Newfangled Dad

The only election forecast that currently has Hillary Clinton at less than a 90% chance to win the White House is FiveThirtyEight. (85% for polls-only.) New York Times, HuffPost, PredictWise, Princeton, etc. are all above 90% as I write this. Hillary's average lead in the polls, nationally, is 6-8% with a few polls coming in at 12% yesterday. Almost none show Trump winning. Democrats are favored to pickup the Senate. Lost in the shuffle of Clinton vs Trump is that most Americans are tired of the nonsense. A few thoughtful writers have wondered why there aren't more news pieces about Hillary voters. We have volumes of analysis about the motivations of Trump voters. Far fewer articles about what's behind Hillary's triumph. Why is she winning despite being so supposedly unpopular? I think the true answer is perhaps a caution to both the right and left about the true nature of the American voting public. They're tired. It's hard to maintain this level of enthu...

This was the 3rd straight year we've driven to Ohio to run The Nationwide Children's Hospital Columbus Marathon and it continues to be an affordable, organized, excellent race to recommend to anybody who needs a fall 13.1 or 26.2. The only disappointment this year was the weather which crept to near 80 at the finish line. Columbus has a low entry fee if you sign up early, a flat course with amazing support, and a great overall feel. There's nothing to be done about the heat. But it's especially frustrating to pick--specifically--a race later in October hoping for cooler temps, run the race of your life, and still come up short due to outside factors you have no control over. The day certainly tested me mentally as much as physically for that reason. Sure, everybody gets the same conditions out there. So there were a lot of runners who had a far worse day than I ended up. I felt a little better about myself when I examined my results more carefully and realized I p...

There was a lot of talk about this lecture being sold out at my alama mater. Arrive early! First come, first served! But when I got to the church near the Lake Forest College campus at 7pm it was what you see in the photos above. It did end up filling up somewhat, but I think the rainy weather maybe drove a few people away. (I also managed to grab a bite to eat at The Lantern, alums, and trust me nothing has changed there!) For those of you who don't know Temple Grandin, I won't go over too much familiar territory that you can Google about her. I'll stick to the particulars of this event. I was especially intrigued to hear what she would talk about given that it was a general audience (even if a fairly well-educated one).  The topic for the evening was, in theory, animal welfare. But Grandin's unique mind is cross-discipline, hands-on, specifically oriented towards systems and sensory issues, so she makes a great many off-topic comments. Especially as...

Dear non-Hillary America, As the nation glows from having elected the first female ever to the White House, the well-wishes and cheers will eventually die down after Inauguration and the cold reality of governing will set in. By now, it's pretty clear where the American voting public sits and you can decide for yourself whether you're in the mainstream or not. But, let's be clear, Hillary Clinton won the most votes and that is where she should govern from. Or maybe it's not so clear to everyone that the political mainstream in the US has shifted? On one side, President Obama overwhelmingly won two terms with over 300 Electoral Votes. On the other, Republicans do well in midterm elections such as 2010 and 2014. It's hard for these two sides to come to any middle ground when they represent completely opposing ideologies and both have recent political success. After elections, there's frequently talk about mandates. Is there one? What is the mandate? There...