Author: Brad Willis

A New Year’s wish

My three-year-old son just fell asleep on my chest. It’s gray outside, spitting little wet snowflakes and rain on cold ground. It’s the kind of weather that makes you sleepy no matter how much...

Dads

My dad died a year ago today. I was in China when it happened. In the hours I struggled to get back home from halfway around the world, I remember wondering how I would...

Election Day 2012: Live from America’s Couch

2:48am–Before I go personal, let me offer this objective view of tonight’s election: Nate Silver and his 538 model are literally the most important thing to come out of tonight’s vote. You may not...

Mastodon Weekend 2012: Evolved

I didn’t think I needed medical attention when the first guy leaned over me and asked, “Are you okay?” I told him I was and that I just needed to catch my breath. He...

Second grade soldier

My son learned to roller skate less than 48 hours ago. He’d be ashamed to admit it, but there were tears at first, but then lots of skating. Twenty-four hours earlier, I took him...

What they don’t tell you about parenting…

is that one night everything will go perfectly, the boys will eat their dinner without complaint–with compliments!–and offer almost no protest at bedtime. You will pour a glass of wine, sit down to watch...

Using John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck died in 1968, four years before the landmark Furman v. Georgia capital punishment decision by the United States Supreme Court. It was the first moratorium on the death penalty in the U.S....