Nicole and I took the kids out to Longs Park on Sunday afternoon. We had a good time just relaxing, goofing off at one of the playgrounds, and hanging out at the petting zoo. Yes, I said “the petting zoo.” At a park!
This is just one of the many reasons why I love Lancaster County. 
And here I thought I was the only one:
For those of you who don’t know what this is about, you were apparently doing your homework or something equally unimportant when the rest of us were watching “Perchance to Dream.” That, of course, is the now-infamous episode of Batman: The Animated Series where the Caped Crusader gets stuck in a Mad Hatter-induced dream world. Ol’ Brucey didn’t realize he was dreaming, however, until a crucial point where he attempted to read a newspaper (9:35 in this clip)—and the text was jumbled beyond all recognition. In the climax of the episode, Bruce gives us this encapsulated science lesson:
“That’s because reading is the function of the right-side of the brain, while dreams come from the left-side. It’s impossible to read something in a dream.”
One of the things that sets Batman apart from a bunch of other superheroes is that he’s supposed to be a detective (one of his “official” nicknames is “World’s Greatest Detective”), so when Mr. Wayne dishes out a nugget like this, his fans assume they’re being taught something that’s… well… true. The show left us young viewers under the impression that you really couldn’t read text when you were dreaming. Which meant that when I later had dreams where I could read, I took it to mean that I was special or had some sort of above-average right/left brain connection.
And now, finally, after years of bewilderment and self-doubt, my gullibility has been immortalized in a webcomic.
As we’re getting ready to move, we’ve gotten to the point where we’re packing up most of the kids’ toys. That got us wondering: what with all of the recalls that have been issued lately because of lead paint and all (why on earth isn’t China under a trade embargo yet?), are any of the toys in our house unsafe? I mean, Joshua seems like he’s half-puppy; he’s always chewing on something.
So while looking around, I got a bit overwhelmed by the huge lists of recalls. Thankfully, it looks like we’re okay, but I was wondering if there might be an easier way to keep track of new notices.
Well, there is. Just plug the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s child products RSS Feed into your feed reader of choice (Google Reader, Feedblitz, Sage, etc.) and you’ll get updates as other items are recalled! (The CPSC provides a number of other recall feeds, too.)
I hope you find that as helpful as I do. 
Date-Dabitur just blew the dust off of a conversation between Nathan Chilton and his dad, David. It’s really funny (and profound) at spots, including:
Nathan: Well, why aren’t these people happy? Do they think heaven is a sad place to be?
Papa: I think they’re sad because they’re thinking about their sins.
Nathan: But they’ve been forgiven, and now they’re in heaven! They’re supposed to be thinking about Jesus!
Papa: Oh, they’re thinking of Him, too. They’re sad because they’re thinking about Him dying on the cross.
Nathan: But He’s not dying anymore. The whole reason we’re doing this is that He came alive, right?
Papa: Right.
Nathan: Well, I don’t think they could be sad about Jesus. I think they’re sad ’cause they had to eat those icky crackers and drink that dumb old Kool-Aid.
My favorite part was the following exchange (because it seems to sum up so many things for me):
Nathan: Is this as confusing to them as it is to me?
Papa: It might be if they thought about it much.
