My dad was redheaded, so was his brother and (I think) his father. His mom had dark hair but there was some redheadedness on her side. My mom had auburn hair and heard a few family jokes about being the red-headed stepchild (the trait was lurking on both sides). My redheadedness genes die with me as I never felt the least stirrings of parenthood, but now I feel less genetic guilt about not passing along my recessive genes. Yay! As a redheaded science journalist, I hear this “fact” a lot. Reality is, though, we arent going anywhere. Yes, as Cara…
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With Halloween on a Sunday this year, I’m home during the beginning of prime time “trick or treat” visitors. As it’s still broad daylight outside, leaving the porchlight off isn’t really a visible sign that “we’re not at home, no candy here.” So I barricaded the front porch with 2 plastic chairs, and on the walkway leading up to the porch, one plastic chair tightly wedged between the lilac bushes, and another chair in front of that at the beginning of the walkway from the driveway. I just didn’t want to hear the doorbell all afternoon and evening, and also…
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@AKMudflats, it’s a beautiful day on the Internets when attorneys threaten bloggers and radio hosts with defamation, for freedom. Let’s all get our boots on, it’s gonna get spooty. AKMuckraker: Huffington Post Blogger in Palin’s Cross Hairs Using the substantial might of the Executive branch of government to bring down unenforceable legal threats on a private citizen in Alaska, and attempting to curtail free speech through intimidation on the Fourth of July? Not a particularly brilliant PR move. By specifically singling out and naming Moore, Palin has done two things; she has shown herself to be a reactionary immature politician,…
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I ran across this earlier at Crooks and Liars and was thinking over some of the head-‘splody statements in it, wondering why it is that the Right, or the people that write their copy, are so open to using such transparently obvious crap in order to get ‘er done. For one thing, there’s either an egregious lie buried in it, or a really dumb mistake. Factcheck much? Here’s the first one called ” Thank You” OPEN ON A YOUNG MULATTO FEMALE DOCTOR. Thank you for ending slavery. A WOMAN EXECUTIVE STANDING IN FRONT OF HER DESK. Thank you for giving…
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It’s the most underwhelming office holiday of the year: it started out being a feminist holiday to encourage daughters to dream of careers. Now it’s devolved into an excuse to bring your kid to work instead of dropping him/her off at school or daycare. Most years, the kids are kept busy with activities. Some years, the designated wranglers drop the ball and the l’il dollinks wander around on their own or in packs. This year seems to be in the latter vein – a couple of boys have been mooching around on the work floor looking bored and have had…
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Amphibian eats mother’s skin – Boing Boing Here’s an appetizing video of baby caecilians, a mysterious subterranean order of amphibians, peeling and eating the skin off their mother’s tail. Mmmm, yummy, Mummy! If we hadn’t been mammals, but some sort of insectoid, we’d call this “skin-feeding” or “tail-feeding.” I bet some skiffy author will end up creating an intelligent race that does just this. Suckling, or nibbling, it’s still kinda gross.
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Lucky No. 17 Born to Ark. Couple — chicagotribune.com LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – It’s a girl — again — for Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the proud parents of 17 children. And after Jennifer Danielle was born Thursday morning, her parents already were talking about having more children. Ugh. UGH. Disgusting.
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Salt Lake Tribune – Tot from large family left behind in morning rush A 2-year-old girl from a family of about 15 children was misplaced Monday morning before a Salt Lake County deputy found her crying and alone in the family’s backyard. The mother of the little girl had apparently assumed her older children had put the toddler in the family van earlier that morning. The mother then dropped off her other children at her sister’s home on her way to work, Lt. Paul Jaroscak said. About 9 a.m. neighbors in an area near 8500 South and 1500 East heard…
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Adults draw line in the sand in Lake Forest | Chicago Tribune “It didn’t use to be respectable to speak out in public in ways that were anti-child or anti-family, but now that sort of talk is very acceptable,” Beck said. Right, right. And in the same article, the backlash is already building. And even in the relatively positive statement above, wanting a kid-free zone is equated with being anti-child. It’s really more about wanting a quiet zone free of disturbance, but that’s not how it will be framed in the discussions to come. And all too soon, the “child-free”…
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Salt Lake Tribune – Full quivers don’t pay The opinion by David M. Pearson (Forum, June 9, “Subsidizing children”) is the most illogical and self-serving analysis I’ve seen in a long time. He wrote that he is helping to subsidize people with few or no children. Since he has nine arrows in his quiver, he gets enormous tax deductions for his progeny. This means he pays little, if any, taxes compared to a single person, or those with few or no children. How he can figure that he is “subsidizing” anyone is a real fantasy. As a consumer of governmental…