A great idea for Dad!

Let's face it. Dads can be hard to buy for. I'm no different. We often have this bad habit of buying for ourselves the things we really want.
But sometimes there are things we don't even know we want. And what a pleasant surprise when our children discover those things, and that becomes the gift.

Here is a great example. My college aged daughters came across this small book called "My Dad. His Stories. His Words." The book is full of questions, and I'm expected to answer the questions, and then gift the book back to the girls. What a great way for a Dad to tell his children the things he would like to tell them, if only they would ask. This book is a giant ask.

The questions include:

• "When you were a kid, what was your favorite holiday, and how did your family celebrate it"?
• "What's the best thing your Dad and/or Mom taught you?"
• "What are the two things you didn't tell your parents about?"

There are easy questions about things like your friends growing up, your first job and your first car.
But there are also more thought provoking questions about life lessons, who taught them to me, and what it felt like when I was first a Dad.

Recent articles have said there is a growing trend toward gifts that provide memories and experiences rather than gifts that are just mere possessions.

Filling in the answers to this book will provide a memorable experience for me, and hopefully something meaningful when I return it to my daughters with all the answers.

They are already asking "Who will get to keep the book?"

Knowing that they want to know the answers is, in itself, a gift. And I could never get this kind of joy from another sweater.

I can't wait to start filling in the answers.

(By the way, my daughter found it in a gift shop during a trip to Chicago. But she later discovered they carry it at a gift store called Frencesca's right here in Little Rock, just in case you want to surprise your Dad.)

Where has the year gone?

At this time of year, we all mutter, in some form "this year has flown by". Nothing makes you realize that until you are reminded of all the things that happened this year. If you'd like to be reminded in a visual way, the Wall Street Journal has compiled a list of pictures from the year. You can link to it here - http://t.co/EGND8o12

How many of these would you have recalled without prompting? (This is a very small list, and in no particular order)

The Casey Anthony case; The shooting of Congresswoman Gifford; The death of Steve Jobs; Charlie Sheen's fight with CBS, his ultimate firing, and his work to now re-hab his image; The April tornado, and the impact in Vilonia; The scandals at UCA; and the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. (Yes, that was all this year)

Wow, this year has flown by.

It's my new Blog.

Hello again. I say that because I started this blog back in 2008, but found I did not have the time to devote to blogging I had hoped. And like many writers, I decided that bad writing was not better than no writing, so I stopped.
Leave your blog un-attended for a long enough time, and the Blog Police take it away, and you have to start over.
That's exactly what I'm doing today. I will soon return to the air in Central Arkansas with a morning radio program. I plan to make blogging a part of that as well. I'll tell you more about that later.
In the meantime, I hope you'll make this part of your regular reading, and I'll do my best to make your time here worthwhile.