We all believe in change at Oprah.com. But when you're in jail, that change is all the more difficult—if not, in many cases, impossible (one study found that 52 percent of all offenders in America end up re-incarcerated). This summer, as the Today show originally reported in this moving, altogether inspiring interview, an organization called Hope House reconnects kids with their incarcerated fathers by offering both parties a chance to catch up at an in-prison summer camp, complete with sing-alongs and art projects.

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: Courtesy of Of a Kind

* This limited-edition (there are only 40!) leather wallet is simple enough not to intimidate the guy who's been carrying the same tri-fold since college, but handsome enough to give you a little something extra to smile about when he's treating you to dinner. (Of a Kind)

* SNL's Andy Samberg explains how he came to be Chief Shark Officer for Discovery's Shark Week. (YouTube)

* Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune, a documentary on the '60s folksinger who had "a stance, six strings, and an insistent voice," explores Ochs' contribution to both music and politics. Whether you're looking for the story of someone who fought passionately for his beliefs or you just want a killer classic soundtrack, the film came out on DVD last week. (PhilOchstheMovie.com)

* How adorable is this dad doing his daughter's hair? (Cute Girls Hairstyles)

* After speaking at the Save Our Schools rally, Matt Damon proves he's a real-life action hero in his defense of teachers. Warning: there's some NSFW language in the video. (The Stranger)

* Speaking of teachers, Dave Eggers has written a lovely remembrance of Jay Criche, the man who encouraged him to become a writer: "He was curious, so we were curious. He was hungry for learning, so we were hungry, too. He made us want to impress him with the contents of our brains. He taught us how to think and why." (Salon)

Is there love after love?  After a painful breakup, it can feel like you'll never want to see a certain someone again. You might even want to, say, dump all his (or her) overpriced, pretentious, toasted-gold-and-ego flavored coffee into the cat litter box, stir it up, and the scoop it all back into the coffee bag--so that he (or she) will have a delightful early morning drink the first morning in his (or her) new, much larger (!) apartment.

Which is why the world works in more mysterious, wiser ways.

I am the crazy lady in pumps racing down the street after work to get home to my kids...only to burst through the door to find them splayed out on on the floor watching Toy Story 3 for the tenth time. The problem: how to have the kind of traditional school-is-out family summer fun--say, a trip to the beach or a monopoly marathon--when you don't have the full day to spend together? 

Photo: Thinkstock

First there was MySpace. Everyone said to try that. I did and a bunch of creepy, upsetting males emailed me. So I switched to Facebook to connect with people I actually wanted to talk to. Then I tried LinkedIn to meet other people who might one day give me a job. Then I did Twitter, because I wanted to seem "relevant" and not old and befuddled, despite the fact that my Twitter posts portray me as just that. (Example: 20-inch suitcases: better to pack small and not have enough clothes? Or big and have to haul clothes?)  So a few weeks ago, when Google started its own social networking site, Google Plus, I threw up my hands. I can't keep up. I am actually irrelevant, and I am okay with it. But should I be hobnobbing with the glitterati at a cocktail party (or hanging at the make your-own-phony espresso machine at work), I want to be able to keep up with the conversation of those in the know. Thus I made up this cheat sheet of "talking points"  that will enable anybody to sound reasonably cogent when it comes to your online social life.

I used to be rigid about the accumulation of things I don’t need.  Lately, though, I am relenting. I go soft at the knees for rusted farm tools, a mason jar of old unmatched buttons, a set of slightly bent tins saying “flour” “salt” and “coffee.” I buy this stuff without thinking at garage sales or weekend markets. It makes me long for the countryside I never grew up in—barns to coleslaw.

Last week I tried to take home—no joke—an old, dead stump. A man had cut down his tree and was giving away the 3-foot tall stump. It weighed about 100 pounds. I tried to carry/roll/drag it to the car. My husband watched me. He felt embarrassed. So did I. Worse, I lied to him, loudly, so that other people would hear me and think I was a normal person. “We can make a lamp out of it!” I said.

“It’s a stump,” my husband said.

 “It’s like a rope swing without the swing!” I said.

“Think about it this way,” he said. “It’s history.”

We left the stump on the side of the road. As we should have. Because I needed another way to indulge my nostalgia for the past I never had. Luckily, I found such a place. It’s called dearphotograph.com.

Photo: Dear Photograph

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday. 

Photo: Grantland.com

* "Bank shots took the form of therapy. I was angry about my dad dying—even if I didn't show it—and I needed to hurl the ball against the backboard. But I was in a tender enough emotional state that I needed to be good at something too. The fiberglass backboard came through on both counts." — Bryan Curtis, from his moving essay "The Fiberglass Backboard" for Grantland

* Del Monte turned former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff into a Hoffsicle to celebrate National Ice Cream Week. Watch a ridiculous (and hilarious) video of him posing with the summer treat—which, naturally, is sporting a Knight Rider jacket. (Via Foodiggity)

* As H&H, the beloved Manhattan bagel institution, closed its doors, Thomas Beller looked back on his time working there: "I could feel myself falling, gleefully falling in H&H bagels, into its reality, the beautiful, sensuous, arduous world of bagel making." ("Portrait of the Bagel as a Young Man," from How to Be a Man)

* If Bad Teacher stars Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel could be real teachers, what class would they choose? Whatever it would be, we know we'd take it. (Via MTV)