Calvin Trillin begins his wise and charming ruminations on family by stating the sum total of his child-rearing advice: "Try to get one that doesn't spit up. Otherwise, you're on your own." Suspicious of any child-rearing theories beyond "Your children are either the center of your life or they're not," Trillin has clearly reveled in the role of family man - writing songs like "Uncle Max's Kids Are Gross, Creepy, Dumb and Yucky" for family movie musicals, marching in the local Halloween parade in his favorite ax murderer's mask even after his daughters had grown up and moved away, changing diapers in the knowledge that otherwise he might be robbing himself of the opportunity to say, during a stressful family conversation fifteen or twenty years down the road, "I changed your diapers!" Acknowledging the special perils to the privacy of people living with a writer who occasionally remarks, "I hope you're not under the impression that what you just said was off the record," Trillin deals with the subject of family in a way that is loving, honest, and wildly funny.