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Where your taxes go

It's tax season. Sober up.

For every $100 you pay in federal taxes...

• $51, more than half of all the money you pay, goes to defense.
• Just $3 goes to veterans medical care, burial, and benefits.
• $3 goes to homeland security.
  
• A measly $3 goes to medical research.

Completely. out. of. whack.

This is a great map, though out of date (2004) - I think we can guess how the defense numbers are trending now. Click it to make the map bigger. If you want a more readable one, email me and I'll send it to you.

Midlife happiness crisis

Photo originally uploaded by tantek via Flickr

Money doesn't make us happy. Even though we sometimes think it will, it never does. Studies even prove it.

And the very fact that money can't be used to measure happiness and success has led some economists to move beyond money, to study happiness itself.

A recent large-scale study reveals a U-shaped pattern. We start out pretty happy and then apparently from age 16 to age 45, there is a steady decline in happiness.

How unhappy are we then? Well, relatively speaking, our age has a larger effect on our happiness than if our incomes were suddenly reduced by half.

Luckily, it gets better. After the age of 45 there is a remarkable 15-year upswing in happiness. How happy are we then? Well, we're happier than if someone suddenly doubled our income.

So, how do we climb out of that deep well of relative unhappiness? Economists can only speculate, but they believe it's got to come from all that wisdom gained in the trench.

I actually think the years between 16 and 45 are some of the best of our lives. The only problem? We're sometimes confused, often busy and as we get a bit older, exhausted.

But occasionally we get clear glimpses of our lives. In the midst of figuring out the world and our relationships, finishing college, raising babies, building careers, caring for family members...in all of that delicious, exhausting, maddening flurry, we have those transcendent moments and we know how lucky we are to be here. How good it is.

Hey, I'm 44 this year so that means I'm just emerging from the trench. So if this study is true, it's nothing but up from here! Am I smarter from having gone through those years? Absolutely. But still so much to learn. Onward.

Read the whole article at Slate.

On being Irish

I have fond memories of growing up in an Irish American family. In grade school I took Irish dancing, not ballet. I went to Catholic school, not public. And the Duncan's and the McGuires would get together to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

My Aunt Kay's house on Seneca Parkway was huge and filled with kids. My cousin Maggie and I would find little nooks and crannies and play for hours - in the big bay window in the dark office, or in the closet of her room. These were magic places.

One year my mother made a sheet cake to bring for St. Patrick's day and set it out on the back step to cool. Well, didn't my grandfather open the back door and step right in it!

I'll never forget how we laughed as we cut around the footprint and reshaped the cake into a shamrock on another platter. And then of course all day "the cake" was part of the banter and the laughter...that lovely, warm laughter that the Irish wrap around the sadness, despair and joys of life...and that wry, deadpan humor that we all still have, because it's been passed down to us for generations.

So last night I celebrated St. Patrick's Day with Bob, Dan, Dan and Alicia and their friends. We met at The Skellig.

In the back room there was a band that reminded us of the Dady Brothers. Dan Schreiner and I danced and danced through one song - me remembering all my Irish step dancing as I went, and Dan doing a great job making it up!

In the front room musicians gathered at a table in the center of the room with penny whistles, fiddles and drum and beat out that lilting Irish tunes.

The Harpoon Pipe Band made the rounds and wowed us with their bagpipes and such drumming as we'd only seen at drum corps shows. We all stamped out the rhythm with our feet until it went so fast we couldn't keep up.

And we of course we toasted it all with Guinness and Murphy's stout.

It was a simple and a fine way to celebrate, not so much St. Patrick, but the joys of being alive and the blessings and the curses of being Irish...and the music and the laughter and poetry that sustain us.

Yeats said it best...

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with gold and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

- William Butler Yeats, 1899

Help build our family tree

I just found out about this site and it's so simple and so powerful, it's amazing no one has thought of it before.

You may get an email from me inviting you to help build our family tree. Login and add the names that you know of that are missing. We can do it together and that way fill in all the blanks. You can also add pictures and a bunch of other information over time.

Flag's up!

Obligatory dog picture! Awwww...

The Red Towel

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago...
Molly was engaged to be married.
Well, OK, one night at 2am she proposed to Bob at the Peppermill Diner and he said "yes."
And so they were planning a unique three day party to celebrate the event.
Her numerous soon-to-be sisters and mother-in-law explained that she had to have a shower.
To which Molly said "No way! That’s too traditional and I don’t want people to have to buy stuff for us!"
So her 4 sisters-in-law and mother-in-law planned one anyway.
It came time to send out the invitations for the shower.
They called and told her she had to give them a list of ideas for gifts.
To which Molly said "No way! Too traditional! I’m not telling them to buy me things!"
So Sharon (of course) called up and said "OK I’m making the list. What’s on it?"
In Molly and Bob’s tiny Boston apartment they had just bought a red shower curtain.
So Molly replied "OK, red towels."
And then Sharon pulled a bunch of other ideas out of her too.
But red towels topped the list.
The big day arrived.
Molly, a nervous wreck, sat down in front of a lot of people.
Many she didn’t really know. Some she hadn’t met. A few she hadn’t seen in years.
Her sisters-in-law were just loving every minute of it.
They would pass gifts to her and she would open them.
And quite often she would rip off the paper and exclaim,
"Oooooo! Red Towels!"
And it kept happening.
After a while the whole assembled crowd would exclaim,
"Oooooo! Red Towels!"
There were that many.
For years afterward, when Molly and Bob did laundry
They had three piles…
Lights, Darks, and Reds

To commemorate the occasion,
the family now passes along the same red towel
to anyone in the family having a bridal shower.

And Saturday it was Jenna's turn.
Look at all the goodies!

TV habits shifting

Every year Dylan and I pick a few shows to watch together. One used to be American Idol but he says it's jumped the shark. He calls it "boring" and complains it's "always the same." I still like it, but I can see what he means.

I've been noticing that the way Dylan and I watch Idol and other shows has changed dramatically. Namely, my laptop is sometimes the TV and online video and blogs now round out the experience.

• I watch Idol but I sometimes just watch clips online.
  
• We just started watching Idol Critic online. The host, Liza Persky, is great and runs down all the stuff you said about Idol that week, plus some stuff you thought, but didn't say out loud. Oh, and she says it better and with clips.
  
• Another show we watch is 24, which has become quite absurd at this point so it's more like a comedy - it pretty much jumped the shark last year. But we have fun because we watch it at the same time we read live updates to Dave Barry's blog. WAY funnier that way.
  
• Since we usually watch 24, we catch up on Heroes (which airs at the same time as 24) by watching it when we have time on my laptop. If we watch Heroes on TV, then we catch up on 24 on my laptop.
  
• We watch a lot of Daily Show, Colbert Report and SNL clips online and often miss the shows on TV.

So I know I could be like Marty and go the DVR/TiVo route. But the low tech solution of just carrying my laptop into the living room is where I'm at now.

Here's Idol Critic:

Michael's Diplomatic Adventure

Congrats to my nephew Michael who has been accepted into the People to People Student Ambassador Program. It's designed to promote international understanding and build leadership skills for young Americans.

This summer he'll spend 21 days in Europe and along with seeing the sites with kids his age he'll meet with government officials, do educational activities and stay with host families.

If he's going to be a diplomatic ambassador, it's a good thing he's been practicing by playing Diplomacy...

You may have received a letter from Michael asking for donations to fund his adventure. The costs are steep, and like Dylan is doing for his Scottish adventure, Mike is working jobs to help pay for it. So send the young man a check if you can.

Just look at his face playing Diplomacy...he's obviously cut out for strategic alliances...or is that the look of hopeful world domination? Hmm... :-)

Netflix

1989. That was the year the movie Powwow Highway came out. In our memory, it has remained one of our favorite indie films.

Well, thanks to Netflix, we know it's as good as we remember it. Really. Check it out.

We started Netflix this winter and we love it. All four of us load up the queue with movies we want to see and they just appear in our mailbox in those signature re-mailable envelopes.

Watch and return them (postage free - we just stick them in our home mailbox for pick up) and they send you the next one. Great system.

Today we got Flushed Away (Drew), The Illusionist (Me) and Man of the Year comes tomorrow (Dylan). Bob had his pick this weekend, Lagaan (hey, he's into Bollywood movies).

Jonny boy

There's a new blog in the family!

Jon is a freshman at Fredonia State and he's loving it. Well, most of it.

The girlfriend is good. Isn't she cute?

But Jon's roommate didn't quite work out. In fact he blew some serious chunks.

Hey, I didn't have a blog when I was in college. So there is no bloggish record of the crazy, bone-headed things I did. There's only a poem or two.

But thank God we won't lose Jon's college experience to the sands of time. Welcome to blogging Jon! We can't wait to read more.

Oh, and I learned a lot from you about LeBron. Thanks.

Back in time

Here's an update on Art Buchwald, still making people laugh even after he's gone, like we've talked about before.

Bob just called and he's in Mill Valley having a drink at the 2 AM Club...that's the last place my brothers were before their tragic accident. It's in the town we almost moved to last summer.

He says it's a lot like California Brew House. So it's making me feel good to know that he's there raising a glass to Ian and Jim.

I did a search on the 2AM Club and lookee what I found on Wikipedia:

The 2 AM Club is a popular bar in Mill Valley, California. It is best known as being the location of the cover photo of the Huey Lewis and the News' album Sports. Known locally as "The Deuce", it is a popular watering hole. ^[1]

Formerly known as "The Brown Jug", which was opened by Bill Brown there on the corner of Miller and Montford. Prohibition caused its closure in 1921. It reopened in 1933 with the same name, but became the 2 A.M. Club in about 1940.

The famous "toilet seat" guitar created by Charlie Deal still hangs behind the bar.

The night before Thanksgiving is commonly known by locals as "Black Wednesday", when hordes of Tamalpais High School alums descend upon the bar to reconnect during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Ha! Love. It.

Gladys

Dorothy sent me this and you have just got to check it out. I'm still laughing. Be sure and watch both videos...

Walnut Hill

Next year Dylan starts high school. I still can't believe it.

The whole world is opening up for him and he's ready to do new things. I was looking for a new summer experience for him and found Walnut Hill. It's a private boarding school based in Natick, Mass. for high school kids that "have demonstrated artistic talent and a commitment to developing themselves as artists."

When we toured the school with Dylan one of the instructors made the observation that if you're an athlete there are a huge number of enrichment options, specialized camps and teams for you. But if you're an artist, the path is not so clearly laid and specialized programs mostly don't exist. So true!

Walnut Hill focuses on performing, visual and creative arts and kids from all over the world apply. It routinely produces the highest number of students accepted to the Juilliard School. Its ballet students are often accepted right out of high school to perform in the top companies. It's competitive to get in and intense once you're there - even for the summer programs. They only take kids that have the talent and maturity to handle it.

When we told Dylan about it and was immediately interested in the summer theatre and creative writing programs. But he definitely felt intimidated! Would he even make it in? It was like applying to college. Multiple letters of recommendation. Essays. Photos. DVD of a performance. High application fee. Dylan even submitted an excerpt of a story he'd written into a writing competition - first prize is a full scholarship to the summer writing program. And let me tell you, it's not cheap!

Well, this week we got the news. He was accepted into both the theatre program and the creative writing program! Now he had to choose. The theatre program is amazing - 5 weeks, 5 shows - all professionally taught, directed, staged and costumed. State of the art.

But a week ago we went up and sat in on a creative writing class...and Dylan absolutely loved it. It reminded me of my favorite lit classes in college. Plus, the summer creative writing kids get to go on a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. I think that put him right over the edge.

Edinburgh Castle

So get this. He's going to be away for three weeks. First living on campus where he'll do intensive writing and reading workshops - screen plays, prose, poetry. The program has three instructors - all professional writers, not professors. There are only 20 kids in the program. Then they fly to Edinburgh for a week where they focus on Scottish writers and tour extensively. Wow.

Our baby is peeking over the nest, getting ready to fly for the first time, solo. Very exciting. It's really striking us how, as parents, if we do our job right...they leave. And we've only just started the process. Mombo summed it up...once they hit high school "it all goes very fast. Enjoy every second."

The deal is he has to get a job to help pay for it. Anyone need a babysitter?

Waring ArtWorks

Dylan has gone to The Waring School Summer ArtWorks program for the last few summers. It was great for him. He did things like theatre, improv, strategy games, and cartooning. The kids roam all over the campus and it's a really supportive and fun environment with smart, creative and caring kids, teachers and counselors.

Drew is going to go there for the first time this summer. He's signed up for the video major. The kids work together to shoot movies and it culminates in a final project that they show on the last day of camp. It's always really funny. Drew's really looking forward to it.

Waring is a day camp that runs for the whole month of July from 8-4pm. It's located in Beverly it takes 20 mins or so to get there and we car pool with other parents.