Steve Patterson

From one of the country's most beloved comedians and host of CBC Radio's incredibly popular program The Debaters comes a funny, poignant, and at times unexpectedly wise look at what it means to be a dad in this day and age. Steve Patterson has been thinking about dad-dom for quite a while. In Dad Up he gives his all to be the best father possible to two young girls while imparting his hard-won wisdom and insights to readers everywhere. The youngest of five boys growing up in an Irish Catholic household, Patterson mines his childhood for any sage advice he might have picked up from his own dad. He talks with candour about the difficulty he and his wife, Nancy, had conceiving, finding humour in their experiences with the fertility clinic's automated phone calls (which Patterson calls "RoboPimp") informing them when Nancy was ovulating. He chronicles the disappointment of failing to get pregnant, only to have the miracle conception take place in Regina during Grey Cup Week, under the guiding spirit of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and comedian Brent Butt (don't ask). From that point on, Steve Patterson assumes full dad-mode, riffing on the biohazard that is changing a diaper, the absolute futility of stuffed animals, becoming a public breastfeeding warrior in the most unexpected of places, and how growing up a little boy in no way prepares you to being a father to little girls. Most importantly, Dad Up charts the awesome experience of watching tiny infants that you somehow had a hand in creating evolve into confident and crafty little people, and the lessons that they teach along the way.

"Truth is discoverable. I'm certain of it. It's not popular to say. It's not popular to think. But I know it's true." So begins an examination into the most fundamental questions in philosophy. Does objective truth exist? Can we know anything with certainty? Are there true logical contradictions? Steve Patterson answers emphatically, "We can know absolute, certain, and objective truths. These truths serve as the foundation for the rest of our knowledge." Square One is an examination of knowledge, logic, and the extreme skepticism that permeates modern thinking. It contains several refutations to popular attacks on human reason, including a resolution to the Liar's Paradox. Patterson writes in an easy-to-read, non-academic style. There's no jargon or long-winded pontificating about ideas that don't matter. This book is a response to those who insist, "Truth cannot be known."