Oh, And

Thanks to Jon Stewart for hooking me up with Men Who Look Old Lesbians. Don't know what happened to the Lindsey Graham pictures. . .

Oh, and, this blog is FOUR years (and 1 week) old. Wow, that's older than one of my kids. I've written 776 posts. Thanks for reading.

Here's What I'm Not Excited For

Jury duty. Again tomorrow.

They made me go last year and I really wanted to get on the jury then, because it seemed like a nice distraction from work (err, attempted murder). But now, I have stuff to do, and don't want to listen to Grizzly Adams, my co-prospective-juror, tell me all the reasons he should not be picked for a jury. Yeah, I know lawyers too, guy.

The Agony of Children's Entertainment

Last Thanksgiving, we rented a car in South Carolina that was equipped with satellite radio. Since we had to drive about 45 minutes to our destination, we settled on a kids' radio station as the most acceptable to a majority of the car's occupants. The adult votes were split between sports radio and gangsta rap, so the kids of course won. If you've ever listened to children's music, you know that about 85% of it is completely didactic and/or irritating. Even aging pop stars are prone to lyrics like, "Brush your teeth, brush your teeth, wash your face, wash your face and SPIN AROUND!" And I cast this net over The Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants, Green Day, whoever it is making children's music these days. (Okay, that was an unfair dig at Green Day, but you have to admit that Know Your Enemy is both highly catchy and totally didactic)

Mr. Scobie noted, as he has on other occasions, that a lot of children's entertainment seems to be based on what adults think kids should like. This is certainly true of many of the picture books being published these days. They are painstakingly, beautifully illustrated, but are usually about time travelling to watch Hank Aaron or about seeing Mama's quilt finally finished or about growing a sunflower. They are impossibly dull.

And in fact, our kids tend to steer clear of this tripe, either through natural instinct or because its one of the few areas where we remain in control of their habits. Unfortunately, this has not extended to their TV viewing interests. For no discernible reason, they both tolerate - no enjoy, even demand - Caillou, the preachiest, most annoying cartoon I have ever seen. I can barely be in the room when its on. And I would even let them watch 400 other things if they wanted, including NASCAR races or Whale Wars. Caillou is all about making a scarecrow, or taking a car ride, or returning a library book. Intellectual death. Is this an early form of rebellion?

Twenty-one Questions, and Two Book Reviews

1. Why was my almost-three-year old kid still awake at 10:30 tonight?

2. And why is his favorite word "scrumptious"?

3. Have you noticed how we all know how to pronounce "Sotomayor" now?

4. But not "Andrea"?

5. Whose collar is tighter, the puppy or the priest?

6. Will there still be any nuns alive in America by the time the Vatican is done investigating them?

7. What will come after Twitter?

8. What shoes should I buy next?

9. Does the road to self-improvement have an end to it?

10. Does Durkheim's theory about religiosity actually apply better to masculinity?

11. Why do I have a mental block against giving my son his allowance?

12. Are my kids going to walk around shirtless all the time when they are teenagers, rubbing their abs in that way that has always annoyed me?

13. Where do all the people with neck tattoos work?

14. How bad would California have to get, economically and politically, before we would decide to move?

15. Where would we go?

16. How would I stand the winter/summer there?

17. What should I read next?

18. Where does the time go?

19. If you ran out of cereal, would it be acceptable to crumble up some chocolate chip cookies and pour milk on them and pretend it was Cookie Crisp?

20. Would you love me if I was down and out?

21. Is it passive-aggressive to write only in questions?

So I know I said I would leave the book reviewing to my sister, but I had a 48-hour trip to DC (what's up, Jennys?), well, actually Silver Spring, and that gave me time to chew through a couple of really good books. As I said in my last post on the topic, I had gotten into the habit of thinking that I am not such a big reader, but it turns out, I think, that's because I was a lawyer. Lawyers have to (pretend to) read all the time, so I found it hard to read for pleasure. But I read The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson, and it was so good that I was carrying it around reading it from room to room, in the jetway, at breaks during my meeting. Considering it was probably translated from the Swedish, its Dennis Lehane-level good. The story completely sucks you in, the characters are interesting, the writing is good. I plowed through that book (500 pages) in about 24 hours. But its violent and has some very messed up twists so if you get queasy from that sort of thing, well, you were warned.

Then I picked up Complications by Atul Gawande. I had really enjoyed his recent article in the New Yorker about healthcare reform, and liked this book. Its ostensibly about being a surgical resident but is actually about all kinds of healthcare issues. Since my job currently demands that I think about this stuff (on the good days), I appreciated all the strong data, compelling stories and subtle treatment of really difficult topics. For example, he has a chapter about going to conferences, where he's pretty forthright about the overwhelming marketing that swamps doctors at these events, but then describes why these events are enticing to doctors: it isn't the merch, it's the camaraderie of their peers. Big Pharma preys on the fact that doctors need these events to feel in touch with their peers. That oversimplifies it, but I guess that's what book reviews do. Sheesh, that's not even the best chapter. Anyway, good book. What should I read next?