Death of the Soap Opera

Daytime soap operas, relics of a bygone era, are suffering a long, painful death. Last week, ABC cancelled two of its long running soaps which, according to the Associated Press, means there will only be four soaps on the big three networks' schedules.

The number of women in the workforce have traditionally been blamed for the drop in viewership, but in this day of VCRs, DVRs and SoapNet, is this only an excuse? According to TV Guide (May 2-8, 2011 issue), viewership has actually been declining dramatically since the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995. Viewers stopped watching soaps to tune into the trial and many never returned after the trial ended.

Another reason is increased competition. Think about it. When soaps were in their heyday, there were only three networks, now there are hundreds, not including pay-per-view channels, music only channels and watching TV over the Internet. Soaps became too expensive to produce. It costs ABC between $750,000 and $1 million dollars a week to produce each soap. To continuing airing these programs means the network would lose money.

There are other minor factors at work as well. Not only are more women in the workforce than when soap operas began, they are also more educated and they aren't willing to watch soaps' often implausible, if not downright funny, plots. Attention spans are also shorter. Audiences want plot lines to wrap up neatly in an episode or two, not over the course of weeks or months. These incredibly long plot arcs also mean it's difficult for a new viewers to get to know the characters and their back stories.

If you're a fan of soap operas, watch them while you can. It's only a matter of time before the four remaining programs are cancelled and the soap opera becomes a thing of the past, never to be seen again.

Extreme Couponing, Extreme Waste

TLC has a new program called Extreme Couponing. The network's website explains the show is about " .... the world of bargain shoppers who have mastered the art of saving! In Extreme Couponing, meet the everyday people who save hundreds of dollars in a single trip to the store." What TLC fails to mention is that these extreme couponers are also hoarders.

All the couponers featured on the show have stockpiles, usually hundreds, if not thousands, of items. One man said when a person loses their job, they still need to feed their family, so that's why he extreme coupons. One woman has a stockpile of over 4,000 diapers yet she has no children. Another woman bought 27 bottles of mustard in one shopping trip even though her husband doesn't eat mustard. In many of these households, the stockpiles have moved beyond basements and garages and have taken over other rooms of the house. In one home a toddler sleeps with rolls of toilet paper under his bed.

But my question is: If the person is stockpiling items and not using them (or hardly using them), is it really worth the money saved at the checkout? In my mind, the answer is no. And only person, in the episodes I've seen, has donated items to charity.

All of the extreme couponers spend the same amount of time a person could spend working a part-time job, preparing for shopping trips. They take unused coupon circulars from recycling centers and the local newspaper office. They call stores to find out their coupon policies. They print coupons and shopping strategies off their computers. Do they not feel their time is valuable? Do they not take into consider added expenses such as printer paper and ink and gasoline for their vehicles? What are you really saving if you're not taking these things into consideration.

Another point worth noting is that fresh fruits, vegetables and meat cannot be purchased with manufacturer's coupons. Do the families of extreme couponers only eat frozen, processed foods because they can use a coupon to purchase them?

I have nothing against using coupons or taking advantage of sales. I simply wish TLC would have presented viewers with a more realistic program. Show us how to save at the supermarket. Show us how to eat healthy without breaking a budget. Show us real people who save money every week without buying products they don't need and without creating stockpiles. Show us people like us. Oh, I'm sorry, I am talking about TLC, where every show, it seems, is about the extreme and unusual.

Moms Who Murder

"A mother kills a child in this country once every three days, and that's a low estimate." These are the words of Cheryl Meyer, a psychology professor and co-author of the book Mothers Who Kill Their Children.

"When Moms KILL: Mothers killing kids not as rare as we think", an Associate Press article, appeared recently in the local newspaper. The article reports on the findings of Meyer, her co-author Michelle Oberman, Lita Linzer Schwartz (co-author of Endangered Children) and Jill Korbin, an anthropologist. All four women researched filicide, the killing of one's children.

There are five categories of filicide -- hiding (or ignoring) a pregnancy then killing the newborn shortly after birth, death caused by abuse, death caused by neglect, a mother assisting or coercing her partner to kill her children and a mother killing her children unassisted.

Mothers who murder come from all races, backgrounds and socio-economic classes. There are, however, some similarities between the women. They all feel a sense of isolation with no emotional support. Many times they are about to suffer a split between themselves and the children's fathers either through death, divorce or a breakup. Oberman says, "sometimes depression is enough to send a woman over the edge." Many of these women believe the are doing a good deed by killing their children and sending them to a better place.

Society is also to blame. Despite the fact more mothers than fathers are responsible for the murders of children under the age of five, society refuses to believe women are capable of killing their own children. This means warnings signs often go unrecognized or unheeded. Intervention could have prevented many of filicides. To make matters worst, women aren't always checked for mental illness after their crimes have been committed.

Says Meyer, "Almost always, you can find people who say, 'I knew something was wrong'. This did not come out of the blue. I say shame on the people who saw signs and didn't do anything. This is your responsibility, too."

This Date in History: Innocence Lost

It is often said the world lost its innocence during the first world war. Empires fell. The social order changed. Women won more political and social freedom. The war set into motion a series of events that would make the twentieth century what it became -- a second world war, the cold war, the end of European colonialism, the women's rights movement, civil rights movement, the sexual revolution.

If there is a certain date innocence was lost it is April 22, 1915, the date of the first chlorine gas attack.

Prior to this date both sides had used tear gas, but tear gas is meant to distract the enemy not harm them. On April 22, the Germans fired several thousand canisters of chlorine gas at the French line at Ypres in Belgium. The line broke. The Germans advanced but the Allied line was soon secured again by the Canadians and British. Two days later, the Germans fired chorine gas again, this time at the Canadians.

Exposure to chlorine gas causes irritation to the eyes, lungs, nose and throat with prolonged exposure leading to death.

 The gas attacks established a new era of warfare, one in which armies would do whatever it takes to ensure victory.

Things to Despise About Modern Society

As much as modern technology can be a blessing, it can also be a curse. The following is my list of things to despise about modern society.

Social Security Numbers -- Originally your social security number was for, gasp, social security. Now it's a means to identify people by a number. And also a great way for people to steal your identity and ruin your life.

Credit scores -- Yet another number no longer being used for its original purpose. Credit scores were originally intended to help creditors determine whether they should give you a loan or a credit card. Now it effects you in other ways like employment and insurance rates.

Lack of privacy online -- Yes, it's true, if it weren't for the Internet you wouldn't be reading this post. But for as much as the Internet has benefited society, it's harmed it, too. People share information about their lives that even a few years back would have been kept private. People are fired or denied jobs for posting photos on their Facebook pages or comments on Twitter. Rumors are spread. We say and do things online we wouldn't have if we had time to think, but everything is instantaneous. And everything stays online forever via servers.

Control your imagine online. Before writing this I did a web search for myself and was happy to see the only things that came up were my LinkedIn profile and some articles I had written online. Nothing else came up, this blog for instance or my Facebook page, because I have those set to not be searchable on search engines by my name.

New technology -- Advertisers have a way of making us feel like we are inadequate if we don't own the latest gadget. But seriously, do you really need to have Internet access on our phones or to be able to share photos instantly no matter where we happen to be? The answer is no. But once you have it, you don't know how you lived without it.

What is on your list of things you despise about modern society?

Parents Sue Applebee's

You may have heard about this story last week. A couple has dinner at a Michigan Applebee's where their 15-year-old son was served alcohol instead of apple juice. The child's blood alcohol level was above the state's dunking driving limit. Now the family is suing for money and emotional distress.

According to the new story, there is a discrepancy over the boy's blood alcohol level. The police report taken at the restaurant said the level was .014, whereas at the hospital it was .10. The lawsuit claims the child would have been near death had he drunk much more.

The story also says, "He also suffered 'headaches, nausea' and other classic hangover symptoms 'for a period of days after the incident,' according to the suit."

While this is a horrible mix-up, I don't understand the need to sue for anything beyond medical expenses. (The true amount of the lawsuit has not been revealed.) Also, how do the parents know the child suffered from headaches and nausea as both those things do not show any outward symptoms and he is too young to have verbal expressed how he felt?

What is your opinion? Should the parents be suing Applebee's?

Read the full story.

This Day in History: Titanic Sinks Beneath the Waves

Ninety-nine years today, Titanic sunk beneath the waves. It will be the second anniversary of the sinking that will pass since the last survivor of the sinking, Millvina Dean, died. She was 97 years old.

On the night of the sinking, Dean was a two-month-old baby. She, her brother and her mother made it to the lifeboats. Her father died. They were steerage passengers, hoping to make a new life for themselves in America. Instead, after they were rescued, the family returned to England where they remained.

Dean never married. She worked until she as 60 years old.

It wasn't until she was eight years old and her mother was about to remarry that she discovered what happened to her father. For years she didn't want to acknowledge what had happened, but  after the wreck of Titanic was discovered she began to attend Titanic-themed events as a representative of the survivors.

When Dean died, we lost our final connection to the Titanic and what happened there.

This Day in History: America Changes Forever

The firing on Fort Sumter, 150 years ago today, is a watershed moment in American history. The United States that existed before the Civil War and the country that existed after were two very different places.


What started as a war about states' rights grew to be a battle over slavery. The war freed the slaves and acknowledged for the first time that black men had the same rights as white men. (Although it would be another century before they could enjoy those rights.) Brother fought brother, at times literally. Cities and farms were destroyed. For the first time in the nation's history, a president was assassinated.

It's difficult to say how different the nation would be now if the war never began or if Lincoln had not been assassinated or if the Confederacy had won the war. But one thing is for certain - it would not be the nation we recognize.

Enough With Bedbugs

Now that spring is here can we stop talking about bed bugs? It seems like every few days in the news there is a story about bed bugs and it's been that way for months. Home improvement stores even carry bed bug killers, something they never did in past years.

Until recently, many people thought the line "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" that we often tell our children at night was nothing more than a nursery rhyme, that bed bugs were a thing of the past. Not so. They've made a resurgence.

Health care officials have warned us not to buy or use second-hand furniture as the little critters can hide out in the cushions and the seams in the upholstery. They've told us not to pile coats on top of a bed the way many people do when there is a party. Now they are warning us, with vacation season coming, to be very careful in hotels and motels. They say we should open and unpack our suitcases in the bathtub and only the bathtub. Why the bathtub? Because bed bugs have been known to live in hotel room carpets, furniture and beds. The bugs won't be in the bathtub as there is nothing for them to eat. Open your suitcase anywhere else and you risk taking the bed bugs home with you.

This is a real reminder that no matter how much man controls nature, nature always finds a way to get her revenge.

Up, Up and Away

Have you ever had reservations about letting your children use an inflatable bounce house? Maybe you thought your child would injure himself performing stunts or maybe you though there were too many children. Or maybe you thought they'd float away.
 

That's exactly what happened twice this year in the Tucson area. Once in February and once last week. In both cases, the bounce houses -- with children still inside -- were lifted into the air by high winds and carried several feet before dumping the children out. In February, a girl was hospitalized after landing on a roof. Two more children were hospitalized this month after their bounce house landed in the middle of a busy road.

Why weren't these houses tethered to the ground? Both of these incidents occurred at private residences, not carnivals or school-sponsored events, which leads me to believe they were untethered, no doubt set up by parents who had never inflated one before. So are the parents to blame? No, not at all. Seeing as both of these freak flying houses were in the Tucson area, it makes me wonder if they come from the same rental company. If so, then they need to teach their customers safety before they allow them to take out a rental.

Pay attention next time your child is invited to a birthday party. Ask questions about what entertainment is going to be there. You might even end up saving a life.

The Day the Music Died

It is said all great artists are tortured in some way. Vincent Van Gogh cut off an ear. Ernest Hemingway suffered from sever depression and committed suicide. Rock star Kurt Cobain also committed suicide.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Cobain, you probably know him most for being the front man to Nirvana and for marrying Courtney Love. However, Cobain was a figure who revealed part of his soul in his lyrics. He struggled with his new-found fame and being in the constant spotlight.

This struggle is revealed in Nirvana's most famous song "Smells Like Teen Sprit" where Cobain says:

           I feel stupid and contagious.......

           I'm worse at what I do best
          And for this gift I feel blessed
          Our little group has always been
          And always will until the end

Songs like this are often dismissed as teen angst. However, the majority of teen angst songs are written by adults who are struggling with their own issues of self identity and fitting into society. Unfortunately, for Nirvana and the music world, Cobain could not kick a drug habit and, even more tragically, could not fight his inner demons and ended his life.

Years later, Nirvana drummer David Grohl, now Foo Fighters front man, released a song called "The Pretender" with the line "we are not permanent, we're temporary". Indeed we are all temporarily on Earth and this is always painfully clear when someone dies too young, too soon.

 Kurt Cobain   February 20, 1967-April 5, 1994

Six Year Old May Get Kicked Out of School for Allergy

A six-year-old Florida girl could get kicked out of school for having a peanut allergy. No, this isn't an April Fools joke. Some parents want this girl taken out of her public school and homeschooled because they are dissatisfied with the new school rules meant to protect the youngster.

The school's principle says the allergy is a disability and instilled rules such as requiring everyone to wash their hands before entering the classroom and after lunch and requiring students to rinse their mouths after eating. A dog was even brought into the school to sniff out peanuts.

Both parties seem to have let things get completely out of control. First, allergies are no more a disability than other medical conditions. If a peanut allergy is a disability then why isn't diabetes or asthma?

Secondly, why kick the girl out of school when a simple revision of the rules would be much better? Just ban all peanuts and peanut products from school grounds. This would eliminate the need for the hand washing and the mouth rinsing.

What is your opinion on this issue? Who should make concessions, the school or the girl's family?