To The Best of Our Knowledge

from Wisconsin Public Radio

Noelle Howey got the shock of her life when she was 14. She found out her dad liked to wear women's clothes. In fact, he really wanted to be a woman. So he re-lived his teenage years ... as a girl, just as Noelle herself hit adolescence. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge stories about fathers, daughters, and sons.

When Noelle Howey was a teenager, her dad realized he was a trans-sexual and began the process of undergoing a sex change. Now, they're better friends than ever. Howey tells Jim Fleming about the phases her father went through as (s)he explored her female identity, and what it was like to be slightly ahead of her father in becoming a woman. Howey's book is "Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods - My Mother's, My Father's and Mine." Also, writer Mike Magnuson's latest is "Lummox: The Evolution of a Man." He tells Steve Paulson that people make assumptions about him because of his size and appearance, describes his work history as a grunt, and says that being a college professor isn't the only way to be smart.

SEGMENT 2:

In his youth, Bob Steinberg crewed on the merchant marine vessel, The Empire State. His son, newspaper columnist Neil Steinberg booked passage to Italy for both of them on his father's old ship. He hoped it would bring them closer together. As he tells Anne Strainchamps, it didn't. Steinberg tells the whole sad, funny story in "Don't Give Up th Ship: Finding My Father While Lost at Sea." Also, Joe Kelly runs a national organization called Dads and Daughters, which is also the title of his book. He gives Steve Paulson some advice for fathers whose daughters are hitting puberty.

SEGMENT 3:

Jamaica Kincaid's latest novel is "Mr. Potter." It's a fictionalized portrait of her father, whom she never knew. Kincaid tells Steve Paulson that slavery and colonialism helped create a tradition of irresponsibility in men like her father and stepfather

Books:

• Noelle Howey, Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods – My Mother's, My Father's, and Mine (Picador USA)
• Joe Kelly, Dads and Daughters: How to Inspire, Understand and Support Your Daughter When She's Growing Up So Fast (Broadway Books)
  
• Jamaica Kincaid, Mr. Potter: a novel (FSG)
• Mike Magnuson, Lummox: The Evolution of a Man (Harper Collins)
• Neil Steinberg, Don't Give Up the Ship (Ballantine)
  

Music:

• After Noelle Howey: Iris DeMent w/ "Mom & Dad's Waltz" on "My Life" CD Warner Brothers Records
• After Mike Magnuson: Stan Rogers w/ "Working Joe" on "Northwest Passage" CD Fogarty's Cove Music
• Option: David Grisman w/ "Albuquerque Turkey" on "Mondo Mando" CD Warner Brothers Records
• After Neil Steinberg: Loudon Wainwright III w/ "A Father and a Son" on "History" CD Virgin Records
• After Joe Kelly: Tommy Flanagan w/ "St. Louis Blues" on "Jazz Poet" CD Alfa Records
• After Jamaica Kincaid: Oliver Mtukudzi w/ "Ndima Ndapedza" on "Putumayo Presents Africa" Putumayo World Music

Distribution dates:

• week of 06/16/2002 - hour 2