Daditude

Life is never peaceful in Chris Erskine's house, what with the four kids, the 300-pound beagle, the chronically leaky roof, and his long-suffering wife, Posh. And that's exactly the way he likes it - except when he doesn't. Every week in the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune (and now and then in many other papers), he distills, mocks, and makes us laugh at the absurdities of suburban fatherhood. Now, he's gathered the very best of those essays - and invited his kids (and maybe even Posh) to annotate them with updated commentary, which they promise won't be too snarky.