults), feminism seeks to dismantle the traditional family unit for its own gain. Why? To the ism, old loyalties are like bad habits interfering with an individual’s ability to pledge unwavering allegiance. Isms want control, but families tend to put family members and their needs before the demands of the ism, reducing the ism’s power and influence and therefore undermining its control."

“Why Feminism Wants to Dismantle the Family (long)” — Nikita Coulombe https://t.co/Ds1arZBOUX pic.twitter.com/nHfKow5FUy

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) January 18, 2017

This woman -> @NikitaCoulombe <- should have THOUSANDS of followers.

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) January 18, 2017

For the Past 37 Years, the Droz Family Has Taken a Picture in Front of a Numbered Highway Sign for Their Annual Holiday Card

Well, that takes a lot of motivation. I can't even get motivated to mail out holiday cards at all.

At WSJ, "Every Year, the Droz Family Scours America for the Best Road Sign to Make the Perfect New Year Card":

Heartwarming story to wish you a #HAPPYNEWYEAR #FlashbackFriday #Gratitude #Love #Family #2017in3words https://t.co/WxkHQL3vHB

— Ben Droz (@bendroz) December 30, 2016

Dan Droz went for a drive one day last month. He stopped near rural Carlisle, Pa., about three hours from his Pittsburgh home, at his destination.

The junction of Route 17 had been on his radar for a while. Mr. Droz wanted a picture in this particular location this year, and only this year, for his annual holiday card.

Every year for almost four decades, like millions of families around the world, the Drozes mail a holiday card to hundreds of their friends. That’s where the similarities between their card and other cards end.

Their card isn’t a Christmas card or a Hanukkah card. It isn’t even really a holiday card. They call it a New Year’s card.

It’s what’s on their card that makes it curious. The Droz clan’s New Year’s card is more than a mere family portrait. It’s a family portrait underneath a sign that represents the road junction that corresponds with the coming year—like Route 17 for 2017.

Their epic pursuit of the perfect card requires years of scouting, months of planning and hours of driving. For many years it forced them to wake up at 6 a.m. the morning after Thanksgiving. It has taken the Drozes to several states, one town called Eighty Four, Pa., and a few places where they should not have been.

Their quests began in 1979, when Mr. Droz was a single father with a young daughter, Lani. He picked a spot near the intersection of Interstates 79 and 80 where signs for both roads could be in one shot. They were soon apprehended by a skeptical cop with a sensible question: Why are you stopped by this seemingly random sign on the side of the road?

“We’ve had to explain that many times,” Mr. Droz said.

It wasn’t long before there was another problem. The people on his mailing list weren’t used to receiving this type of card. They had the same question as the unsuspecting police officer: What exactly is this?

Mr. Droz, who runs his own marketing agency, made sure there was less confusion the next year. He chose a convenient intersection of Interstate 80 and Interstate 81 and replaced the words on the I-81 sign with “New Year” to help his friends understand why he was waving from a busy highway. “I’ve made it more vérité since then,” he said.

That card worked in ways he never could have imagined. At a holiday party, Mr. Droz happened to meet a woman named Cathy, who worked as a producer for “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” He called her for dinner but never heard back. He called her again about a drink—still nothing.

And then he tried one last trick: He sent her his New Year’s card. She responded by sending back a postcard with Fred Rogers’ face.

“Nice card,” she wrote. “Let’s get together.”

They were married by the time the next card was sent.

Ms. Droz made her debut in the 1982 card. She also gave Mr. Droz a white sweater as a gift that has survived the elements—and ketchup stains—and appeared in every card since. They had three more children who have been in the New Year’s cards from the years they were born...

More.

These people are more than nerds. They're full on geeks, but obviously the lovable kind. Ben Droz, whose tweet is posted above is "a hemp lobbyist and event photographer in Washington, D.C., who also runs a hemp bolo-tie business."

See what a mean, lol?

Glenn Reynolds and Helen Smith (and Family) Wish You Merry Christmas!

At Instapundit, "MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE REYNOLDS-SMITH HOUSEHOLD!"

And see Glenn's very moving holiday essay, at USA Today, "Finding the good in my dad's final days."

Jared Diamond, Collapse

My mom bought it for me for Christmas.

See Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

My dad once told me that you'll never be bored if you like to read.

And I love to read. And I love to blog about books and reading.

Thanks again for all your support. I really appreciate it.

Merry Christmas!

Ward Cleaver, Sexiest Man Alive

Here's Jim Geraghty, for Prager University:

My Mom Gave Me Robert J. Gordon's, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, for My Birthday

I mentioned earlier that I wanted to get this book.

It's a huge tome, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War.

We went out to dinner last night to celebrate my birthday, and my mom's husband's, along with my wife, my youngest son, and my older sister.

We ate at Las Brisas in Laguna Beach, which has been there as long as I can remember. It's definitely recommended. I was stuffed to the gills, heh.

Books About Those 'Hot and Sexy Girls'

If you're up for some hip ("au courant") literary exegeses of the teenage Facebook/Instagram culture.

See Nancy Jo Sales, American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, and Peggy Orenstein, Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape.

I'm glad I'm not a teenager in today's day and age.

Seriously. It's hard out there.

What Teens Need Most from Their Parents

Well, they need a tremendous amount of attention and supervision.

I didn't realize how much until I wished I'd done more for my oldest son, who's having some early adulthood challenges now. (He'll be 21 in January.)

Yes, that's life, I know. But you always wish you'd done more to guide your kids, and provide a strong moral foundation.

It's weird when you think back on it, although my family's blessed that we're all together, doing well and healthy. You just think about it. Could you have done more? Have I been a good parent?

In any case, at WSJ:

The teenage years can be mystifying for parents. Sensible children turn scatter-brained or start having wild mood swings. Formerly level-headed adolescents ride in cars with dangerous drivers or take other foolish risks.

A flood of new research offers explanations for some of these mysteries. Brain imaging adds another kind of data that can help test hypotheses and corroborate teens’ own accounts of their behavior and emotions. Dozens of recent multiyear studies have traced adolescent development through time, rather than comparing sets of adolescents at a single point.

The new longitudinal research is changing scientists’ views on the role parents play in helping children navigate a volatile decade. Once seen as a time for parents to step back, adolescence is increasingly viewed as an opportunity to stay tuned in and emotionally connected. The research makes it possible to identify four important phases in the development of intellectual, social and emotional skills that most teens will experience at certain ages. Here is a guide to the latest findings...

Keep reading.