Articles from the November 24, 2006 edition

Bob Huber

I recently entered into deep debate with my dog, Cody — short for Co-dependent — concerning the relative differences between man and canine. It was Cody’s contention that dogs were intellectually superior to men. I know it’s ridiculous, but Cody is, after all, just a dog. His proof was that a man provided food, shelter and a comfortable place to sleep, and all a dog had to do was eat, sleep, stay healthy and bark at strangers. It helps if the dog occasionally wags his tail, cocks his head, and puts on an expression that sa...

The day after Thanksgiving, in my memory at least, there was inevitably an inch dusting of snow. The snow had all fallen overnight and was finished by 6 a.m., when we arose early for the first day of deer season. The rifles had all been cleaned and oiled, and the fluorescent orange caps and vests were waiting neatly on hangers. In reality it was probably raining several of those years as I was growing up. In other years, the temperature was perhaps in the 50s. Either of these would preclude the perfect tracking snow that fall...

Children are precocious in this day and age. Information is just as readily available to them as it is to us, and kids grow up faster than we would like. A few days ago, my oldest daughter, Luisa — who is almost 6 years old — came home from school with a solemn expression on her face and announced that she was sad because her “boyfriend” was moving to a different town. Talk about growing up fast. I didn’t think we would be talking about boyfriends until high school. My initial reaction was to fall off the chair I was sitti...