Suddenly, there's a fair bit to talk about, but I'm making a quick trip to the beach tomorrow, so this may be the last post for a couple of days.

For starters, HBO is apparently working on a followup to "Sex in the City" that will include a gay at-home dad. My money says that this character, when he appears, will be the best representation of at-home fatherhood -- regardless of sexual orientation -- ever on TV. Why? Because in creating a gay dad, the writers will have to jettison the trappings of the post-Al Bundy American dad stereotype. And without that sheen of doofusness that has pervaded to some small amount every screen SAHD since Michael Keaton, we might really get some reality. Imagine!

It's also worth noting that Mike from Full Time Father has officially pulled the plug. He's stopped blogging and taken down the archives. I suppose he's going out on top: he got some great national print and television coverage this summer, even if some of it was just stirring things. He'll be missed.

Finally, Daddy Types comes up with the link of the week: this first-person story of a father pressed into parenthood. I support the overall message of the piece ("give the whole at-home parenting thing a whirl. For a week or so, anyway"), but it's a generally a model of the old-school dad-knows-jack view of fatherhood, and I hope guys like this seem hopelessly dated in about three years. A sample of the Earth-shattering revelations:

A week is a very long time in toddlerdom and I made the stunning discovery that it is, er, rather hard work.

Or ...

... for all the graft, itÂ?s wonderful to spend extended time with your child.

I'll call it a good-news story. At least one more man gets it.