A garage sale for your mind

A garage sale for your mind

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Latest — 05 Aug 2026

The Secret to Great Teeth is Fearing Your Dentist

My daughter came home from the dentist happy, showing off a new toy, and with a diagnosis of four new cavities. Now I have to police her teeth-brushing each night. I wish this dentist would scare the kids more.

The Secret to Great Teeth is Fearing Your Dentist — ChatGPT's silly attempt to control pre-vs-post millennialism (left vs right).

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Dentistry & Zip Lines

Is that one shady mechanic actually more trustworthy than your dentist? Several dentists we've visited have wanted to do massive amounts of completely unnecessary work. When did pediatric dentistry become an "up sell" business?

Dentistry & Zip Lines

Amateur Hour at the Pool

My daughter begged to come along on my run. I explained, gently, that she would hate every mile of it. So we compromised: chores done, we would all go to the pool instead. Only later did it dawn on me the pool was her plan all along, and the run was just her opening bid. Outnegotiated.

Amateur Hour at the Pool

You Have to Meet Me Half Way

When the baby fusses to be rescued from the living room, I crouch a few feet away and motion for him to crawl to me. He rarely budges. So I explain the theology of it: just like dispensationalism, you have to meet me half way. Not that we believe in dispensationalism here, of course.

You Have to Meet Me Half Way

Maybe If I Had Three Wives

My wife lamented all the chores she never got to, so I helpfully proposed a fix: a couple more wives to split the load. She informed me she'd already dreamed I was married to everyone at Small Group, and woke up furious about it. The harem idea is a firm no-go.

Maybe If I Had Three Wives

Where Did I Go Wrong With Joyful Children?

A discipline system foiled by children too cheerful to be deterred, a stranger foraging chanterelles on the mountain trails, a fever and a rash that jump the doctor's queue, and the seventeen acres of wild pasture I once turned into the best gym I ever had.

Where Did I Go Wrong With Joyful Children?

Telepathic Bat Signal

My kids abandon the toys in my office for days. Yet the instant I finally clean them up, they swarm back as if summoned by some telepathic bat signal, build for ten minutes, and scatter again. The cycle had to wait today, though: after a week flying solo, I drove to Alabama to bring the wife home.

Telepathic Bat Signal

Turns Out He's the Maid Today

For a week I gently reminded the kids: wash your dishes or load them, but do not dump them in the sink for "the maid" to deal with. K did it anyway. So, K became the maid for the day.

Turns Out He's the Maid Today

I Don't Like Other People's Kids

Breakfast, mandarin, math, literature, Easy Peasy, lunch, meetings, swimming, dinner, a show and bedtime. What a day.

I Don't Like Other People's Kids

Dad, were dinosaurs alive 65 million years ago?

If Adam was created a grown man, did he have a belly button? Did the first trees, made full-grown, still have rings? A backseat question about dinosaurs opens an old puzzle: what is the difference between something truly ancient and something created to look that way?

Dad, were dinosaurs alive 65 million years ago?

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