A Tribute to Fathers

"I talk and talk and talk, and I haven't taught people in fifty years what my father taught me by example in one week." (Mario Cuomo)

"Every son, at some point, defies his father; fights him, departs from him, only to return to him - if he is lucky - closer and more secure than before." (Leonard Bernstein)

"This is Daddy's bedtime secret for today: Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue." (Eugene O'Neill)

"My dad ... he'd try anything -- carpentry, electrical wiring, plumbing, roofing. From watching him, I learned a lesson that still applies to my life today: No matter how difficult a task may seem, if you're not afraid to try it ... you can do it. And when you're done, it will leak." (Dave Barry)

"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was." (Anne Sexton)

"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." (Sigmund Freud)

"When I was 7 or 8 years old we moved to our own house in a new neighborhood. I felt miserable, left without friends. It was around this time that my father started a new family tradition. He always arrived with a surprise in one of his hands - a roll of LifeSavers! It made me feel special and loved. Years later, when Dad died, I slipped into the funeral home and put a roll of LifeSavers in his hands. 'Thanks, Dad, you are special and loved.' " (Sandi, age 43)

"It's clear that most American children suffer too much mother and too little father." (Gloria Steinem)

"Papa believed the greatest sin of which we were capable was to go to bed at night as ignorant as we had been when we awoke that day." (Leo Buscaglia)

"...Dad, who was the finest human being I have ever known, but who had the hairstyling skills and fashion flair of a lathe operator -- cut my hair ... this meant that I spent my critical junior high school years underneath what looked like the pelt of some very sick rodent." (Dave Barry, again)

"Life doesn't come with an Instruction Book. That's why we have fathers." (H. Jackson Brown)

--Texts selected from "Fathers Are Special," compiled by Lucy Mead

I can remember the day - vaguely - that my father taught me to tie a Windsor Knot. I spent years practicing and now can get it almost every time on the first try. I also remember the day I tried to teach my son how to tie this knot. I think he decided to just buy clip-ons.....