Ellen takes the day off to watch baseba-- er, I mean, nurse a twisted ankle, and catches Laura on TV

I got to watch today since I am home nursing a muscle pull. (I informed my doc
that my job often involves lifting kids, which it does, and he kindly suggested
I need to take the week off. I really would prefer to be at work, but I want
to recover as quickly and completely as possible, and the fact that there are
afternoon babseball playoff games this week has nothing, I say NOTHING to do
with my asking my doctor whether my taking a few days ff would be advisable.)
Anyway, back to the true moral issues of our time, such as should you date your
best friend's ex, and should you try to get a magazine that you have deemed
unsuitable for a ten year old banned from a store that sold it to an adult.
Anyway, impressions. I don't think DL is as bad looking as others have said
(although she is not a babe, either, but than neither am I except in a few
overheated imaginations, but that's okay with me). She does have a wrinkly
neck, and she really should do something about those faces that she means to be
cute and expressive: they make her look like a chipmunk on speed.
She actually made some excellent points on some of the subjects she discussed
(and then turned around and got in some snide jibe at the person asking the
question). In fact, it seemed to me she got in a dig at practically everybody
except her warrior of the day.
I thought it was hilarious that she opened discussing a story about some women
being arrested for cussing in front of children, and then recommended a book on
controlling your urge to cuss. One would have thought that butter wouldn't
melt in her mouth, much less that she has a tongue like a longshoremen herself.

I also found her choice of warrior of the day to be more self-serving than
valuable. This woman went to a sports store to buy rollerblading T-shirts for
her ten year old nephew, and while she was there, bought a copy of "Box"
magazine at the owner's recommendation. She liked the fact that it had good
pictures showing some rollerblading moves her nephew might like. Fortunately,
she read through it before giving to the kid: it had an interview with a
rollerblader (presumably not ten years old) who said he like to f____ whores,
among other things, and a word search with words like "death" and "fornicate".
Okay, I agree, do not give this magazine to a ten year old. But rather than
merely taking it back to the store and suggesting that they might want to give
her her money back, since the person who recommended it knew she was buying it
for a ten year old, she made an issue of the store having it around at all (as
I said, they sold it to her, an adult, not to a ten year old), and got the
predictable response of the owner telling her to "grow up". I found myself
agreeing. I wouldn't give the magazine to a ten year old; I wouldn't give it
to a fifteen year old, but if I had found my son reading it when he was fifteen
I wouldn't have assumed he was going to jail, or to hell. I believe in making
the world safe for kids, but not to the point of making it totally boring for
adults or totally free of opportunities for teens to feel a little naughtly as
they assert their independence.
Another rant that got to me was about a man who left his five year old in the
back of a car when he went to work, and the five month old died. (Okay, I have
a hard time understanding how you do that, too, but she is leaving out some
situational factors.) Laura of course saw this as proof that people don't care
about children because they are selfishly pursuing their own pleasures, such as
work. What she has forgotten is that people used to ride holding their kids on
their laps or putting them in car seats in the front seat. No one had an
opportunity to forget that baby was in the car when baby was in the lap at the
same time. So it is hard to conclude that this would never have happened back
in the fifties. I do remember when I was growing up it was common to see babies
parked in carriages on their front lawns while mom did the housework. Does
that mean those mothers valued housework over kids?

Ellen
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.