Remember when all it took was a small hand print and "I Love You Dad" set in clay to make the perfect Father's Day gift? Well, those days are long gone.

It's still a couple of weeks away, but maybe you should start thinking about what to get Dad so you don't end up with another striped fuchsia tie or a handful of hastily-bought lottery tickets like last year.

Here's statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau to get you thinking about fathers and what you can do for dear old Dad (or any father in your life) before that big day arrives:

• 64.3 million: Estimated number of fathers across the nation.

• 59,000: Estimated number of stay-at-home dads in 2006. These fathers cared for 283,000 children. Among these stay-at-home dads:
• 60 percent had two or more children.
• 35 percent had children younger than 3 living with them.

• 26.5 million: Number of fathers who are part of married-couple families with children younger than 18 in 2006.

• More than 74 million Americans participated in a barbecue in the last year-- it's probably safe to assume many of these barbecues took place on Father's Day.

That's a lot of fathers to tick off. Play it safe and check out gift ideas at MenScience.com to find something to give Dad that won't end up at the back of his closet. Or provoke a stony silence.

Don't make this the year he actually does disown you.

DG