Unlikely Storylines

While usually it is the father or child who creates the storyline, sometimes observers (i.e., the media) take a snapshot and then create one of their own.

In the news today, for example, is the tale of how Brad Pitt has created a worldwide movement — from Australia to Norway — for men to become involved with their children. We also have the male penguin couple who are being used to save the children of a penguin pair who have not proven themselves adequate in the egg-taking-care-of department. And, finally, there is the media reporting that Mark and Andrew Madoff, sons of Bernie the bilker, were uninvolved in their papa's perfidy.

Now Brad seems to like playing dad, but the original goal was clearly to git with Angie, not lead a movement. As for the penguins, they may have had biological urges to take care of eggs (penguin fathers nest over the eggs laid by the moms), but it strains the bounds of anthropomorphism to cast the story in the light that somehow the penguins are really little gay men in tuxedos and webbed feet. And while the Madoff boys have so far turned up clean, they have long profited from dad's drive; were the major players at the firm; and so far seem to know everything about everything at the firm ... except what their dad did with $50 billion and how they might go about paying back friends, family and clients.

But at least for today, the popular story line about certain dads and their kids continues to diverge from the likely truth. Let's see what turns up tomorrow.