Law, Partially

In his narrative political history, The Origins of Political Order , Francis Fukuyama described the long road toward creating ordered societies as "getting to Denmark," with Denmark as the terminal example of a prosperous, stable, and peaceful political entity (other examples include Japan, Germany, New Zealand, etc.). Presumably, creating such political order is the goal of all states, so they are each on their way to Denmark. As the FD Linges travel with comparative institutional analysis  in mind, we were excited and curious to get to Denmark for a visit. Bob, at the Christiansborg Palace, welcomes you all to Denmark. According to Wikipedia , this palace is a former royal residence and now the seat of the Danish Parliament, the Danish Prime Minister's Office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark. According to Bob, it was a place we needed to walk past to get to our next restaurant.  In addition to eating on vacation, now with our walking toddler, we also

As Bob was just beginning his thirteenth month, he, along with Mum and Dad, took his thirteenth flight. Long flights in coach, especially on a U.S. airline, are getting worse and worse, and bringing a baby aboard does not make them better. While not all of the flights were pleasant, recalling the flights and travels from his first year give his parents markers by which to measure our progress: Bobby's in growing up and his parents' in learning to parent. Bobby, it seems, was destined to be a flyer. Mum and Dad took several international trips in 2016 expecting that we'd take less once the baby came. That expectation (perhaps like many of our expectations of parenting?) of course ended up being wrong. We realized Christine was pregnant while in Singapore in January, then we headed to Taipei and Seoul; in April we went to Korea (again) and Paris for the French Open; in June we visited Door County, Wisconsin, and in July Washington DC. Bobby, here you are in Paris.

You may expect these London residents to take vacations in Europe. Some of us have not explored much of Colorado before, and we were going there anyway for Molly's Keystone wedding extravaganza. Molly had three days of festivities planned, and the FD Linges turned the trip into an eight day road trip from the southwest of Colorado to the center. There will be plenty of time for -- and there will be many -- European vacations. But, first, Colorado. We flew from London to Dallas to Durango (Bobby's tenth and eleventh flights). Going through immigration in Dallas was a surprisingly painless experience. In Chicago we wait in much longer lines and always get harassed because Christine's immigration documents are out of date because the US government can't be bothered to update them (so we have government agents mad at us for suffering from government inefficiency -- pretty much sums up federal government logic). Durango is an old mining town on a plateau in southwestern

We are pretty much the stereotypical post-War American nuclear family. Except that we're of mixed races, and we don't live in the suburbs, or in the US at that. But Dad goes to work while Mum stays home with Babe. So let's just describe a bit the intersecting lives of our wholesome, transplanted, nuclear family. The FD Linges on Fleet Street, near to Dad's main worktime Starbucks. Notice St. Paul's in the background. It's funny, when I was younger I thought I could one day work on Fleet Street since it is the historical center of the UK publishing industry. I didn't make it here as a journalist, though. Mum's story Mum, the Tiger Mum, is working with Bobby on building his problem solving, motor skills, patience while reading books (he doesn't have much patience yet...), bilingualism, and generally following some lessons written by Montessori teachers. We have a small selection of toys for Bobby to play with. And generally a large part of hi