louise on the left (coast)

Today is my birthday and I've had some time to ruminate about what kind of traits I share with my other birthday-twins. So, here's some random info about those of us born Janurary 31 . It's no secret, we folk born on the last day of January can be an unusual lot. In fact, we folks born at the end of January who are who are also born under the (eastern astrology) sign of the rat - can get really, really batty.  But, only under duress, hopefully we aren't so confusing the rest of the time. We are very outspoken about some rules, and completely, hopelessly mute about others.  Just ask my best friends. Or my (poor) husband, or even ask my daughters. Here's what they'd probably tell you. "Mom has lots of rules, they're just not same ones the other mommies have." Some rules of this Aquarian-Rat mommy: (The rated G version.) The rules I share with the other moms: Be nice and play well with others. Get a good education. More specific rules: Birthdays

I'm sorry, but childhood buddies are just not supposed to start dying yet. Especially ones as funny and sweet as Scott Langmaid. That's Scott in the photos below. And yes, he would kill me for posting them, they're dreadful. But they were fun times, as well, so I hope all's forgiven when it's my turn. It seems as if every play I ever did at BUHS had Scott in the cast...He was always so supportive and funny and best of all, actually got my jokes -- even the really rude ones. We did a lot of cracking up during this show. Here he is with the 1978 Brattleboro Union High School Stage Crew. Front row, far right. Were we really close? No. Okay, no. I suck at staying in touch with people. But, I always cared about him. And he did come to my wedding. Actually, as I recall, he gave us a great toast on our wedding night, when I so badly needed some levity and some kind of reminder of who I really was. Yesterday my mother phoned to say she'd just seen his

What Do Women Want? Well, according to this recent New York Times article regarding what makes women tick, apparently, this question remains a mystery to many. Nice work, Freud. It's been, what, over 100 years and they're still confused? (*Note. They never asked me .) In any event, from what I gather one new solution soon to hit the market is something called "Flibanserin." And I'm predicting Oprah gets trampled by her fans when doing her first show on the subject. But, seriously, next time Merideth Chivers is looking for test subjects for her research, just sign me up, baby. -- I'm there!

...and it's not easy to teaching kids about all about God. However, luckily, for us, Mr. James Quall and his "Little Green Man" have taken bold steps forward in their creative attempts to do just that. Other than generally scaring the crap out of kids, what does "We will seek the space angels face to face" really mean? Frankly, I think my kids would be scarred for life if they ever saw this.

I'm one of those rare folks who actually find it interesting to see how many others were either pro or con, and just why. For whatever it's worth, my posts are #22, #23, #72 & #113 For the record, I kept adding comments on the LAT site, but didn't see them. so, for some inexplicable reason started using another name to get see it that would work. Not quite sure why 'Enid Blatsby' was the best I felt I could do at the time. 1. Ah Joel Stein, you work so hard to make yourself so ignorant. I refuse to read you anymore, but I think I'll start urging the times to give you the axe. Submitted by: Shane 5:10 PM PST, January 9, 2009 2. love it...this article couldn't be truer. yes peanut allergies are bad and can be fatal but for god sakes its quite rare. I grew up not long ago in the 80's/90's when no one ever worried about what particular food they were allergic to and we all survived. To ban peanuts from school because a tiny percentage are allergic

As most of you know, if you've followed my blog in the past, then you know I have a severely peanut allergic daughter, who I am fiercely protective of. I try to be understanding about how little people comprehend about anaphylaxis, but sometimes when they choose to be completely stupid, I just see red. Last month was one of those times. Just to bring you up to speed. I'd responded somewhat fiercely to Joel Stein's annoying piece that ran in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago that ripped into the parents of peanut allergic kids suggesting it wasn't a real concern and that our desire to create drama and "specialness" for our kids was really the cause of it all. In any event, I never got any response from either him via The Los Angeles Times, but I did get a response from him via his personal facebook page, of all things. And I really wanted to share with you what his response was, given that one of his main excuses for writing the piece was th

I realize I've been spinning my wheels lately trying to figure out why attacking kids with food allergies is something Los Angeles Times thinks is acceptable, but why not just switch gears a bit for now? And so, in the name of tolerance for that which is different from you, here's a great public service video from one of my favorite comics, Wanda Sykes. Check it out.

So, I just came across an Op-Ed piece by Joel Stein in today's Los Angeles Times: Nut allergies -- a Yuppie invention span">Some kids really do have food allergies. But most just have bad reactions to their parents' mass hysteria. Oh, really ??? Well, below is my full response to Mr. Stein's Op-Ed piece, which I tried (unsuccessfully) posting on the LA Times website. Unfortunately, at the time I kept getting an error message stating that it was "too long." Of course, I did have to fight the image of Mr. Stein sitting on the other side of the computer screen shooting down angry responses like rubber ducks at the county fair. I even began "testing" the Los Angeles Times Comment Page by posting far shorter "messages" like: "Dear Mr. Stein, You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch." But even that came back with an error message. However, since none of these visualizations helped my blood pressure, I decided to