May 25 2016

Brad Pitt Stops A Kid From Getting Crushed By Fans (Video)

This is kinda nice. Brad Pitt stops a kid from getting crushed by fans in Spain, or to use the lingua franca of the place where it happened, “Brad Pitt rescata a niña en rodaje de Allied”. Allied is the movie Mr. Pitt was filming, and he took a break in order to say hello to a crowd. More specifically, he waved at a rather large group of people who were clearly REALLY stoked to see him.

DaddyTips Featured Video

But perhaps they were a little bit too stoked. According to the story, and the video backs this up, a little girl was being crushed against the fence. Mr. Pitt saw this and had his bodyguards pick her up and pull her out of the crowd, then comforted her until medical staff arrived. Here’s the video.

I think this is an example of how having kids changes a person. Not that I don’t think Mr. Pitt would have done this before becoming a dad. But the behavior, to my eye, looks very parental. There are things that become instinctual after you have children of your own. In this case, that was a good thing.

Via Time


Nov 12 2015

Demaryius Thomas’ Mom Will See Him Play in the NFL for the First Time This Week

Denver Broncos Wide Receiver Demaryius Thomas’ mom will see play in the NFL for the first time this week. Why does this matter? Well, it’s a nice story. It’s also one of the rare times that parenting and fantasy football intersect. Since I do both of those things, I had to write about it.

Stay with me. There’s a point here. I promise.

English: Demaryius Thomas, a player on the Den...

English: Demaryius Thomas, a player on the Denver Broncos American football team. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From FantasyPros.com:

Thomas will face the worst secondary in the NFL and will be playing with a little more on the line. Peyton Manning is fully aware that this will be the first time Thomas’ mother will see him play in a professional football game, and he will make it a special day. I am going bold here in predicting two touchdowns for Thomas this weekend.

Emphasis added.

I will admit that my heart likes the analysis. Read more »


Jun 21 2015

Sopranos for Fathers Day

Last year, HBO recommended an episode of The Sopranos for Fathers Day. It kinda makes sense, as long as you don’t watch it with your kids (depending on how old they are, of course).

The specific episode recommended by HBO is called “College” (Season One, Episode Five).

Sopranos on Father's Day

 

In it, Tony Soprano (played of course by the late and very great James Gandolfini) takes his daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) on a trip to visit colleges. Since this is The Sopranos, Tony gets sidetracked by some unexpected business.

It’s an early episode of the show — it first aired on February 7, 1999, according to Wikipedia —  and is very good. (Sorry! Forgot to say “spoiler alert.”) It certainly deals with father-daughter issues in a unique way, as did the show as a whole. One of the many great things about The Sopranos was seeing Tony try to be a dad while also conducting his, ahem, legitimate business dealings.

If you want to double-down on Gandolfini for Fathers Day, you can also watch the film Enough Said, which stars Mr. Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. (Catherine Keener is also terrific in a smaller role.) The two have great chemistry, and it’s a nice movie that is also parenting/dad-themed, and it has a fun twist. Here’s the trailer.

There is, of course, an extra note of sadness to the film because it is James Gandolfini’s last starring role.

You can watch The Sopranos and Enough Said via HBO Go and probably HBO Now. (I don’t have the latter and don’t want to say something that isn’t true.)

So if you’re looking for some dad-themed stuff to watch for Father’s Day, here are two solid suggestions… or perhaps we should say… DaddyTips.

Happy Father’s Day to all dads out there!


Jun 17 2015

Childhood Obesity Meets Bad Parenting

What happens when childhood obesity meets bad parenting? You get overweight kids. And at least one bummed out blogger. (That would be me.)

Fat Boys on Vinyl

Check out the lede from this New York Times story:

Not only was the 16-year-old boy 60 pounds overweight, but a blood test showed he might have fatty liver disease. At last, his mother took him to a pediatric weight management clinic in New Haven. But she did not at all like the dietitian’s advice.
“I can’t believe you’re telling me I can’t buy Chips Ahoy! cookies,” said the mother, herself a nurse.

You “can’t believe” it? Lady, according to this story, your kid might have liver disease. And your response is that you “can’t believe” the dietitian is telling you that perhaps the cause is cookie-related? Read more »


May 20 2015

Conan O Brien and Louis CK Talk Parenting on Letterman

David Letterman‘s last show is tonight, May 20, 2015. I tend to go to bed too early to watch Dave these days, but thanks to YouTube it’s easy to catch what you missed. Here are two fun video clips in which Conan O’Brien and Louis CK talk parenting on Letterman.

 

English: David Letterman hosting President Bar...

English: David Letterman hosting President Barack Obama at Late Show with David Letterman. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

A couple of editorial notes: the above photo is from Wikipedia and they say it is in the Public Domain. It is not a photo from either of the clips embedded below. Also, for each of the two clips, I included a link to the part where they start talking about parenting stuff, in case you’d rather not watch the whole thing. Who says this isn’t the DaddyTips age of Internet Video Viewing Options?

First up: Conan O’Brien in 2012. Obviously he discusses the NBC Tonight Show kerfuffle. But about halfway through, Conan tells a hilarious story about the time his family got to meet the President, but almost didn’t because, you know, kids.

 

 

Next: Louis CK, January 26, 2015. At the 9:50 point in the video, they segue nicely from Deflategate into what values you should teach your children.

See? It’s just three fathers talking about their kids. Celebrities are just like us!

Even though I’m usually in bed by the time Dave’s show starts, I’m sorry to see him go, and not only because it means I’ll never get to be one of his guests. He’s had a great career, and brought a pleasantly caustic sense of humor that will be sorely missed. Congratulations, Dave. Enjoy your retirement.


May 04 2015

Age of Ultron Hard on Joss Whedon Because He Has a Family

Avengers: Age of Ultron ruled the box office this weekend. And before that, it ruled director Joss Whedon‘s life. This was, according to the director, difficult on him because he has a family. Here’s what he said in an interview:

English: Joss Whedon at the 2010 Comic Con in ...

English: Joss Whedon at the 2010 Comic Con in San Diego (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“When I watch it, I just see ‘flaw, flaw, flaw, compromise, laziness, mistake,’” said Whedon. “The reason I set out to make another film is because I wanted to make one that was better, and I wanted to up my game as a shooter and work harder on every aspect of it and sort of give myself up to it in a way that’s hard for me, because I have a family. I started as a writer in low-budget TV, and there was always this element of, ‘This is good enough.’ And with this movie, I never wanted to say, ‘This is good enough.’” (emphasis added)

And now the explanation. Read more »


Apr 28 2015

Tumblr And Disney

Tumblr and Disney are, I suppose, a natural pairing. Hardcore Disney fans are obsessive, and even non-hardcore fans are at least aware of Disney tropes. So the two coming together to create Interweb flotsam are as inevitable as chocolate and peanut butter.

Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform (I use it, it’s fun) that works particularly well with images. This post, from The Lion King, is about parenting and amused me.

Click below for a much larger collection of Disney/Tumblr musings, many of which use oddly profane language.

H/T to George Takei, the man from whom half of all Web content spreads these days.

31 Times Tumblr Had Serious Questions About Disney (via Buzzfeed)