Now Playing: Ads for Personal (Very Personal) Products.
Topic: rants
Is anyone besides me fed up to the teeth with ads for cures for things we NEVER, EVER used to mention in company, mixed or otherwise?

Maybe I'm among the lucky. I don't take especially good care of myself, but remain (knock wood) boringly healthy. I had an easy time with menopause, and, so far, my bladder is holding up just fine, thank you!

I have a 7-year-old grandson. So far, I haven't had to explain any of the things that make me cringe. I think he tunes them out, as he does most commercials that don't hawk toys or fast food.

I suppose most of us are aware, by now, that Medicare/Medicaid, which won't cover birth control, happily pays for drugs to cure erectile dysfunction. I'd just as soon my tax dollars were not spent to buy such.

When I was young (before the Flood), they couldn't even put a person on TV in a bra! The Maidenform™ that lifted and separated, did so on a plastic form, or on a woman dressed in a leotard UNDER the bra.

Now we are treated to endless commercials for products to control bladder leakage, erectile dysfunction, hemorrhoids, herpes, menopause, birth control and menstruation. Most of these products are prescription drugs, with side effects scary enough to make your hair turn white. But, don't worry--they will probably come up with a drug to cure that!

If people need the products being advertised, I think they should ask their doctor or pharmacist, peruse the aisles at the drugstore, or visit an herbalist or diet consultant.

But don't force me to watch these utterly degrading advertisements on TV each and every day.

Now Playing: More Dead Kids
Topic: rants
In the little town of Zion, IL, two second graders were found dead in a park. The father of one of them has confessed to the crime.

The word "crime" is too tame to describe this heinous act. The killer, Jerry Hobbs, just got out of jail in Wichita Falls. He was on probation, which he violated by not attending anger management classes and drug abuse meetings which were a condition of his probation. He was sentenced to 10 years probation because he threatened his live-in girlfriend and neighbours with a chainsaw. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a chainsaw.

Anger management? Why not just shoot him with marshmallows?

Said live-in, whose name is Sheila Hollabaugh, had been attacked many times over the years by this man, yet she chose to stay with him, and chose to bring three children into the world using sperm donated by this cretin.

Catching up to the present, Sheila permitted Hobbs to move back in with her, her children, and her parents.

I am sure that, when he got there, he realized that she was getting on quite well without him, thank you very much, and decided to re-establish control of his woman and kids. Somehow, he believed (supposedly) that his daughter, Laura Hobbs, had stolen $40 from Sheila. Laura was grounded for this. Sunday, Mothers' Day, Sheila decided to rescind the grounding and let Laura go out and play. Hobbs didn't approve. He waited till Sheila lay down for a nap, and went looking for Laura. He found her with her best friend in the park. He told her to go home. She, poor little thing, had got way too used to his being gone, and actually talked back to him, refusing to go. She was 8. He hit her. He says her friend pulled out a potato knife to defend her. At that point, he hit the friend, grabbed the knife and stabbed the both of them; 21 times for Laura, and another 10 for her friend.

I strongly doubt that 8- and 9-year-old girls travel on bicycles with potato knives. I think the bastard took the knife with him.

He's a coward and a bully and needs to die. Sheila has got to be the most stupid woman I've ever heard of, and should be charged with child endangerment.

What in the Hell is the matter with these people?

Now Playing: Children Are A Blessing
Topic: rants
Just a note for parents: your children are a blessing. Treat them accordingly.

Don't go away for the weekend and expect your teens to take care of each other. When the cat's away, the mice will play, and the rats come in for dinner.

Investigate your prospective dates. This is the information age. Such things are possible. Isn't it worth it to find out that Mr Right is a sex offender BEFORE you bring him home to meet your children?

Don't send the kids off to play in the toy aisle while you shop. It's not fair to the sales clerks who must clean up after them; and it makes them prime targets for a snatch.

Don't drop them off a mile from home so they can walk back and "cool off." Sorry, folks, but I have more faith in a few swats than a lone walk, for disciplinary purposes.

Don't let your teens use your home for drinking parties. I don't care how diligent you are about taking their car keys, it's still just plain stupid.

Don't let them drive high-powered sports cars. They think they're invincible. Why give them toys that foster that illusion?

The 18-year commitment you make when you have unprotected sex may seem like a burden at times, but, if you're not ready for it, use birth control or abstain.

Our children deserve better.

Now Playing: SBC--Global cock-up!
Topic: rants
Through some banking glitch or other, I lost my DSL. Tried to get it back...was told it would take 24 hours. After that, was told, the next business day, for sure. That would be Monday. Was told on Monday that it would be later in the week. Was told on Thursday it would be back up by midnight. Was told Friday that it would be on by 5 PM. Got a message later on Friday that said I had to order it all over again on Monday, and it MIGHT be on by the following Friday. Got home from work on Friday in time to sit, on hold, for 35 minutes, until office hours were over.

So I called Road Runner, and asked them how quickly they could get me connected. They told me Tuesday. Guess what? It's Tuesday, and I have internet access! Thank you, Time Warner!

Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: Why I Wear a Tinfoil Hat
Topic: rants
Here is my tinfoil hat. Tinfoil hats are a necessary protection from the insanity that runs rampant on many crime message boards these days. They don't have to be this fancy, but it doesn't hurt. I wear mine a lot when visiting Court TV Boards, or the Scott Is Innocent site and its companion message board: TalkAboutChit.

Court TV's latest darling is Mark Lunsford, father of murdered Jessica Lunsford of Homosassa, FL. Mark is the broken-hearted father who is out to change the law to require better monitoring of registered sex offenders. A good idea, admittedly.

However, Mark's hands are not clean. Jessica's mother hadn't seen her in five years, and had no idea where her daughter was. Mark, at 41, was living with his parents and making a habit of spending the night at his girlfriend's place. And, of course, leaving the front door unlocked so he could get back in the house in the morning, to get ready for work. Apparently, his parents didn't trust him with a key. He had no idea there was a houseful of crack-heads across the street, one of them being the sex offender who has confessed to kidnapping and raping and killing Jessica.

But, Mark is the current poster-boy at CTV. There is even a URL given, where we are invited to donate to a fund to get Mark a new Harley with Jessica's picture airbrushed on the gas tank. This is over and above the tacky website set up when she was first discovered to be missing, which has a Paypal button where people can donate to help with Mark's "expenses." Separate from the legitimate reward fund, of course.

When Jessica's body was found, Mark hopped on a (borrowed) motorbike and headed off on a run in Jessica's memory. Go figure!

Mood:  blue
Now Playing: Jessica Lunsford Murder
Topic: rants
Statistics say that an abducted child is likely to be killed within three hours of the event, if it is a "stranger abduction."

Jessica Lunsford was missing over three weeks before being found right across the street.

I know it rained a day or so after she was taken, which could play havoc with scent dogs, but I still have several unanswered questions.

Like, why didn't the dog bark? How did the perpetrator get her out of the house without waking anyone? We're not talking about a mansion, here; just a double-wide mobile home. Why did she take the stuffed dolphin? Why didn't the dogs find the body (or parts) under the mobile home across the street? Why did the perp's sister, with whom he was staying from time to time (in the house across the street), cover for him?

It's very hard to understand how she wasn't found sooner. It's horrible to know that our children are not safe, even in our own homes.

And who has the perp fondled, molested, or otherwise messed with, that didn't report it? He was last known to interfere with a child in 1994. I don't believe he has been a model of innocence for 11 years, and suddenly committed a crime more horrible than any he has committed before.

In 1979, he committed a burglary which included his putting his hands on a child and trying to kiss her. So, why has he been on the loose so much, with so many opportunities to repeat and escalate his offenses?

I think the prevention of crimes like this has at least two aspects. First, parents need to be aware of who their neighbours are. I know you can't just go up to someone and say, "Look, I know you are a registered sex offender; please move." But, if there are sex offenders living nearby, parents need to be more vigilant. And, second, we need a realization that the people who commit these crimes are not going to stop. Sure, they want to get out of jail, so they will say all the right things: yes, I'll go to counselling, yes, I promise to stay away from children, yes, I'll register every time I move, but how many of them abide by that? We have to realize that somebody who commits a crime of a sexual nature upon a child is a very sick individual, and does not deserve parole. I think that the very first grope should get a stiff sentence, no parole or probation, and the second should get a lifetime lockup.

Now Playing: Grammar and Spelling
Topic: rants
When I was a know-it-all teen, I used to argue with my father about the English language. He was of the opinion that English had peaked in Edwardian times, and had been going downhill ever since. My stance was that language is a process, constantly changing.

Here I stand, now, with my finger in the dike, like the little Dutch boy of legend. Oh, I know my grammar isn't perfect, and I sometimes get confused between English and American spelling, but I do try. My kids always called me the Grammar Police, and I like the title.

I was watching a trial on Court TV yesterday, and couldn't concentrate on the arguments because neither the prosecutor nor the blood-spatter expert could get out a sentence without an "uh." These are educated people. College degrees. In professions where they should have had some sort of Speech training, sometime during their expensive educations! Do they just not care?

A couple of pet peeves: there are several forms of the word "to." It has been so long since I was in school that I don't remember the names of all the parts of speech, but I do know when to use "to," and when to use "too." I'm very surprised at the number of people who don't!

Let's take a look at "between/among." "Between" is for two, as in: "I had to decide between the cheesecake and the pecan pie." "Among" is for more than two, i.e., "He had a difficult choice to make, among several colleges that accepted him." If you look closely at the word "between," you'll see "tween." Do you not see something there that looks like "two?" I do.

"None" was originally a contraction of "not one." Hence, it is singular, as in: "None of us HAS all the answers."

"No one" is two words; no hyphen.

The word "lay" requires an object. "I shall lay out my clothes for tomorrow, and then lie down."

"I couldn't care less." All over the web, I hear "I could care less." Well, if you COULD care less, then you DO care. "I could NOT care less" is correct. Have we forgotten that "couldn't" is a contraction of "could not?"

"Amount." I love this one. "Amount" is used for quantities that cannot be counted individually. For things that CAN be individually counted, use "number." "There is a large amount of sand on the beach," is correct. "The number of refugees puts a strain on the available services," is also correct. "The amount of DVDs on the shelf" is abysmally ignorant.

Enough for now. I will be revisiting this topic. Please take notes!

Now Playing: Murder
Topic: rants
Yet another monster has decided that killing a woman in his life is an effective way of getting out of a relationship. This monster compounded the horror by killing her 7-year-old son and 7-month fetus.

I've heard rumours that, even among cats, it happens that the male cat devours the kittens. In a lifetime of keeping cats, I have never personally witnessed this. Although a visiting dachshund once wiped out an entire litter, in the mistaken assumption that they were rats.

To call Stephen Dale Barbee a rat is to be unkind to rats. We seem to be raising a generation of men who think their own desires are the most important thing in the world. More important than the lives of a pregnant woman and a 7-year-old child. I think the two main factors in raising men like this are overindulgence and enablement. Applying a bit of poverty and discipline in early life might go a long way toward solving the problem for future generations. Just because you can afford to buy your kids the latest in gadgets and toys doesn't mean you HAVE to do it. Training them to earn things better prepares them for adult life. And, very important; don't let them lie to you. When they're tiny, it's easy to spot. Nip it then.

For a detailed discussion of this latest murder, please visit www.misfitting.com

Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: Prima Donna Revisited
Topic: rants
Now, I am PISSED. Little Miss Aldonza went out and got her own costume. She's not the only one in the cast who has done that, but the other actor brought in something that is perfect. He looks entirely in keeping with the rest of the show. SHE, on the other hand, is wearing a white shift, a leather bustier, and a rust-coloured skirt with a print of black blotches that looks suspiciously like abstract leopard print. And the director is going to allow it because it's the "path of least resistance." He actually had the gall to say that to me!

Last night, while the bitch was refusing to look at what I had been labouring over for three hours, she informed me that the velcro had come loose on her petticoat. I told her to see the stage manager for a sewing kit and fix it herself!

We are an all-volunteer theatre. No paid staff, dressers, janitors, or ladies' maids. People who work with us have to accept that.

Costuming
Mood:  rushed
Now Playing: #@%&* Actresses!
Topic: rants
Well, I've got one! Haven't had one in years, but now I've got one! A genuine, bona fide, card carrying Diva! The lead actress in the play I am costuming at present has all sorts of input and ideas about what her costume needs to look like. I was told, several days before the costumes need to be there, that she needs to be able to tear a strip off her skirt or petticoat to make a bandage. No problem. Velcro is a wonderful thing! Then, when I call her to ask how big a bandage, I find out she needs from 2 to 4 bandages, a couple of which are props, not costume elements at all! While I'm digesting this, and factoring in a trip to the craft shop for more velcro, I am informed that she needs bloomers, as well. OK--anything to make an actress feel comfortable!

Then she tells me that her skirt should be red-orange, and she should have another for after the rape, this one to be a pale, virginal blue! She offers to email me pics of what she wants. When the email arrives, the pics take ages to unzip. I finally get them, and, guess what!? She has done this show before! And she wants the same costume she had for the last production of it! Oh, and to top that, she wants to know if she should be shopping for flesh-coloured tights, or if I'm going to supply them.

Our theatre is very small, and the actors are practically in the laps of the audience; I'm sure a few people would be wondering why Aldonza was wearing tights! I'm considering telling her that, not only will she not be wearing tights, but that she is required to let the hair grow on her legs for the entire run of the show!

Wait till I tell her she will be wearing a purple satin corset, covered with ragged black lace!

Never, NEVER, piss off your costumer!