Happy Halloween

Sunday is the 31st of October, which can only mean one thing. Halloween. Here are some fun facts about the holiday both parents and kids alike love, courtesy of history.com.

• It's one of the world's oldest holidays.
• The only places kids trick or treat is the U.S., Canada and Ireland.
• The first jack o' lanterns were carved from turnips, not pumpkins.  
• In the early 1900s, the holiday lost its religious roots and became a holiday for fun. This is when the tradition of Halloween parties started.  
• Americans spend $6.9 billion annually on Halloween.
• Many of the Halloween traditions we no longer celebrate where aimed at finding single women a husband by the next Halloween.
• Superstitions like being afraid of black cats and not walking under laddars come from the Middle Ages.  
• The first ghost stories are from the 1st century AD.  
• Abraham Lincoln's ghost reportedly has been seen numerous times in the White House.

These Musicians Have Something to Say

Rock music often gets a bad rap for profanity in its lyrics or in how bands dress and act. But in truth, a number of bands use their music to discuss some deep issues. Here are six examples of songs with weighty messages.


P.O.D.'s Youth of the Nation - Written in response to the Columbine shootings, this song talks about violence in schools from the point of view of the student.

"Call me blind but I didn't see it comin' and

Everybody was runnin' but I couldn't

Hear nothin except gun blast it happened so fast

I didn't really know this kid though I sat by him in class."

Green Day's American Idiot - Front man and lyrist Billie Joe Armstrong received the inspiration to write this song while watching about the war in Iraq on CNN. Part of a album by the same name, the song takes on propaganda and how the government controls what we see and hear.

"Now everybody do the propaganda

And sing along to the age of paranoia....

Don't want to be an American idiot

One nation controlled by the media

Information age of hysteria

It's going out to idiot America."

Three Days Grace's Everything About You - This song takes on domestic violence told from the point of view of one of the members in the abusive relationship.

"Every time we lie awake

After every hit we take....

Every roommate kept awake

By every sigh and scream we make."

My Chemical Romance's Teenagers - This song is about socialization and how we are taught to be fearful of those who do not conform to mainstream society.

"They're gonna clean up your looks

With all the lies in the books

To make a citizen out of you....

They gonna rip up your heads

Your aspirations to shreds

Another cog in the murder machine."

10 Years' Wasteland - The video to this song is perhaps more powerful than the song itself as if features victims of human rights abuses from throughout the world along with a chilling message at the end about how it is Amnesty International’s goal to some day have a world where all people enjoy basic human rights.

"Crouched over, you were not there living in fear

But signs were not really that scarce, obvious tears

But I will not hide you through this, I want you to help

And please see the bleeding heart perched on my shirt."

Apocalyptica's I Am Not Jesus - The only song that I am aware of that has taken on the subject of children abused by priest and other clergy.

"I thought you were a good man

I thought you talked to god

You hippocratic, messianic

Child abusing, turn satanic."

So next time you're listening to the radio or see a video online or on TV, stop and listen to the lyrics.  The band may have something important it wants to say to you.

Sister Wives Raises More Questions Than It Answers

A few days ago I had the pleasure, if that is the right word, of watching Sister Wives on TLC for the first time. I had heard about the show for weeks and was morbidly interested in seeing if it would explain why someone would want to be in a polygamist relationship. After all, the only things I really knew about polygamy was from fictional TV movies and news reports about polygamist communities being raided.


Here are the things that struck me from the episodes I saw:

Husband Kody Brown, who has three wives, said he had courted fiancée Robyn for four months and had still not married her. He said this was a long courtship for a polygamist marriage. He also said he is in love with her. Hum, now if you had a friend who had only dated someone for four months and said they were in love and about to get married, you'd tell them they were crazy and hadn't known the other person nearly long enough. Two questions: Why are polygamist relationships so short? Are they allowed to divorce if it doesn't work out?

Kody has 13 children and is marrying Robyn who has three more, yet he seems obsessed with having more children. Kody's obession for children runs even deeper than those of the wives. One, Christine, was told she should have more children so she had her sixth. He mentions invitro to another, Meri, because she has only produced one child.

A couple of the wives commented on marrying a family, not just a man. I'm not 100 percent sure what they mean by this. Do they mean they raise their children together? This is the one point I would have liked the most clarification.

Home births are common in polygamist communities because hospitals ask too many questions and the the fathers have to hide their marital status. This is one of the most selfish things I have ever heard. The poor mothers. Hopefully, they wanted a home birth and hopefully they didn't experience any complications.

Many polygamist children can't say they know their father because by doing so they might reveal their father's secret. The poor children. I can't imagine how this must make the children feel about society, their fathers and themselves.

Maybe Sister Wives will educate us. I didn't see enough of the series to know. Or maybe it just will be another show airing for the shock value and nothing else.

Christmas Vacation Revised

A holiday classic Sunday National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation aired over the weekend on Comedy Central. The movie made its debut in 1989 and follows the misadventures of the Griswold family as father Clark Griswold (played by Chevy Chase) attempts to plan the perfect family Christmas.


Here is my imagining of what the movie would be like if it were made in 2010 instead of 1989.

1. Clark's fantastic Christmas lighting display would have gone on without a hitch. No checking for pesky burned out bulbs. The 2010 Clark would be using energy saving LEDs which he has carefully coordinated to dance to music. Cars would be parked in front of the house every night, annoying the neighbors.

2. The department store where Clark goes shopping would have long gone out of business, the result of the recession and Wal-Mart coming to town. Clark would be making his purchases at Wal-Mart or maybe online and have hilarious computer errors.

3. The Christmas bonus Clark gets near the end of the film would be a thing of the past. How many people will get holiday bonuses in 2010? Instead, the business Clark works for would be running on a skeleton crew with everyone else having been laid off to save money.

4. Clark's parents and in-laws come to stay for the holidays in the film. In the 2010 version, the older generation lives there full time after not being able to make ends meet on social security. The pensions they would have received back in the 1980's no longer exist. One of them might even be the victim of those foreign lottery or beneficiary e-mails circulating on the internet.

5. In the film, Clark's dim witted cousin has been unemployed for seven years because he's holding out for a management position. In the 2010 version, he'd be unemployed for seven years because of the competition out there for any job.

It's That Time of the Year

Autumn is in the air. People are getting ready for Halloween. The kids have been back to school for almost two months. It's time for pumpkin carving and cider. It's political ad season.


Chances are if where you live is anything like where I live, you've been bombarded by political ads on the radio and TV for months and political signs are everywhere. If where you live is anything like where I live, the radio and TV ads are nothing but mud slinging. Not a single one has discussed the issues. They all attack their opponents character.

I'm noticing less and less ads end with "I'm candidate and I approve this message." Why is that? Because so many of the attack ads aren't sponsored by the candidates at all. They're sponsored by unions and interest groups. These groups can basically say whatever they would like and get away with it.

Personally, I'm very tired of the ads.  Some of them are funny without meaning to be. Here are a couple examples from the ads I've seen. Both are from congressional races. One has the phrase "war hero" in the voiceover as it lists all of the candidates good qualities. But if you look closely at the photo on the screen at the time, you'll see the war hero is actually his grandfather who served in World War Two. Another accuses the owner of a used car lot, the opponent, of being a dishonest salesman and selling customers inferior vehicles. Thing is his car lot has been in business for years, as long as I can remember, and this is the first time we've ever heard of any dishonest business practices.

This year's ads are particularly vicious. It seems to be the sign of the times. No one wants to be blamed for the state our economy, so the candidates blame each other. It's so sad. Instead of finding solutions to our problems, they ignore the problems in favor of name calling.

Supermodel's Notable Walk

America's Next Top Model she's not. But she's certainly worth your attention.


Supermodel Veruschka walked in London's Fashion Week. What's so unusual about that? Veruschka is 71 years old.

From her picture (below) it is difficult to tell her age.

So what do you think? Should someone who is technically a senior citizen still be modeling? Or do you think she's opening up doors so that those of us who aren't 18 years old, 5'10" and 98 lbs to be able to have a modeling career?

Read full article.

Oh the Irony

Are any of you fans of AMC's Mad Men? If you are, then you'll know that Pete Campbell's wife, Trudy, gave birth to a baby girl in the Oct. 3 episode.


This in and of itself isn't strange. Babies have been born on the show before. What is strange is that Trudy's labor lasted for more than a day. At one point, Pete is asked, "Why don't they cut it out of her?" To which he replied, "They try only to do that as a last resort."

Am I the only one struck by the irony of this? In the 1960's a C-section was a last resort. These are the days when women were half knocked out with gas for delivery, when their public hair was shaved off and they were given enemas. It was an age when episiotomies were given as a matter of course. Yet a C-section as the last resort.

Fast forward to 2010, women are no longer knocked out with gas or forced to receive enemas or episiotomies nor are they forced to be shaved before birth. But C-sections are very common. I wrote a blog about the rise in C-section rates in March after a news report claimed one of the reasons the rate was rising was because doctors were afraid of lawsuits.

I have since read online and saw on TV a number of women's stories. Of the women who had nonemergency C-sections, many of them wished they had had been given the opportunity to labor a bit longer, the opportunity to get up and walk around and try some different positions or, if this was their second (or more) C-section, had been given the option of trying a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Why is it today a woman should ever have to feel she isn't in control of her own medical care?

Maybe 40 years from now there will be a drama set in our decade and one of the characters will be having a baby and the women alive at that time will marvel at all the changes that have happened in those 40 years. Hopefully, all the changes will be good ones.

Women Still Earn Less Than Men

Earlier this week, ABC News reported that there is still a gap in how much women managers and executives are paid compared to men. According to the news story, a study was done that revealed the reason for this may be that men are more willing to negotiate for a higher salary than women are. It said women are more likely to accept whatever is offered to them.


I've been thinking about this story every since I saw it. Personally, I have never had a job where the option of negotiating salary was available. I know my father never did. I asked my husband whether he had ever had a job where this was an option and he never has either. This leads me to believe when ABC News refers to managers, they mean at the highest levels only.

I'm very curious to know where the rest of us stand, especially at the workplaces where things like unions and contracts don't dictate salary. Is there still an across the board gap between the pay women received compared to men, or is it only at the highest levels?

I was told very early on in my career that companies who have more female employees than male employees are the lower paying jobs. I have to admit that I think this might be true. The lower paying jobs that I've had in my life were at all, or almost all, female workplaces whereas the higher paying jobs I have had in my life have been at workplaces that had an equal number of men. I wish I had solid evidence to backup my experiences.

You can view the news report here: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/women-managers-make-men-more-money-pay-gap-salary-gender-sex-11750570