V Is For Vitriol

We need a little of this in our water supply.  Some of you have heard me say this when people in my orbit or people that I read about go a little bonkers about an issue.

Unfortunately, the joke's on me because there are drugs in our water supply - just not enough of the right kind to keep us more thoughtful in our discourse.

I am deeply saddened and disgusted that citizens of this planet were spitting on men who risked their lives for the civil rights movement, or are openly gay and serve in the legislature.   I am disgusted by the behavior of these elected officials:

And I couldn't agree more with Maureen Dowd's assessment of Joe Wilson's hateful outburst of "You lie!" (boy) toward President Obama.  A white president would NEVER have had any legislator yell at him.  NEVER.

What the hell is wrong with these people?
Why are they so scared that they use rage to cover their fear?


Why do people scream and shout at libraries and schools to ban books that the screamers have NEVER READ?


Maybe medical marijuana is the answer.

I'm calling the Governator right now.


I'll be back.**

PS.  You know what (you ignorant cowards)?  YOU LIE!


**Extra bonus comment points for knowing that pop culture reference.  I'll even let you scream at me about any issue you're uninformed about.

Unblocking the Blogger's Block

I'm back.
I was unblocked by this.
Now I can't remember what I wanted to say about it.  I do remember wanting to write something about how my local ice cream joint has a Facebook page and I couldn't figure out why....even after looking at the page....I couldn't decide why anyone would really want to visit their page unless there was a coupon/discount code involved.

I am an official Facebook lurker.  I'm on it under an alias thinking that my kids would allow me to link to them without being obviously ID'd as their mom.  The Boy won't have anything to do with me, although I can be a friend to his band's page.  The Girl, 7th grade, cannot be on Face book yet.   It's just another avenue for spineless bullies and the crap texts that she gets periodically from other kids are enough to deal with.  And don't get me started on the 300 (total) students from my high school that are looking for people like me.  I don't want to be found - I'm in touch with the people I care about thank you very much.

Of This and Of That:

 Mrs. O's eyebrows are still bugging me.

And, if you are a RHOC fan, this site is brilliant.  My friend and I were talking about how we'd love to buy a print, but I'm not sure I want to own one forever...but I love the concept and execution.

Crossover

There was a big crossover moment in our family last night.

The Girl, 11, is now a young woman.

It's not what you think it is.

It revolves around this Dress.*

I returned this dress to Target last night, after deciding that all the alterations in the world won't make it work on my body. (The only saving grace was that I was trying to make an L a M+)

The Girl is looking for a dress to wear to a teacher's wedding next week.

We picked over the leftover L and XL sundresses (the S's got the goods early).

We skipped the bursting racks of maxi-dresses (ugh - please make it go away!) and resigned ourselves to looking elsewhere for an inexpensive, going to be worn once, dress.

Then we stumbled on a secondary rack of Tracy Feith for Target.

The Dress was there, in an XS.

The only piece in a ragtag assortment that no one in The Heights is going to wear.

I pulled it out and asked The Girl if she wanted to try it on, assuming she'd say "no."

She said "sure."

She tried it on and she looked beautiful.

She said "I love it!"

It was twice what we had budgeted, but it will work for a cousin's fall wedding too.

We bought it.

In the parking lot she marveled, "Mom, this is a designer dress!"

On the way home we laughed at the serendipity of this dress.



*modeled, as she suppresses gas, by Ally from The Hills.

Today's Daily Double

"Gotta share.....gotta share!"*

I read an interesting article on a parent's search for a kindergarten that did not assign homework and let kindergarteners play (because that is their work - thank you, Montessori.)

This was my favorite paragraph:

"I came late to motherhood, so I had plenty of time to ponder friends’ mania for souped-up childhood learning. How was it that the same couples who piously proclaimed that 3½-year-old Junior was not “developmentally ready” to use the potty were drilling him on flashcards? What was the rush? Did that better prepare kids to learn? How did 5 become the new 7, anyway?"

Now that we're in the thick of the ridiculousness that is "my kid is taking more high school AP courses than your kid," it seems that Grade 9 is the new Grade 11 with lots of $80 a pop AP testing going on to discern what's in a 14.5 year old's mind that might qualify as college credit.

So we've gone from Doogie Howser's to faux-college-credit earners?

After watching friends and family take 4.5 - 5 years to complete their state university educations, because classes were so full that they had to go in the summer or an extra semester here and there, I've decided that it's all a bit of a sham and that AP credits are only useful when you are going to a state university and the credit gets you out of a basic requirement class that is always full when you try to get into it.

The Boy, who did not test into freshman AP courses, but aced the regular curriculum this year so he's going the AP route next year, is starting to feel a bit of sting from his friends that are off taking the $80 tests this spring. I witnessed a joking, but slightly stinging exchange between him and a friend in the 'high' math class. After the friend was out of the car, The Boy vented a bit about it and his vent contained the phrase "I engage in higher-level thinking" and he went on to share how well he did on an impromptu in-class essay assignment earlier in the week.

I was smug mama the rest of the ride home - he gets it and he's going to be just fine.

In the same article (here's the double) I clicked on the photo credit and discovered the photography of Julie Blackmon and I love it! I hope you'll enjoy it too.

*Singin' In The Rain is in my head

Toto, We Are In The White House

One of the blogs that I read regularly is say la vee and she highlighted the official White House Flickr photostream in one of her recent posts and as I scrolled through the images I felt like I was living a mini history lesson right there.

Yes, the pics are all part of the 'we the people - you the people - this house is our house - this house is your house' message that the Obama administration is pushing out. Oh, and the message? It matches the campaign rhetoric - they are pulling the curtain back and we do see the Wizard and Wizardress in there.

But we also get to see much more.

Crowded meeting rooms full of important people - and not always the image of that meeting that you'll see in Time magazine.

The art that he has chosen to hang in his office.

The comments that accompany the pictures, written by 'we the people.' Some are insightful, some are juvenile. Commenters begin to then comment on each other's comments and so goes the viralness of the web.

The White House PR and Tech plans mesh at this point. It's another chapter in the Axelrod/Obama guide to the Internet and the common web-connected (wo)man.

I'm going to (try) add it to my list of sites that I drop into.

It's my homework.

Who's Afraid of the Muffin Man?

I knew that this post would come. The ubiquitous body issue post. However, this one involves physics.

Let me digress a bit.

I have a cookbook called "Off The Beaten Path" by Bob Blumer, aka (his nomenclature) the surreal gourmet. I bought it after having some delicious grilled asparagus that he prepared in his Airstream kitchen which was situated in the Whole Foods parking lot as part of a series of appearances in the area to promote said book.

There is a chapter in the book called Extreme Cuisine and Bob says: "My dinner guests tend to arrive with impossibly high expectations. Instead of trying to compete with their fantasies, I counter with culinary theatrics from my Surreal bag of tricks. The ruse started at a dinner in Vienna where I poached salmon fillets in a dishwasher."

You get the picture.
Lemongrass Shrimp 'grilled' on a car engine after the car had been driven for 20 miles. Foods prepared with your iron.

And this brings me back to physics and the muffin (top).

As I've been doing a lot of driving lately, I'm acutely aware of how much force my stomach exerts on the seatbelt. After the initial disgust about how I need to lose a few pounds ebbs away, I then start to think more about the force (help me, Luke) and how I can harness it and get something positive accomplished with it.

That reminded me of Bob and his salmon in the dishwasher and the shrimp on the car engine.

Maybe a grilled cheese when it's hot enough outside?

Goat cheese pressed panini?

Pull over and sell them roadside and make a little gas money?

I am afraid of the muffin man and what he does to my head.

From First (Black) Lady to First Lady Anchor

No, I’m not caught up in the mishigas surrounding Mrs. O’s toned and displayed biceps, nor am I interested in which G-20 spouse looks the best. Although NYMag was spot-on...

You are well aware of my concern about Mrs. O’s ( now referred to by some fashionistas as Mobama) eyebrows, but we’ll get to that later.

However, this coat reminds me of something that either Carol Burnett or Tracy Ullman would wear for one of their characters. And Mrs. post-Jagger-Sarkozy isn't doing her runway model self any favors either.

And on both ladies, the floppy bow ties have got to go. I can handle the recycling of 80’s ‘strong shoulders at this past set of Fashion Weeks, but I say NO to the BOW.

Now, back to the brows….even though her make-up artist decided that too many people were telling her to bring the arch down, and she was supposedly working on that….we are still not seeing any progress. And, it contributes to Mrs. O’s wonky left eye in some pictures, which you can see here.

On a related "people taking shots at women" note, I enjoyed reading this article on Katie Couric, in this month's Elle magazine. She has put up with a lot of criticism since becoming the anchor of the CBS Evening News and I watched her debut out of 'you go girl' loyalty and decided that I liked Brian Williams' newscast better. I've always watched the NBC national news, the rare times that I'm home at 5:30pm.

I admire Katie for plugging away and knowing that by being one of the few women to sit in that particular chair, she was making a difference and she was going to to be true to herself in the process.

Mrs. O. is plugging away too - navigating the role of the First Lady conundrum, and she is also being true to herself. Whiplash brows and all.