Motivational Poster of the Week 3/13/10

Have a great weekend!

-Doc

Hitting the High Notes 3/12/10

Stuff I have read in the news recently:

-My favorite is this little news item about the Anheuser-Busch company suing small company called Baby Beer Bottles for making exactly that. Beer bottles for babies. While I find this humorous I guess the Anheuser-Busch folks didn't like them selling a bottle called "Bunwiper" HA!

-Did you hear about this? One of Michael Jackson's nephews apparently bought a taser online and was chasing Blanket around with it. I can't make this stuff up you guys!

-By now I am sure you heard about one of the worst ideas for take your children to work day. Yep the Air traffic control tower at JFK airport is not the best place for kids. If you haven't heard about it give the article a read. An air traffic controller at JFK had his son on the headset giving clearance to taxi and takeoff to planes.

-Here is an article I found oddly creepy. It's about a convicted serial killer who actually was the winner on the 70's game show The Dating Game. Ummm bachelor # 1 do you like rape and murder?

-I know what Snooki has been doing in her spare time. Knitting!

-Be careful if you tell someone in a movie theater to stop talking on their cell phone. You might get stabbed in the neck with a meat thermometer. I still can't figure out why someone would have a meat thermometer in a movie theater unless it was to check exactly how freaking cold they had the AC turned down there. I have heard someone say "That theater felt like a meat locker" before.

Until next time Keep reading the news!

-Doc

Thursday Random Thoughts 3/11/2010

Stuff I have been thinking about:

-OK I am going to just put this out there. I watched a new show for the first time the other night and was struck like lightning out of the blue. OMG My oldest running blog crush Aunt Becky from MommyWantsVodka looks exactly just diddly damn like Rachel from the show Glee. See for yourself:

Now I have been stalking Becky for years on the interwebz and have secretly been plotting the demise of her husband "The Daver" so that I can become Big Daddy Vodka, but am pretty sure I never noticed that Aunt Becky had a twin sister. I mean they are either twins or Aunt Becky has been keeping hidden singing talents from me (and the rest of the blogosphere) for years. I just thought she was clever, snarky, and a deceptively brilliant tease with the sense of humor to make both 13 year old boys and 30 something mothers pee their knickers. So what is it Auntie B? Is your alter ego this argyle sweater wearing angel voiced hottie from Glee or is it just your twin sister?

-The second phone line that I rarely use here at work appears to have been taken over by some sort of Spanish Language party line. (complete with a mariachi band) I really need to check that voicemail more often. Seriously I wish I could play these messages for you all.

-I'm not exactly sure what Nutella is... But I am pretty sure I don't want to find out!

-The NCAA tournament starts one week from today and the Brackets will be out this Sunday around 7 pm. I love March Madness, the excitement, teh upsets, and the stories about kids and teams you have never heard of beating the big schools. This year will be extra fun because about 20 or so of you all (fellow bloggers and Tweeters) are joined up to compete in the pool that Jay and I are running. If you haven't signed up yet you don't want to miss it... If you haven't gotten an invite yet please email me. There will be some sort of prize for the winner to post on their blog but we haven't decided just yet what it will be.

-I think that my current favorite Rock (Non Jimmy Buffett) Song of all time is In the City by The Eagles. Awesomeness!

-Save your money and only buy Crayola Crayons. All the rest suck. don't make the mistake I did and make your kid sad. Fork over the extra 50 cents for the real deal.

-Here is a cool one for you. My other brother in law is getting married next month up in New York. We were talking to them this weekend and he said that the lead singer of band they got to play at their wedding probably won't be able to play at their wedding because he is on American Idol. Sure enough Michael Lynche (Big Mike) from the show is the normal singer of the band. That would have been pretty cool to hear him sing live but I am sure he has better things to do.

-Speaking of American Idol the singers I think should go home this week are Tim Urban, Aaron Kelly, Paige Miles, and Lacey Brown... but I think these also should have gone home last week and they are still there so we shall see.

Until next week...

-Doc

Odd Street Signs

I figured I would share some funny or odd street signs I have seen come across recently. Enjoy!

-Doc

The Amazing Bone

My son loves books and being read to. After finishing a story he will take the book and "read" the story back to you. This is a good thing. He has lots of books and we are also blessed because my mother who is a teacher has boxes of books that she has given him that are former school books. Every so often he will grab a book she has given him off his shelf and specify that we read it to him for bedtime story. Last weekend he did just that with the book The Amazing Bone by William Steig.

This book looks to be a bit older. It has a stamp inside from my mom's old school but also says that it's a Caldecott Medal Winner which is a prestigious award for children's books. Plus his grandmother gave it to him. It should be no problem right? Ummm it's a problem. Let me give you some excerpts of how children's literature is different today than it was in 1976. A little background.

This book is about a young pig named Pearl who lives in London and decides to walk home on a beautiful spring day. She finds a talking bone in the woods who eventually helps her to escape from being a fox's dinner.

My wife starts reading this book to our 21 month old and gives me a look when she reads this line:

"On Cobble Road she stopped at Maltby's barn and stood gawking as the old gaffers pitched their ringing horseshoes and spat tobacco juice."

OK so they chew tobacco... a little odd for a child's book but whatever. Then a few pages later after Pearl finds the bone we have this:

"Who should rush out from in back of the boulder and spoil everything but three highway robbers with pistols and daggers....they were fierce and spoke in chilling voices."

Robbers and guns? Are you serious?

"You can't heave my purse," she said, surprised at he own boldness. "What's in it?" said another robber, pointing his gun at Pearl's head."

It was at this point that we stopped reading to our son. What kind of kids book has robbers pointing guns at the head of the main character? Who wrote this Quentin Tarantino?

There's more. Just a few more quotes from The Amazing Bone after Pearl meets the fox who wants to eat her:

"The bone commenced to revile the fox. 'You coward!' it sneered. "You worm, you odoriferous wretch. These expletives were annoying. "Shut up or I will eat you."

"I regret having to do this to you," sighed the fox. "It's nothing personal." (a line apparently stolen from the Godfather)

"He's sharpening his knife," the bone whispered.

How did this book become a Caldecott Honor Book? Times were different back in the 70s. Can you imagine the uproar if a child's book today had guns being pointed at the head? HA! I searched a little bit more online and found some instances where this book has been banned. Now I'm not a fan of banning books, I feel it's the parent's responsibility to monitor what the child reads and has access to.

What do you think? Is this book no big deal? Are kid's books today just to P.C.? do you have any other examples of not so appropriate material in books that are supposed to be for kids? I would love to hear what you all think.

-Doc

If this doesn't make you mad you aren't American

I'm not usually a Sunday blogger and certainly not a Sunday ranter but this just plain made me mad as hell! I woke up this morning to read this. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Sept 11th attacks a "Big Lie" and claims that the death toll caused by those terrorists isn't near 3,000 because the US has never published the names of the victims.

Hey Ahmadinejad you supreme A-hole.. THIS IS THE REASON WE WON'T LET YOU VISIT GROUND ZERO!! As far as not publishing the names of the victims. Maybe you should have sat there and listened to the names being read as a tribute in 2007.

Now as far as justifications for the war on terror, Invading Iraq and Afghanistan, and other political entities of some people may disagree. I think the one thing we can agree on is that Ahmadinejad needs to butt out and keep his off base theories about Sept 11th to himself.

-Doc

Motivational poster of the Week 3/5/10

A day early... I was inspired by 3 Men and a Lady's post:

Enjoy your Weekend.

-Doc

Busy Busy...

I'll tell you what, there is no way I could be a single parent. My wife is away at a conference and I am taking care of our son. He has been great and helping me to keep from forgetting things but the biggest problem is work.
This week I have been coming in half and hour later but still leaving the same time and I am simply covered up. I never realized how much difference that half an hour makes. (It may also go back to Monday when I got here late because I was waiting for the DirecTV man)
Sadly because I am so busy this has really cut into my time to do other stuff like blogging and Tweeting. I will eventually get caught up reading yoru blogs and get back to normal but it might not be until next week. Sorry no random thoughts today. I don't have time to type them out!
Oh yeah, if you haven't emailed me yet to get an invitation to join the NCAA tournament league that Jay and I are running please see the announcement at the top of the page. Have a Happy Thursday.

-Doc