Thursday, September 27, 2007

Mo Rocca 180: Whose Your Sperm Donor Daddy?

Comedian Mo Rocca posted the below text and video on his site:

There's a sperm bank-ruptcy crisis in America right now. The AP reports: "A ban on sperm from all European countries with exposure to mad cow disease means U.S. sperm banks are running low." The ban includes sperm from 30 countries.

So American women are facing narrower choices. As The New York Post put it:

"Couples who once hoped to purchase samples from square-jawed, strapping Norsemen living in Lillehammer will have to settle for locksmiths, bartenders and struggling writers from less exotic locales, such as Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Rego Park, Queens, and Hackensack, N.J."

Given the increasingly limited options, how would you answer the questions we posed to New York's women...

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Meeting Another DI Child

My son does not realize it yet but he has a classmate that like him was DI conceived. Whether that makes it easier for either of them is unclear but if they both stay in this school they will be able to have each other to turn to for the next 6 years if they ever questions that their parents can't answer or if they choose not to pose to us.

In our last neighborhood we knew one or two kids who were DI conceived to single moms. This child is the first he's met, or we've met, who has two moms.

My wife was the first to introduce ourselves to one of this child's moms. I guess, knowing that families and their structures are a major part of this kindergarten's curriculum she wanted to say hello to this family and let them know that their son is not alone.

When I formally met this mom I indicated meeting other DI parents was new for us. This mom like me is the social parent and from what my wife told me we are the first heterosexual couple she has met that used DI. I somehow felt compelled to disclose this blog and how I had spent the last two years writing it and being totally absorbed by this stuff.

Anyhow it gives me some comfort to know there is another kid nearby that is more like my son than either of them even know......for now.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

The Left Handed Gene Did Not Come From Me

Last week I took my son and his two grandfathers to a New York Mets game. Like many 5 year olds his attention span is not that long especially for topics he is not totally enthralled by. This being his second baseball game in his life he was more interested in the food. The kid scarfed down a hot dog, popcorn, cotton candy and ice cream and he was not sick. If he did get sick it would be my fault (per his mother) for all three adults succumbing to his suckering us into buying him all that "food".

Anyhow between eating and mildly paying attention to the game he spent much of his time writing down the names of subway and LIRR stations into his speckle covered composition notebook. My dad was amazed that his grandson was a lefty. He commented that in generations of of our family there has never been a lefty. I reminded him that those generations stopped with me and the other granddad (my father-in-law) was a lefty. He replied that you can "inherit" being a lefty? It was all said in fun and I felt no pain.

I just hope that this kid's handwriting will improve. But I have yet to meet a lefty whose handwriting is really that neat. Poor kid.