THIS is the kind of publicity we need ... People magazine gets at-home dads right with a nice piece titled (predictably) "Daddy Day Care." It doesn't shake up the world of at-home dad journalism, but it gives some nice case histories. And while the author loses points for referring to one dad as a "Mr. Mom," she more than makes up for it by referring to another as a "domestic god." The story doesn't paint the gig as 24/7 joy (it's not), but the money quote says it all "'I could get a job in a heartbeat,' says Brian [Fogg, who has four little girls], 'but I'm having too good a time.'" (As an aside, the new, deeply flawed census figure -- 105,000 at-home dads -- was repeated here. I hope they get these stats straightened out ...)

(Another aside: People has gone "behind the veil" at AOL, so the content is only available online to folks who either get the mag or get AOL. I had to schlep to the newsstand to get my copy, which is a sad vindication of the information-does-NOT-want-to-be-free model that AOL is promoting.)

Columnist Ellen Goodman just published this piece on the evolution from "Mr. Mom" to "Daddy Day Care," and she looks optimistically at the future arc of the dad-as-caretaker trend. She calls for employers -- and society in general -- to take the trend seriously: "It took a whole generation of Father's Days for Mr. Mom to morph into Daddy Daycare. The next moment in the plotline of social change will come only when a very public fathering wins the same standing ovation."

OK, Scott Adams' Dilbert storyline has finally jumped from funny to offensive. To imply that homemaking talents are skilled-monkey tasks just ain't fair. (Imagine if the sexes in this week's strips were reversed ... poor Dilbert would be burning in effigy.) I don't hold it agains Adams -- a strip artist who doesn't push the line of propriety from time to time ends up with a Family Circus. And we don't want that. (Perhaps I'll ask a former prof of mine, Kerry Soper, if he reads anything into it.)

On the bright side (of the comics) ... is it possible that For Better or For Worse's Michael Patterson will become an at-home dad? He's just been laid off ... and there's that new baby in his life ...