Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

Bringing Pride to Upstate New York

Thursday, June 1st, 2023
SUNY Cortland Badge in the Pride colors

As mentioned before, when my son started school at Cal Poly SLO, I added a Cal Poly Pride shirt to my wardrobe. I wanted to show my support for him, his school, and the LGBTQ+ community. Naturally, when my daughter started college last fall, I pulled up her school’s online college bookstore to order myself a pride shirt. Alas, it was not to be.

My daughter is a musical theatre kid through and through — so much so that she is braving the bitter cold of upstate, middle-of-nowhere New York to get a BFA in MT from a little, no-name state college that just happens to have a great musical theatre program. In fact, the entire performing arts department is just musical theatre and they pretty much have the entire Dowd Performing Arts building to themselves. She’s attending the State University of New York (SUNY) Cortland in Cortland, NY.

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Memories of Prides Past

Tuesday, June 1st, 2021

I’m not going to lie — the last year or so has been a doozy. My kids’ school shut down in March and, like everyone else, we’ve been just trying to keep our heads above water. College selection, high school graduation, senior dance performance, summer teaching job — all these were scaled back or shifted to virtual for my oldest. The robotics competition season was simply cancelled; our living room became a storage locker for tools and materials, in case the kids were able to work on their robot outside the school or over the summer. This past school year was all online — my oldest did go off to school but took his classes from his dorm room, while the other two attended Zoom school in their bedrooms. My wife turned our dining room into her classroom, complete with posters and number corners; she worked overtime all summer learning new technologies and creating materials to teach remotely.

And so, here we are at the start of another Pride Month and — I’ll be honest — I’ve not really had the time or energy to think about it. Heck, I haven’t even really been wearing my pride shirts (but in my defense, I haven’t been wearing anything, so…)

With that in mind, I’m thinking about it now. Specifically, I’m thinking about Prides past.

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Alex P. Keaton and the Fourth of July

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

I have an early memory — probably from about age four or five — of Fourth of July fireworks.  We had gone to see the big fireworks show and I was in bed trying to go to sleep.  Back then, however, firecrackers and bottle rockets were completely legal and larger explosives were not uncommon.  To a young child, however, the noise was terrifying — I knew for sure that one of those fireworks I was hearing was going to land on our roof and burn the house down with all of us in it.  And perhaps that’s why I’m an ultra-liberal these days.  Yes, before you head out to that Fourth of July parade or fire up the Independence Day barbecue, you might want to take a look at what a new study has to say about the lasting effects of such festivities.

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A Summer of Cinema

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Has summer vacation snuck up on you as it has the rest of us?  Are you staring at three months of “I’m bored!” and wracking your brain (and searching the internet) for activities that will keep them busy and happy without driving you insane or sending you to the poorhouse?  Are you looking at the cost of summer camps and wondering how much your kidney would sell for — assuming you could even find a spot at any price?  Well, help is here.

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Dreaming a Dream

Monday, January 17th, 2011

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the US, a federal holiday.  That means that the kids don’t have school so, because I don’t have to get them up and out the door, I get an extra hour of sleep while still heading off to work at the usual time.  But I worry about that.  I worry that, for most people, that is the extent of the meaning of this day off — a holiday in honor of some dead guy that did something at some point in history.  Is that enough, however, or do we, as parents, have a responsibility to our children to make it something more than that?

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Martin Luther King Jr. Versus The Snow Day

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

On the one hand, it is important to recognize the life and accomplishments of the great Martin Luther King, Jr.  On the other hand, educating our children is just about the most important task we have as a society.  So what do we do when a school district needs to make up for snow days and the only option available seems to be the reverend doctor’s holiday?

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A Parent’s New Year’s Resolutions For 2011

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

At the start of the New Year, it’s traditional for people to make sweeping statements about how they plan to improve themselves or their situation in the coming year.  I could certainly do that — I definitely need to lose weight, I’d like to yell at the kids a little less, I really ought to work more on getting my book published — but that would only benefit me or, at most, my family.  So I thought I’d take a look at the big picture and come up with some resolutions that will help kids all over.

So with that in mind, here is A Parent’s New Year’s Resolutions for 2011:

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Surprise Boy To Surprise Troops

Monday, December 27th, 2010

Did your kids make you a holiday card?  Did they perhaps make cards for their best friends too?  If they were really industrious, they might have made one for each of their classmates.  No matter what, however, if Stephen Goodman reaches his goal, your kids will look like real slackers in comparison.  His plan is to send a holiday card to members of the U.S. Military actively deployed overseas.  All of them.

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Happy Year-End-Holiday-Of-Your-Choice!

Saturday, December 25th, 2010

Whatever you celebrate this time of year, we at Safari Dad wish for the best for you.  May your wishes be joyous, your loved ones close, and your gifts as plentiful as they are meaningful.

Happy holidays to you and yours!

Top Ten Christmas Movies For Kids

Friday, December 24th, 2010

Sure, this time of year, everyone goes on and on about The Christmas Story and “you’ll shoot your eye out”, but I’m not sure that younger kids really get that movie.  Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are far too violent and The Ref, while one of my favorite holiday films, is certainly not suitable for kids unless you want them to be able to hold their own with Uncle “Foul-Mouth” Phil.  So what are good movies for kids this time of year?  Here are the ones I came up with:

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