Teaser Tuesdays, One Anachronistic Mama, and a Pundit Boy

Much to blather on about, folks. But first up----




Teaser Tuesdays, hosted at Should Be Reading, asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

I've realized that I have about 5 or 6 books I'm in the process of reading. I just haven't been able to focus on any one book lately. I'm sure it has more to do with my state of mind than the quality of the books; this just happens to me sometimes.

I'd love to know: Have you ever experienced what I like to call Reading ADD?

Anyhow--I'm teasing from two books today.

First teaser is from Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. I started this a long time ago; never finished it (I just couldn't get into it). I've picked it up again, and find myself enjoying it. Go figure.

"As I thought about the difference between the two sentences I realized that my impression of myself had been of someone who could look for, and find, the upside in any situation. I had believed in the logic of popular songs." page 171

The second teaser is from the YA-ish novel(I say "-ish," because my 9.5-year-old-daughter and I are reading this, and, as much as she'd like to believe otherwise, she is in no way close to being an adult--young or otherwise) The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.

"The strategy worked, but not without problems. In the corridor between classes Constance complained under her breath, 'Everytime you have a real itch, I get the wrong answer.'" page 227.

Happy Reading, folks!

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One Anachronistic Mama

Okay, so I just had a birthday. I turned (gulp) 44. And, well, I'm feeling kind of old--I no longer think I can claim with any conviction that I am still in my early 40's. It's probably safe, if sad, to say that 44 can only fairly be viewed as mid-forties. Sigh. (Note to self: Begin to lie about age??)

Anyhow, some of you may be aware of an e-mail service (for lack of a better word) called Help A Reporter Out (HARO). This guy, Peter Shankman--a self-described CEO, Entrepreneur and Adventurist (whatever the hell THAT is--what's wrong with "Adventurer"?)-- collects and collates requests from reporters and other such similar folks (I see a lot of requests for swag bag donations...), and a few times a day he e-mails out a list of these requests with the contact information for the reporter (or PR person, or whomever).

Today, I answered a reporter's request for info on how college kids cook and eat in their dorm rooms. While college is ancient history for me, I still passed along my secret recipe for dorm room grilled cheese (it involves an iron. . .kinky stuff, huh?). I received the following gracious, if suitably ego-shriveling response:

"What a great story. I hope I’ll have room for it in my article, as a measure of how times have changed."(Italics and red fucking ink mine).

I'm a crone.

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Pundit Boy

The following happened last week--I just haven't had a chance to post about it. But first, a little background:

My six-year-old son, who just began first grade, seems to have an unusually keen interest in politics for a child his age. We first noticed this during the primary season, when he was still in kindergarten. According to his kindergarten teacher, he was responsible on more than one occasion for heated discussions over the Lego table--usually involving mini-Camp Obama versus mini-Camp Clinton. She more than once had to break up the fun before the children resorted to blows.

He would also go into his classroom daily with the latest primary results. "Barack and Hillary are nose-to-nose now," he reported to his teachers. When they asked him if he knew what "nose-to-nose" meant, he replied "Of course, it's like neck-and-neck, only closer." (I swear on my purple toenails--these reports came straight from his teacher--and were usually delivered amid peals of laughter and much eye-wiping).

So last week, when I had McCain's acceptance speech (what a snooze-fest THAT was) on TV, I wasn't too surprised when my son suspended his game on Club Penguin (BTW, I'm convinced there are evil subliminal messages being sent to our children through insidious websites like Club Penguin, Webkinz and Toontown) and climbed on the couch to watch with me. He listened intently--more so than I did. Then, when my husband came home from work, my son ran up to him immediately and screeched with great conviction--"DADDY--YOU CAN'T VOTE FOR JOHN MCCAIN--HE WANTS WAR!

Leave it to a kid to distill McCain's views down to their essence. Lest you think I influenced my son in any way--I did not discuss the speech with him (I couldn't have; I was barely listening), nor have I discussed McCain and his platform with him. He merely listened to what McCain had to say and drew his own conclusions. (Smart boy!!)

My son continues to be ardently anti-McCain--the other day when his former kindergarten teacher was babysitting for us, he apparently also told her that she shouldn't vote for McCain, "because he likes war." She was gratified to know he continued to be interested in politics; she told me all about it--after drinking a large glass of water to cure her hiccups.

I'm starting to believe my son should start a political blog--we could call it--what else?-- "Pundit Boy." (With a nod to Joanne Bamberger, the original Pundit Mom.) Unlike the rest of us, HE could probably get advertising revenue. . .

TTFN, folks.