Happy Father’s Day

… to all fathers; particularly:

• mine own
• mine by marriage (two living, one deceased)

My family almost always spends the day with Karin’s dad and his dad, in Goshen. We eat grilled meats, then go out strolling in the heat. Today it was painfully bright if not quite sweltering. We took the boys to a park.

Photos of my progeny: Samuel, Daniel, Abel.

Notice Samuel’s fighter jet: a gift from his grandpa, who, I believe, had just toured the Grissom Air Reserve base. (Daniel got one, too.)

The boys all loved the swings. Daniel fell off his, soon after the pic was taken.

I’m not used to being celebrated. It’s been only a few years since I became a father. Karin asked if I wanted anything. I said an opportunity to mow, a fastfood snack, and a thriftstore book hunt; and that’s what I got.

Body-text fonts, pt. 14: Weiss

For Easter, we went to Goshen, where Karin’s dad’s parents live. Samuel found the touchscreen that controls his great-grandparents’ security system. He set off the alarm and instigated a confrontation with the police. … This is the third time he has summoned the emergency services. Some months ago he called 911, but I was able to pursuade the operator that it wasn’t an emergency. Another time, I saw an ambulance travel up and down our street; the driver seemed unable to figure out which house had issued the summons. I checked my call log and learned that Samuel had again called 911. … Since that day, if I catch him playing with my phone, I toss him immediately and mercilessly into the Chokey.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

I found a copy of Tikki Tikki Tembo upon the library sale cart. Surely, I thought, the library is divesting itself of this outdated and offensive tale! I paid a few cents and brought it home. …

(It turns out, the library has retained four copies – one of which is missing.)

Perhaps, despite its window-dressing, Tikki Tikki Tembo isn’t really about the Chinese – at least, no more than A Comedy of Errors, with its italianate duke and its Roman Catholic abbess, is about the historic city-state of Ephesus. …

No, that’s disingenuous. Justly or unjustly, the book satirizes the Chinese ethic of filial piety. Perhaps this subversiveness is what has made Samuel so fond of Tikki Tikki Tembo. He listens to it three or four times or until we make him stop. Fortunately, we don’t have to read it to him; he puts on a CD with a reading by Marcia Gay Harden (it was included in a flap at the back of the book). Whenever it’s time to turn a page, a gong sounds and Samuel turns the page and does a little dance.

Daniel, I am sorely tempted to call “Chang” – the name of the second son – but he already has plenty of nicknames.

The book is set in Weiss:

Other books set in Weiss:

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart.

Harold Bloom: Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

I am told that the design of the Swedish typeface Berling was inspired by Weiss.

Ancestry

There is a surge of COVID-19 across the land. Even so, last night, several dozen descendants of Karin’s father’s parents gathered in the small ancestral house for a Christmas party that had been postponed by December’s storm.

This photo shows representatives of three generations. Daniel sits upon his grandfather. Standing, hunched over, is Daniel’s young granduncle. (I am almost as old as he is.) Finally, there is Daniel’s great-grandfather – Karin’s grandfather. Karin’s generation isn’t represented in the photo.

I ate barbecued meatballs and wieners and bemusedly watched the many children scurry around. Our own boys were shell-shocked by all the relatives and gifts.

Now that we are at home and things have quieted down, Samuel’s favorite present is a miniature basketball hoop-and-balls set given to Daniel. Daniel’s favorite present is a large, plush, green dragon given to Samuel, which Karin has named Draco.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Karin’s grandfather was adopted. Recently, he took a DNA test and learned about some of his biological relations. He spoke last night of Scottish, English, and Irish ancestors. (He used to say he was Hungarian.)

Karin’s mom also was adopted. Much of Karin’s ancestry – and our children’s – is unknown.

As for mine: Mary’s DNA was profiled a few years ago, and it turns out that I and my siblings are largely North African. “Which is hardly surprising,” David said, “when you think of what we share with Mohamed Salah, Zinedine Zidane, et al. …”

A visit to Mexico; Easter; body-text fonts, pt. 2: Trump Mediaeval

Samuel asked to do an Easter egg hunt. We never taught him this custom. He must have learned it from the TV.

Karin bought the candy and plastic eggs. Her dad and his girlfriend Carol had Samuel over on Saturday to do the hunt. They kept him until Easter morning.

At home, it was very quiet, very peaceful.

Karin & I took Daniel out to a Mexican restaurant that we hadn’t tried. The other diners all knew each other. They also knew the prices, which weren’t written on the menu. I felt sorry to have to ask what the food cost, but it was good that I did: some of the meals weren’t cheap.

We watched a mariachi concert on the huge TV. The singer rode around the arena upon a dancing horse.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The next day, quite a few people were in church for the Easter service. Three were baptized in a kiddie pool. Then we went to the city of Goshen so that Daniel could meet that branch of Karin’s family. Samuel was a great hit with his second cousins, girls aged eight to fifteen.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

And now, this month’s font, which is Trump Mediaeval.

(Samuel has the qualities of Matilda and the others in the Wormwood family. He is a great reader of books, but he also watches plenty of TV.)

I considered typesetting my dissertation with this font because (a) I was writing about political philosophy, and (b) at the time, Trump was the POTUS. But I chose a different font instead.