JanDunlap.com

I regularly complain about my college students’ lack of cultural knowledge. For example, when I refer to the movie “The Matrix” in class, I’m met with blank stares. If I try to quote Bette Davis in “All About Eve,” saying “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night,” they look at me like I’m talking Klingon.

Or at least, that’s what they would think if any of them had ever seen a Star Trek television episode.

Which they haven’t.

So to remedy this appalling lack of cultural knowledge, I have made it my crusade to educate my own little corner of the world: my 15-year-old daughter. Last summer, we rented and watched classic movies so she’d know what her teachers were talking about when they threw out lines like “I’m ...more...

(Today’s column was supplied by my newly-launched private news-gathering organization, Dunlap World Intel.)

Chaska, MN (DWI) – The infamous mythical creature called Chupacabra is no longer a myth. Experts from several agencies have now positively identified a small creature living in the home of a local family as a rare specimen of Chupacabra fantasticalius.

Dubbed ‘Annabelle’ by the unsuspecting family, the animal looks, for all practical purposes, like an 8-pound housecat. However, when a news video reporting the discovery of a dead Chupacabra recently ran on the web, family members were shocked to see a marked resemblance between the videotaped doglike creature and the animal they had taken into their home as the family pet ten years ago.

“I was stunned,” ...more...

I love to hear my husband and our teenage daughter laughing together. Having already been through the teen years with our four older children, I’m very aware that it’s critically important to keep the lines of communication open to encourage healthy relationships and family bonding. So every time I hear them laughing, I feel affirmed that we – as parents – are doing a good job.

At least I felt that way until I found out exactly why they were laughing.

Then, I wasn’t sure I felt affirmed at all.

More like appalled.

I had just finished a project upstairs when I heard my husband and daughter laughing uncontrollably in the basement. Hoping to get in on the family bonding that obviously had them equally delighted, I walked down the stairs and into our ...more...