It used to be that the television character I identified most with was Edmund on All My Children.

I realized this morning that I have far more in common, these days, with Daddy on Caillou.

In other words, I’m no longer a manly, daring, swashbuckling journalist fighting for the rights of Pine Valley citizens, I am a docile father who wears sweaters and cuts out cardboard houses for pretend horses.

I’m not complaining. I just wish that, somewhere between Caillou’s dad and Edmund there were some realistic male characters on television for me to empathize with. Somehow John Belushi and Ray Romano don’t cut it.