“Anybody Can Cook Hot Dogs!”

As it turns out, not so much

Created using Bing Designer: “1980s-era kitchen after unknown disaster has struck on the stove top, sending pieces of hot dogs all over the room, in an abstract illustration style”

Toni Crowe did a nice piece on men who still live with their parents:

The Challenge Of Dating Men Who Still Live With Their Parents

I finished the story with a certain smugness that guys from my era were much better equipped to deal with life at a young age. But then I remembered a Naval Academy classmate, whom I shall refer to as Mark (that being his name, but it was over 40 years ago so what are the odds he’ll read this?¹). I learned of an incident while Mark and I were going through Navy Nuclear Power School, then in Orlando, Florida.

Mark had his mommy take care of him until he went to the Naval Academy, at which point the Academy establishment handled his housing, food, and clothing needs. He married right after graduation, so his wife slid into the roles that his mommy and the Naval Academy had previously filled. Which worked great for Mark… until his wife had to be with her parents for a family emergency, leaving Mark alone (no kids at that point, thank heaven).

First dinner alone, Mark called Joyce, the wife of a classmate. [The spouses — all wives at this point…