mississippi was my favorite...

At least once a month, my brother and I have dinner back at home with our folks. Tonight's dinner conversation involved a heated debate about the death penalty over roast beef and caprese salad. As dinner wound down, my brother Alex announced, "Dad thinks he can do what Al Franken did."

"You mean draw all 50 states?"

My father leaned back in his chair with confidence.

"Dad, have you even seen the video?" We asked.

"I don't need to see the video!"

Fine, we said. Let's do it.

So, incredible nerds that we are, we did.

My dad is pretty goddamn adorable.

Growing up, my father made Alex and my lunches, placing leftover osso bucco in plastic bags and once creating a "sandwich" with mango chutney and a hamburger bun. His real lunch-making skill was his daily trivia question, which was usually a lesson in State Capitals. One one side of the brown paper bag would be a felt-tipped, "What is the capital of New York?" On the other side, "Albany."

As Alex got older, my brother would request an extra snack-pack or fruit roll-up to be included in his lunch bag. At lunchtime, Alex would stand on a playground bench and with the fruit roll-up in hand, scream, "What is the capitol of Nevada?"

Whomever screamed back "Carson City!" would get the roll-up.

And rightly so...

*Speaking of videos, today's Weekend What's Up is UP! Please forgive my hair. I was having "a day."