L, L and the P of H

Today, we celebrate dads as part of our pleasures of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For life, we celebrate — but probably not in a good sense — the daddies who will learn to be nannies for 15 minutes of fame on Brit tube's "Undercover Dads" (13 weeks of fathers playing reality Mrs. Doubtfires). For liberty, we look to role playing video games, which often feature dads as someone who dies or who must be knocked off in order to gain greater insight (and goodies) for our avatar. And in the pursuit of happiness, we have nothing but praise for David Barry Hendrickson, 71, who just couldn't let his father go ... to the point of continuing to cash $600,000 of checks the government has sent following his 1995 passing — which the government does seem to be a bit pissed about.

Subterfuge, death and larceny. It's sort of the anti-July 4th.

Why'd They Off Dad? Or Did They?

There's a Youtube-inspired rumor of a dad-son thriller coming this summer. The promo makes it seem as if it will be the tale of a son who learns about himself by learning about his dad. However, there is something odd about the video:



Maybe this is only the rough cut for the trailer for "The Sins of The Father," ostensibly the Summer 2009 release — oddly there is no movie mention on IMDB or RottenTomatoes — of a potential blockbuster about a son searching for the truth about the death of his mobbed up dad.

Of course, if there is no movie, then the mystery of the boys behing this and their dads only deepens.

Plastic Possibilities

Something about dad as a doll doesn't seem to work. That at least is the feeling that accompanies this week's objet d'eBay, Steve, the father of the mid-70s Mattel doll collection, the Sunshine Family.

Perhaps we're not ready to have dads as co-stars in doll land because it is too hard to explain all that they are and do in real life. We need one simple story for a doll to work. For example, Barbie gets to be a fabulous 50, after having a multitude of careers and adventures. The best known male doll, the GI Joe, may be "expanding the brand" into an electronic games and movies, but he still only does one thing: he fights and never fathers. What actually do fathers do in doll land?

Yes, they do whatever the kids who play with them imagine dads could do. But what really do kids imagine dads do other than go off to work? The measure of how far we are from the "stay-at-home-dad doll" is the telling sign of when dads will achieve true equality.