I caught this over the weekend but my Internet connection at home was spotty. Today I see that Patrick Ishmael of "News Buckit" caught it too and was as offended as I was:
Hey dads, Happy Father's Day from the Washington Post! Its message: You're not as smart as your kids think.
Doug Hardy was barely inside the door of the National Air and Space Museum when he made up his first "fact."
On a sunny morning a few days before Father's Day, Hardy and his son Andrei were huddled under the Mercury capsule. Like countless dads before him, he was explaining rocket science to his boy, in this case how the mottled heat shield protected John Glenn from a fiery death as the craft plunged through the atmosphere.
Then Andrei, 12, asked: What are these dark disks made of?
Again, like countless dads before him, Hardy answered confidently -- even though he didn't have a clue."Steel," he said.
...If it didn't occur to Hardy to say, "I don't know," he's not alone. The phenomenon of the "know-it-all dad" is a familiar one to the docents, curators and keepers of America's museums and zoos.
Read it all and be prepared to scratch your head over the timing and intent. If this was supposed to be a light, fun piece for Father's Day weekend, the Post failed pretty miserably.
I'm not a dad, but I was pretty offended by this. Am I over-reacting?
To answer Ishmael's question, no, you're not.
What do you think?
