Having a four year old and an eight year old means we’ve endured a bunch of PBS, Nick Jr., Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network. Our kids have been watching this show on the Disney Channel for the past several months, and I am now considering  nominating it’s theme song to The Pantheon Of All Time Great Cartoon Theme Songs. Really, its pretty good.

My younger brother Ken celebrates his birthday today. We are only 18 months apart, so as Forrest Gump put it so eloquently, we grew up like peas & carrots.

The remarkable thing about my brother is how when we were younger, we were interested in so many different things, but later, we ended up interested in the same things. Sports, music, John Wayne, War novels. Weirdness…

Ken was always the most athletically gifted among the 7 of us. Quite honestly, “Hey now, you’re an All Star, get your game on, go play”.

And he’s wicked funny, with a supremely sick sense of humor. If I can ever find the tapes we made of his interpretation of the “Gucci Longhorns” you’ll be in for a treat.

And yeah, I cut his finger off when he was 2, and I was 3. What? They sewed it back on! It’s okay, he stabbed me all the way through the finger with a fork later. It got better.

More impressively, while he’s always been a fantastic brother and friend, in the past 15 years he’s become an extraordinary father. So Happy Birthday, Ki-Ki Bo-Bo!

Today my big brother is celebrating his birthday in Austin TX, where he and his wife have lived since 1984. We certainly never get to see enough of them, or of their daughters.

Chris is five years older than me, and consequently we never played with the same toys, only ball. Also, Chris went to the Berkley School For The Deaf, and was gone during the school week to return on Friday nights. So growing up, there was a good deal of separation.

As is true with most older siblings, ’stuff’ rolls downhill. And Chris rolled enough stuff down to us.

It is also true that absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Like me, Chris lives in a house with three women. I call this, la Casa de Estrogen. And we are, sufferers united. We ought to start a group…

So on this day, in sympathy, and in love, I wish a very happy birthday to my bro – a very good man!