(VIDEO) WHAT MAKES JOHN CULLUM SWEAT

What kind of activity do you enjoy that makes you sweat? That's what Emily Frankel asks her husband, John Cullum.

Does, or doesn't John Cullum sweat, before it's time to go onstage, on an opening night?

CONTEMPLATING ROGER FEDERER

He shows us what we need to see.

We fell in love with his tennis-playing twenty years ago -- his grace, power, wonderful looks, and his gracious friendly manner. Even if you weren't a sports fan, you wanted him win. And he kept winning.

Then, as his age began to be mentioned with his name, we remembered other great tennis players, who disappeared as they got into their thirties.

Even so, he kept on amazing us.  He keeps on amazing us.

We see a winning spirit that we've never seen before in tennis. He works on tennis, improving his tennis game the way great painters, composers do, conquering faults, flaws, inadequacies -- fearlessly, bravely -- with determination, an undistractible, iron concentration.

Even so, he does not back off from furious shouting, or laughing and joking if he's winning or loosing a set or a point.

Or rejoicing, delighting when he wins.

We feel his sense of himself as an ordinary person, who loves tennis, who like us, lives a normal life,  loving and and caring for his family and his home.

This "regular guy" is truly an artist, and has become an inspiring, very real person who encourages us to keep going, keep working on our work, the way he does.

For me, there's no one in any of the theater, film, music, arts, or sports, that inspires me the way Roger Federer does, and encourages me to keep doing what I do, trying to do it better.

LATEST NEW WORD

Words-words are a big thing in the Cullum family. Our son JD collected words the way kids collect marbles so we bought him this huge 1934 dictionary, and new dictionaries every few years.

In the latest Oxford Dictionary, the latest new word --"MANSPLAINING" -- expresses how a man explains something to someone, typically a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing.

I certainly have had things mansplained to me, like how to charge a tire. It was helpful to have specifics and warnings about how much strength it took to do it. Recently, furnace technicians mansplained how, why, and when our building's furnace needs to be cleaned. Maybe I'll look up how to fix the loose banister between the our 4th floor and 3rd floor, and see out if it's something I could do by myself

Fact: I sometimes mansplain things. Even so, I don't like the condescension that's evidenced by the guys who make the decisions for the latest Oxford English Dictionary. I suspect the inclusion of mansplain has something to do with the ME TOO movement that's now, constantly, telling the world how the men have abused women for years.

Glass ceiling evidence about gender equality keeps piling up. Even so, I feel gender equality distracts from racial equality and we're still miles, years, away from racial equality. And I keep feeling that

we gals, with our enormous focus on looks, weight, size, styles of outer and underclothing, are constantly doing things that make us much less powerful than men.

Hey, maybe there needs to be a word added for female NINNY things.

Let's make the word a teasing put down that fits various typical foolishnesses and call it .......

WOMANINNYINGS.

Hey, it's a galsplaining gender equality word!

Yay for womaninnyings and graceful galsplaining, along with mainsplaining.

Thanks Oxford guys, for inspiring Em's two new words for the next new Oxford.

(VIDEO) TIME OFF DOINGS

Everything--the work, the chores that the Cullums have been doing is done. There's nothing that needs to be worked on, prepared, no urgent plans, appointments, or schedule.

Emily Frankel asks her husband, John Cullum, what do you want to do?

Guess what John says...