Reading List: Mommy Knows Worst (Fourmilog: None Dare Call It Reason)

Friday, December 30, 2005

Lileks, James. Mommy Knows Worst. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-8228-5.: Why did we baby boomers end up so doggone weird? Maybe it's thanks to all the "scientific" advice our parents received from "experts" who seemed convinced that despite millennia of ever-growing human population, new parents didn't have the slightest clue what do with babies and small children. James Lileks, who is emerging as one of the most talented and prolific humorists of this young century, collects some of the very best/worst of such advice in this volume, along with his side-splitting comments, as in the earlier volumes on food and interior decoration. Flip the pages and learn, as our parents did, why babies should be turned regularly as they broil in the Sun (pp. 36-42), why doping little snookums with opiates to make the bloody squaller shut up is a bad idea (pp. 44-48), why everything should be boiled, except for those which should be double boiled (pp. 26, 58-59, 65-68), plus the perfect solution for baby's ears that stick out like air scoops (pp. 32-33). This collection is laugh-out-loud funny from cover to cover; if you're looking for more in this vein, be sure to visit The Institute of Official Cheer and other features on the author's Web site which now includes a weekly audio broadcast.

Posted at December 30, 2005 15:48