Rolling in the Dough

What would be a great gift for a baby who will never know his biological father? Why a father who bakes, of course. An even better gift? Two fathers who bake. That is the great fortune of Caleb St. Germain-Donnelly, adopted five days after birth by the co-owners of the Cranston, R.I., Little Falls Bakery & Café. As father Jeff told the Providence Journal, "“He’s just happy."

[No Apostrophed] Im So [Achy Breaky] Sad

You hate to kick a dad when he's dad. So, let's just think of this as a slight foot bump to Billy Ray Cyrus. [Earlier: Picture This and Achy Breaky Dad ]. There have been a variety of (mostly faux media-induced) scandals surrounding daughter Miley. The newest is her legally getting kooky on salvia. His response as a father is to tweet his heart, "Im [sic] so sad":

Four tweets. Sad about his daughter videoed smoking salvia; happy to be following "Jesus tweets"; peddling his show; and quoting JFK on the importance of living by his words. (Is he trying to choke irony all by his lonesome?)

Normally you'd ask "what are you thinking?" Sadly, he seems to be sharing an oblivious and self-absorption that certainly seems unlikely to score him points in most father of the year contests. Oh (and here's the foot bump), it's probably not so good for his daughter either.

Something Is Not Everything ... But It Still Is Something

Playing the blues is defined by the mix of the sacred and profane. Living the blues is also a mix of the high and low. As Claudette King told Essence about performing while being one of a legend's 15 children:

I have to stand up as an artist and represent B.B. King to the fullest -which is hard to do at times. Whatever is expected out of me has to be beyond great. Being his child my music has to be almost flawless because my father is a legend. That can be challenging.

A legend, though is not necessarily the most available father. Dad King referred to his 275-plus days a year of touring schedule when he explains:

I have regrets about what I did, how I've done it, at all. I haven't been the best father to my children, and the reason why I haven't been the best father to them is, I haven't always been there when they needed me. But my mind and love was always there. And thinkin' of their education, how they would be when they grew up, has been one of my motivating forces that have kept me doin' what I'm doin', to make sure that I leave something for them that I didn't have when I came.

Daughter King doesn't actually sing the blues in her first CD, We're Onto Something. She mixes a bit of daddy and a bit of all the influences making their way in when dad wasn't around. The result is not her father, but nothing that is going to embarrass him either.

Find more artists like Claudette King at Myspace Music

Dad Went Vroom Vroom

There's something special about every father. Every child should celebrate what's special and so it is worth noting a daughter's look at The Original Hot Rodder, as Kathy Anne Hanks Waddill Ridley's thinks of pop, Bill Waddill.

Waddill was a racer, mechanic, Flint, Mich., shop owner in the post WW II years who shared the urge of the father he could not remember, as the elder died in a 1928 race. The son went on to set records at Bonneville and other tracks, as well as standards for hot rodding car looks. He was a west coast guy who happened to live just outside Car Town (Detroit), USA.

Fair warning to the reader. The book's subtitle, Biography of Bill Waddill His History of Hot Rodding and the Genesee Gear Grinders, is representative of a certain clunkinesss. The pics are there; the story is heart warming. But to stretch a metaphor a hot rod is not a Maserati ....

Have A Baby by Ne

In July, rapper Ne-Yo told CNN, "I'm terrified, I'm gonna be all the way honest. I've never seen myself as a father, you know what I mean" Still, babies do arrive and so Shaffer Chimere Smith is claiming Madilyn Grace Smith as his own even as he is not yet claiming her mama as his one true love. Of course, to be fair in 2005 when he claimed the son of his girlfriend as his own it turned out he wasn't actually the father.

In any case, as he sang with 50 Cent, Have A Baby By Me:

Hoff Is Off Again

You can't fault David Hasselhoff for trying. He tried Making Waves for his daughters with a book. [Earlier: Dadelusions] Now, he's giving it a shot with reality (?) television on The Hasselhoffs. All of this, allegedly, is being done in the interests of sparking the lives and careers of his daughters, now 18 and 20 years old. So don't fault the try, but the execution? If the whole point for the father to make his daughters the star he is now, then it can be well feared that he might succeed.

Fathers who change a very public belief should have to be ready to explain the decision to their children. However, should they also have to convince a judge they've done the right thing?

That is the question faced by Indiana pops Craig Scarberry, who lost 80 hours a week of custody (going from 50-50 to four hours a week based on a court decision) with his kids by changing his religious orientation to agnosticism from Christianity. His divorce settlement did include an agreement that the ex-spouses to "communicate effectively" about religion and other matters. Is he not communicating effectively about his change ... or might there be more at play here?

Dragon Time

Shannon Lee is taking her father, Bruce, where he never went before even though she hasn't seen him since he died when she was four.

The San Francisco-born martial arts legend passed in 1973, leaving Shannon and son Brandon — who died while filming The Crow. Unwelcome in mainland China during his lifetime, in part thanks to daughter Shannon's deal-making wizardry, the "Little Dragon" is having statues and theme parks erected in his honor as China pursues new opportunities in making money and "hay" from his life.