The teenage girl is despondent. Her soccer team has been handed what must have been an ass-whoopin', and she is convinced nothing will do away with her blues. But her parent knows better: a yummy dinner-for-idiots meal from the kitchen of Skillet Sensations. The above-mentioned fiction -- a TV commericial -- would be a forgettable bit of mass marketing, if not for the sex of the swift-thinking, skillet-wielding parent. It's a dude. It might not be much to crow about (no "Madison Ave. Dad Cooks Dinner" headlines have been forthcoming), but anything that suggests that dads can -- and do! -- cook dinner is a step in the right direction.

Though e-hampered, I look forward to getting back to the wage gap and the Wall Street Journal story earlier this week on the cost of "leisure" activities. (There's also a roundabout suggestion in the story that at-home parenting might not be financial suicide. Not a new concept, but if the Wall Street Journal wants to go to bat for it, who am I to argue?)