This blog's name, like most things you'll be reading about here, has a story behind it.

More than 20 years ago, while I was working in advertising, I had a conversation with a work colleague about a man I had seen the evening before leaving the grocery store. The man held a hand-made sign with the words, "Man with family. Will work for food."

My friend said that he had seen a man with the same words on a sign, the same evening at a grocery store on the other side of the city. What a coincidence, we thought.

Comparing notes on our respective encounters, we each found our "Man" with similar characteristics: Red plaid shirt, blue jeans, knit cap, brown jacket, work boots, day-old beard, and a cardboard sign with the those haunting words, "Man with family. Will work for food," carefully drawn with upper and lower case letters. Revisiting the time of our grocery store visits, we quickly surmised that this could not be the same gentleman. The only rational explanation was that someone had started a "Man with Family" franchise.

His name? Ronald Regan.

We laughed for a while, and did realize the absurdity of our discovery at a time when economic recovery was predicted (and ultimately achieved--I am a Republican, you know.)

Reading the newspapers today, I remembered this story and that led me to select "Man with Family" as the name for the blog. It seemed to fit, as I am a man, and I do have a family.

It also fit me in the broader sense. I've been looking for something to do. My kids are now mostly teenagers, work's just cruising along, and I've had this nagging desire for nearly 20 years to write. Writing a blog and incorporating my broad interests seems like a good idea.

I guess you could call manwithfamily.com my "mid-life crisis" project. If you're a man with family, or even if you're not, ride along with me and let's see if this is cathartic. Feel free to chime into the comments of each post, as you like.

Remember, this is an experiment. But, it's certainly cheaper than a red sports car.