Comments on: Glorious freedom.

By: LAMary

LAMary — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:50:15 +0000

I’ve seen photos of Miley Cyrus at different events dressed like no 14 year old I’ve ever known. I think people are cranky because they want a limit on how sexualized their child stars are. Strapless minidress, big hair and false eyelashes ok. Bedsheet, no.

By: nancy

nancy — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:25:46 +0000

Jeez, you guys, they were just relaxing together before heading out to the Purity Ball. Dirty minds!

By: Jeff (the mild-mannered one)

Jeff (the mild-mannered one) — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:30:50 +0000

[putting "Old Fart" hat on head]

OK, now i’ve seen the Miley Cyrus picture. I’m with — was it Sue? — being more creeped out by the pic with her dad, but must disagree with Nancy, or at least ask if i’m misreading something.

The back thing? Sure, no prob — but in the context of sitting up into a pulled up piece of bedclothes, with tousled hair and smeared lipstick? Call me cranky, but that sure sounds sexualized to me.

[removes "Old Fart" hat for going out into public]

By: Terry WAlter

Terry WAlter — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:02:30 +0000

Many moons ago,my wife & I went on our honeymoon in New England. That brought us into Boston. It was a real challenge to try to find our destination following their poor signage. As I was deftly manipulating the brake & accelerator at the same time, I was ready to say “this is fun”. At that time, an opposing point of view was heard (funny how some things never change) “get me out of here”. I allowed as how since we were already there, we might as well go to our destination, the U.S.S. Constitution. While leaving the parking lot, I heard a disturbing noise when I hit the brakes. Not wanting to enter the fray unarmed, I decided we should stop & check things out. We pulled into a parking lot in beautiful downtown Boston. I jacked it up & pulled the rear drum. There was a return spring rubbed in two. So my wife decided to go chat up the parking lot attendant. Do you know how many auto parts stores there are in beautiful downtown Boston? Start with zero and work with that. So the attendant, who was a former cab driver that admitted even he didn’t know the town all that well, tried to give to give us directions to the nearest one. Noticing the glazed look in our eyes, he made an offer. Parasailing,bungee jumping, whadda you gonna do for excitement on your honeymoon? Try hopping into a car with a perfect stranger in the big city (a fairly young man) & hope he takes you where he says he will. As it turned out he did. But then there was the little matter of how to get that spring stretched into position. After all, the only tool I packed for the trip wasn’t any good for that. So he ‘gained access’ to another car in the lot, and came up with a pair of pliers. As Bush would say, mission accomplished.
A couple of years ago, we took a trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior around July 4. Stayed at a motel on the beach. During the time there, I saw exactly one jet ski out on the water. There was a shallow white sand beach over by the nature preserve where several people were swimming.

By: Dexter

Dexter — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:13:11 +0000

Toledo is my “big city” now and there is lots of crime in mall parking lots , especially at holiday time. The Toledo Blade publishes a crime watch page and it reflects crime around mall areas. I was never careful around cities until my friend’s brother, a Toledo cop,was shot by an 18 year old “clean-cut white boy” just after a bank robbery. He survived with complications, but at least it made me a bit more aware.
I used to go to Chicago a lot. One time I was riding the 151 bus to Wrigley Field when a parade changed the route. I was a bit disoriented so I got off and caught a State Street subway/L (used to be the Howard Street B Train…now I think it’s the Red Line) , and the next day I read in da Trib of how a man carrying a couple hundred in cash was stabbed and killed about 10 minutes after I had caught my subway car. Right there where I stood alone moments before. Very creepy. So it’s not all myths and paranoia.
I’ve driven in most US megalopolises and never felt out-of-place doing it. Boston’s Old North End? A real challenge. Monster traffic jams all the way from The Bayshore (101) to San Jose? Irritating. But I had a lot of fun at places my cars carried me to, also.

By: Mary O

Mary O — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:03:40 +0000

My kids ride their scooters *horrors!* without helmets or kneepads or elbow pads in the church parking lot across the street and they have a grand old time. They’re 7 year old twins and they know to be wary yet respectful of cars, people and animals. I love nothing better than hearing them yell “wheeeeeeee!” as they roll down the gentle hill — as I go about my own work around the house. I don’t need to watch them constantly. Do they fall? Sure. I tell them to shake it off (they are young enough to take me literally as they shake their arms and legs as they get up). If they are slow getting up, I make my way across the street to make sure they’re OK.

They still come home way to soon — geez, we stayed out for hours on end when I was their age — and I have to shove them out the door again. Yet they’re far happier than their older sister, and I’m to blame. I wouldn’t let her do it at that age.

Yet my neighbor still can’t bear to let her own kids out like that. She holds them by the wrist whenever they cross the street. What kind of life is that? I ask you.

By: whitebeard

whitebeard — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:43:51 +0000

Some people believe whatever they read without thinking about the logic involved or how farfetched it is; they also believe what they hear or half-hear and it becomes gospel. Case in point, I read a news item on the air in The Soo about a high level of strontium-90 found in some milk from cows in Western Canada. Six months later a woman called and asked whether it was now safe to drink the milk produced by two local dairies in The Soo. Huh?
I always like to kid the folks about life in The Soo, kayak woman, nine months of winter and three months of poor sledding, or would that now be three months of poor snowmobiling.
And sure, you can swim at Lake Superior beaches, on July 15 between two and four in the afternoon.

By: derwood

derwood — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:08:00 +0000

And I thought the achilles tendon dude was hanging out at gas stations….that’s what the email said…and everything on the internets is true…right?

By: joodyb

joodyb — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:23:50 +0000

dammit, people keep taking my unofficial titles!

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:33:48 +0000

I am a little late to this party, but let me just say: a-MEN.

In a former life I worked on safety programs for kids. The most frustrating part was that very few people were interested in the (easily available on government websites) statistics that show:
1. Children are way more likely to be physically abused than sexually abused.
2. The most common abuser (like on the order of 80%) was a family member or close family friend.

But still, we would be asked to do programs around stranger danger. “What about helping kids figure out what to do when they find out a friend is being hit by his/her stepfather?” I said. Cue the crickets.

All to say, I think we as parents need to stop focusing on the less likely, but dare I say perfect-for-local-news, scenarios, and commit ourselves to facing up to and addressing the real dangers for kids.