Copout of the Day: For the kindergarten class's ethnic lunch yesterday, one of Daniel's classmates brought in Yoohoo. When Miss Dawn asked why, Taylor's parents answered, "It's an all-American drink, and she's an all-American girl."

Watching: A Sports Night rerun I taped. Since I started watching this program pretty late in the season, I haven't seen many episodes.

Commuting Sentences

That insipid Sheena Easton tune--one of the worst songs of all time--keeps playing through my head. Tab has to work in NYC several days this week, so I've been taking him to the city train station at 7 each morning. Our neighbor, Vicky, stays in the house with the kids, who are usually still in bed when I get back fifteen minutes later.

At 6:30 in the evening, the boys and I pick him up at the brand new train station in Hamilton Township, a lovely, pristine building with lots of clear glass windows and red-painted trim on the supports. A window-lined causeway that runs high above the tracks extends to the platform on the south-bound side. The station boasts both escalators and glass elevators in addition to the steps, so the boys especially love our rides up to and down from the causeway.

We wait up there for Tab's train. Stephen has an eagle eye and always spots a train at least fifteen seconds before any of us can see it. When the Amtrack express train speeds under our feet at 70 mph, we can feel the causeway shake a little. Tab's train arrives about 5 minutes after the express train passes by. We hurry downstairs to greet him. As soon as the boys catch sight of Tab on the platform they run toward him with shouts of "Daddy! Daddy!" Other disembarking passengers smile at the exuberant greeting and look back over their shoulder at us. Tab says his reception at the train station is the only good thing about his commutes to New York.

I received this in the mail today. There are many pharmaceutical companies in this area, and I've often seen newspaper ads or heard radio ads soliciting people with chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes to take part in medication tests. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite so low-budget, however, as this mass-market mailing with a P.O. Box return address. What kind of seedy, two-bit outfit would use this flyer to try to attract participants? And how desperate would you have to be to call that number?

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