If This Is Mid-Life, Where's the Crisis?

2001
Author:

Sam Cook
Illustrations by Joy Morgan Dey

“Reading Sam Cook is like spending an hour with your most terrific friend. He is smart, kind, thoughtful, honest, hopeful, and hilarious.” Lynnell Mickelsen, journalist

If This Is Mid-Life, Where’s the Crisis? explores the peaks and pitfalls of being forty-something and married--with kids.

Sam Cook takes you on a rollicking ride through mid-life with stops along the way to enjoy life’s special moments. Finding humor in the little things that drive us all crazy, he helps you laugh at the trials and tribulations of family life. But Sam is not just funny--his delight in life’s small pleasures shines through in every story.

If This Is Mid-Life, Where’s the Crisis? brings the lively wit and gentle insight of one of the Midwest’s best-loved newspaper columnists to readers everywhere.

“Reading Sam Cook is like spending an hour with your most terrific friend. He is smart, kind, thoughtful, honest, hopeful, and hilarious.” Lynnell Mickelsen, journalist

“Sam Cook, in the tradition of Mark Twain, transforms the ordinary occurrences of everyday life into extraordinary stories.” Bob Cary, author, Root Beer Lady

Author of the award-winning outdoor series, Up North, Quiet Magic, and CampSights, Sam Cook also shares his insights and observations through his weekly columns in the Duluth News-Tribune. His work has been reprinted in Reader’s Digest.

A native of Kansas, Sam now lives in Duluth, Minnesota with his wife, Phyllis, and their children, Emily and Grant.

“Reading Sam Cook is like spending an hour with your most terrific friend. He is smart, kind, thoughtful, honest, hopeful, and hilarious.” Lynnell Mickelsen, journalist

“Sam Cook, in the tradition of Mark Twain, transforms the ordinary occurrences of everyday life into extraordinary stories.” Bob Cary, author, Root Beer Lady

Contents

Introduction

Life's OK, mostly
Moving to the music
The big 4-0
Seeing both ways
Tucked in
How much is enough?
Working it out
Taking sides
Dating game
Leftover blues
High and dry
Short-term memory loss
Whiter whites
Snakes in the basement
Give and take
Transition hairstyles and other issues
Transition hair
Mom, hanging ten
Seven months and counting
I was a jerk
Nightfall in Paris
Cold feet
And then there were four of us
Dining with Bert and Ernie
The human fireboat
Interior decorating
Let's get rolling
Marilyn's house
Tuned in
Night of the sick child
Letting go
Quality time
Gerbils and other realities of the forties
Words for rent
More than a game
Groovin'
On becoming an XL guy
Weeding and feeding
Holes, mostly
Hello, Dolly
Too much me
Life as we know
Thin mint binge
The selling game
Fever dreams
Homecoming
Baby-sitter blues
The cat's meow
Saying no
Youth soccer
and other parental rites of passage
Poked-out paranoia
Gone fishin'
Clothing Wars
Bracing for the worst
The saints next door
Angels for an hour
Kick it!
Peanut butter cups
Life is sweet
Matters of the heart