Like every year, I've been aware of the approaching anniversary of the shootings at Kent State. My high school algebra teacher was on campus that day. I read James Michener's Kent State: What Happened and Why when I was a sophomore. One of the four students that was killed; Sandra Lee Scheuer, lived a few towns over. She was walking to class that day, minding her own business, when she was shot through the throat with an M-1 rifle. She was 20 years old.
I've become a bit obsessed about reading the obituaries on line every day. It must be my age. Yesterday I came across a name that seemed vaguely familiar; but in skimming the article, I decided I did not know this 86 year old mother and grandmother that had passed...until I got to the end and it said she was preceded in death by a daughter, Sandra Lee Scheuer. Forty years ago today.
So now I'm thinking about mothers and daughters and parents and kids, and Sunday is Mother's Day, and moving on and letting go....and I'm thinking about the Macy Gray song I Can't Wait To Meetchu:
Love the life I'm livin though I'm looking forward to the day I die
Oh my lord, I can't wait to meetchu
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Indentify
If you want to know what your kid is thinking about. If you want to know what he's scared of. If you want to know what he identifies with. If you want to know what he loves or hates or cares about...listen to what he listens to.
It'll tell you everything.
It'll tell you everything.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Reality Check
Big news. I got cable. I'm off of network and onto cooking shows and design shows; so I can sit around like a slug on my couch and wonder what it would be like if I actually cleared away the clutter in this house and made the most of my "space" so I could actually cook something or "entertain". I'm not ashamed to say that I'm currently trying to friend David Bromstad on Facebook.
When I veered off of the instructional and into "reality", I got a rude awaking. I was really enjoying Jon & Kate until it struck me that Kate says, "our kids deserve this" an awful lot...and I realized that they get tix to Phillies games and ski trips sponsored by athletic gear companies an awful lot. Of course they can do what they want with their lives and their kids, but it's got me thinking about privacy and celebrity and the ramifications of turning the spotlight on yourself and your family. I still watch, but I'm much more jaundiced about the whole process. I wonder what their kids will think of them when they're old enough to realize their parents are the ones who shined that spotlight in their eyes. I'm thinking Franny And Zooey.
I find the Countess and her NY society friends ridiculously entertaining...it's like staring at a car wreck, I can't seem to turn away. They have no compunctions about talking about each other like dogs in the asides, between air kisses and Hampton parties, ON AIR. I'm reminded of the anonymous nastygrams that breed on internet message boards; only these chicks are lobbing their little grenades in a forum where they're sure the bombs will go off in each other's faces...while still not directly handing them to their target. That's rather chicken-sh*t, isn't it?
I could go on for days: Tori & Dean, the quest for even more families with multiples or a thousand kids, the Little People, the Bad Girls, the Playgirls, the Matchmaker and the people that want Extreme makeovers. What does it say about us as a society when we are entertained by this?
More importantly, what does it say about me that I feel the need to comment on it?
When I veered off of the instructional and into "reality", I got a rude awaking. I was really enjoying Jon & Kate until it struck me that Kate says, "our kids deserve this" an awful lot...and I realized that they get tix to Phillies games and ski trips sponsored by athletic gear companies an awful lot. Of course they can do what they want with their lives and their kids, but it's got me thinking about privacy and celebrity and the ramifications of turning the spotlight on yourself and your family. I still watch, but I'm much more jaundiced about the whole process. I wonder what their kids will think of them when they're old enough to realize their parents are the ones who shined that spotlight in their eyes. I'm thinking Franny And Zooey.
I find the Countess and her NY society friends ridiculously entertaining...it's like staring at a car wreck, I can't seem to turn away. They have no compunctions about talking about each other like dogs in the asides, between air kisses and Hampton parties, ON AIR. I'm reminded of the anonymous nastygrams that breed on internet message boards; only these chicks are lobbing their little grenades in a forum where they're sure the bombs will go off in each other's faces...while still not directly handing them to their target. That's rather chicken-sh*t, isn't it?
I could go on for days: Tori & Dean, the quest for even more families with multiples or a thousand kids, the Little People, the Bad Girls, the Playgirls, the Matchmaker and the people that want Extreme makeovers. What does it say about us as a society when we are entertained by this?
More importantly, what does it say about me that I feel the need to comment on it?
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tim Geithner
WTF, Dude?
You're THE hotshot finance guy in America and you do your taxes on TurboTax? Just like I do?
And you "accidentally" owe $34K in back taxes that you neglect to pay as an "oversight" until ten minutes before you're senate confirmation hearing?
Really.
WTF?
In other news, who knew Turbo Tax wasn't 100% effective?
You're THE hotshot finance guy in America and you do your taxes on TurboTax? Just like I do?
And you "accidentally" owe $34K in back taxes that you neglect to pay as an "oversight" until ten minutes before you're senate confirmation hearing?
Really.
WTF?
In other news, who knew Turbo Tax wasn't 100% effective?
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