Are We Living In a Charles Dickens Novel?

It's not even noon and I have already heard of two instances of babies being left on doorsteps.

SE Washington, DC
Canton, OH

Does this really still happen? Do you think their mothers' left silver Tiffany rattles pinned to their hand-knit blankets? Do the babies have a rare royal birthmark that will prove them to be the sole heir to a wealthy throne? Did I read too many romance novels as a teen?

Note: Which one do you think made it on CNN?

Does It Mean You're Old...

...When the music that meant you were alternative and cool because you listened to it before everyone else and even had it on vinyl is being used in a fast food advertisement? Because I just heard "Blister in the Sun" on a Wendy's commercial. Oh, it hurts.

Putting the UK in Yuck

It's been a while since the United Kingdom had a deadly animal-related disease terrorizing its citizens, so you can imagine that I was not surprised when CNN revealed that the country to which it had been referring to in the teases about the bird flu "hitting closer to home was the UK. For a nation without rabies, they sure make up for lost time (where time equals animal-related deaths). I wonder how much overtime the Irish Garda will log checking the trunks of cars crossing the Northern Ireland/Ireland border *.

* Reference to extremely long period of time spent waiting to cross said border at the height of the hoof and mouth panic. Wait ended with the Garda checking Coll's trunk for, what I could only assume to be, a smuggled cow.

Nice Is Back

Last night, in the midst of the usual 35-year-old trick-or-treaters with no costumes, was a young man dressed as a skeleton. As BI'75 put a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in the young skeleton's pumpkin, he said "I'm just being nice to everyone." She told him she thought that was great and continued handing out candy to the rest of the kids at the door. As the skeleton turned away, he looked back over his shoulder and repeated "I'm just trying to be nice to everyone tonight."

This incident reminded me of a boy I saw at the library last week. He was pulling a wheeled schoolbag and wearing a white oxford shirt under a green t-shirt that read "Be nice. Work hard." I traced the t-shirt to KIPP Academy, a sort of franchise charter school with almost 50 "branches" in New York, California, Texas, North Carolina (to name a few) and DC.

Now, I've only heard/seen young children talking about being nice. I haven't actually seen any evidence of the niceness. But I'm keeping an eye out.

Out of the Mouths of Dads

"The worst part about starting school in the fall is having to wear shoes again."

- Papa E

Old Bay & Fertilizer

As I lay in bed this morning, I turned on NBC to listen for news of the impending snow and I heard a commercial that I will now paraphrase.

Please stop putting fertilizer in the Bay as it is killing the crabs and the crabs shouldn't die...yet. Not until the end of summer and then they should be smothered in butter. So please stop putting fertilizer in the Bay.

I love this bare bones approach to environmentalism. Don't save the crabs because they deserve a better life, save them so we can eat them later!

Youth Literacy

In Barnes & Noble tonight, I overheard the clerk ask a young man if he had a Barnes & Noble card. He replied "No" and she asked him if he would like to sign up for one and he said "Nah, I only buy, like, one book a year."