Arnold Schwarzenegger may get political sand kicked in his face by the Legislature or the labor unions, but when it comes to manliness, he's still "Mr. Big." In honor of Father's Day, the staff members of the Minneapolis Star Tribune rated a bunch of Daddy diaper bags for manliness (1 for "hand it over to Mom" and 10 for "just call me Schwarzenegger.")

If you saw Guy Keeler's Sunday Page 1 story on full-time fathers, you get it. Even in 2006 some people don't understand men who are willing to take a leave of office from the workplace to raise their kids. Well, who cares? I bet most of the mouthiest ones are just jealous and would like to be able to do it themselves. In Norway, for example, they consider it so important that parents take off time with their children that they pay most of their salaries for the first year so they'll stay home and bond with the new baby. But hey, probably even in Norway a guy carrying around a pursey-looking bag with bunnies and teddy bears on it is either completely secure or just asking for it.

So, it's America's entrepreneurs to the rescue. The Strib layout featured camouflage diaper bags and sporty-looking vests with that store diapers in the inside pockets. There's one that looks for the world like a a shoulder holster -- how cool that it that holds baby powder instead of a pistol. The writers describe these bags as functional and "humiliation free." The top-rated Schwarzenegger special is all black with a dragon on the front. It even has a place for his cell phone. a cell-phone. One reviewer said it went just a little too far and looked like gang daddy. Other bags sported camo patterns perfect for Marine Daddy. One had the Grateful Dead on the front. I'm amused by the names of the sources of these things: www.psychobabyonline.com; www.diaperdude. I'm definitely putting these on my list for every baby shower coming up.

Posted by Gail Marshall at 9:11 AM | Permalink

Father's Day was bittersweet this year. My husband lost his Dad a few months ago, so it was his first holiday without his father. I came across a nice little pin to give him on this occasion. I found it at Berean Christian store. It's a little lapel pin in the shape of a teardrop, with a rose engraved in the bottom of the teardrop. There's a note that goes with it, explaining the significance of the teardrop, meaning a loss, and the rose, everlasting love. They also have necklaces. They're really quite nice remembrances for a difficult "first" day like this for the grieving.

It was also tough on my husband and me because we spent Sunday morning sending this year's exchange student, Merete, back to her parents in Norway. It just happened to fall on Father's Day. Unfortunate timing. We caught a few breaks at the departure this year. Her luggage was really full but the nice people at the airport let it go through -- bless them, we so appreciated that. While we were waiting to say goodbye, some of her friends who travel to India every year say that traveling out of Fresno is vastly superior to leaving from LA or SF. The lines are shorter; the people much nicer.

I took a call from from Merete just a few minutes ago. She's safely back with her Norwegian friends and family, already partying with her homies. But she knows she'll always be a part of Fresno. She was traveling in a T-shirt that says Bullard Volleyball on it, a gift from her friend Avreeta, last year's team captain. When she stopped to change planes in Amsterdam, a girl came up to her and asked if that was Bullard High School in Fresno. Turns out she was from Visalia.

Though we had a great year with Merete, things are pretty sad and quiet in our house while we readjust to our empty nest. She did leave us with these two little kittens, Mettie and Andy, who manage to make us laugh every day with their antics.

Farewell, sweet Merete, until we meet again -- in Oslo about this time next year!

Posted by Gail Marshall at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Saturdays, The Bee turns its Op-Ed page over to local readers. This week we have three nice tributes to fathers. Katherine Andes of Hanford tells a poignant story of her imperfect, yet perfectly loveable father. Laura Pando tells about her dad's outstanding career in education and Jeff Hollis praises his father's professional and personal accomplishments.

The editorial page Saturday addresses the air-quality measures taken -- or not taken -- by the dairy industry; we praise President Bush for preserving Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument and rant and rave in the weekly Thumbs up, thumbs down commentary.

Continue reading "Window on the weekend" »

Posted by Gail Marshall at 4:52 PM | Permalink