Friday, December 18, 2009

“Your Cabbage Patch insane shopper moment - San Francisco Chronicle” plus 4 more

“Your Cabbage Patch insane shopper moment - San Francisco Chronicle” plus 4 more

Your Cabbage Patch insane shopper moment - San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: 18 Dec 2009 07:33 PM PST

Your Cabbage Patch insane shopper moment

Longtime readers of this blog may remember Gen and Conor McNulty, parents of quads and longtime role models to The Poop. They (and their adorable kids) won our Santa Tantrum Awards contest a couple years back, and I interviewed Gen. I've been following their entertaining blog ever since.

The chaos begins here.

pollsb.com

The dream house turned into a nightmare ...

I've been wanting for years to introduce a "what's your scariest holiday shopping moment" topic, where we share stories about the time a screaming match broke out over a lone Nintendo Wii, or as children we watched seven people get hospitalized in a knife fight over the last Cabbage Patch doll. (Be proud, Generation Xers -- our parents pretty much invented this s---.) But I have no good examples. I hate crowds, and only go to malls at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday.

Gen has a really good example, which I've excerpted below. Please read her entire post at the Quadville blog, and then return here to our comments to discuss your own insane shopping moment ...

12:10 pm - Enter Toys R Us. Put Barbie dream house into cart.

12:12 pm - Turn down tool isle in search of a work bench for a our little dude

12:13 pm - Kneeling down, looking over my choices.

12:13 pm (and 29 seconds ...) - Hear a rustling to my left.

12:13 pm (and 30 seconds ...) - Stand up to find a blond-haired, 30-something mommy, kinda like me, STEALING THE DOLL HOUSE OUT OF MY CART! I'm not kidding.

Once again, you can read the exciting conclusion at the Quadville blog here.

One of the things that makes this so entertaining is Gen's relentlessly positive demeanor, which seems to range from sunny to full-on Carol Brady. This is not a person who has to throw down often.

It also confirms my feelings, and virtually ensures that I'll never ever enter a busy toy store, Target or Macy's without a tranquilizer gun and maybe a few smoke grenades. There's something about the mix of parents, the holiday shopping season and fad toys that makes people act really, really crazy.

Please share your insane shopper moment, Cabbage Patch Kid-related or otherwise, in the comments.

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes has nothing to do with parenting. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub.

Posted By: Peter Hartlaub (Email, Twitter) | December 18 2009 at 06:42 AM

Listed Under: Tantrums

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Obama sends New Year's greetings to Hmong - YAHOO!

Posted: 18 Dec 2009 08:01 PM PST

Athanasius buzzed up: Obama brokers a climate deal, doesn't satisfy all (AP)

18 seconds ago 2009-12-18T21:07:03-08:00

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A Town’s Hopes (and Doubts) Ride on a New Marina - New York Times

Posted: 18 Dec 2009 07:26 PM PST

PAHOKEE, Fla. — When Palm Beach County announced a few months ago that unemployment in this small farm town had reached "depression levels" of more than 30 percent, residents were not surprised. Pahokee these days produces two things: college football prospects and nostalgia for a time when work was plentiful.

But just past the shuttered stores downtown, and over the 33-foot dike keeping Lake Okeechobee in check, sits both a dream of prosperity and a culture clash in the making. It may look like just a marina and a campground, but with construction nearly completed, the Lake Okeechobee Outpost has become a test of whether the exuberance of coastal Florida can find a home in the state's agricultural heart.

Hal Stankard is the outpost's general manager. In a town of muddy pickups, he drives a Toyota Prius, wears golf shirts the color of citrus and sees the marina as a stopover for the hundreds of boaters who use the lake to cross from one Florida coast to the other.

"This is going to be the introduction of economic help for the whole area," Mr. Stankard said recently, staring at the marina from an empty building that will be a Tiki bar and upscale restaurant in a few months. "Think about what it will be like if we can fill this place with 80, 90 boats, yachts even."

The main lobby looked ready, with its new oil paintings of cowboys and a flat-screen television tuned to Fox News. But there were only three small boats in the marina. At least one was owned by the police.

Mr. Stankard said more would come when the bar's taps started flowing and a dredging project near the lake's shore was finished, but many here seem unable to share his vision.

William Moe, 71, a longtime resident who was fishing at the marina with a rod that had no reel, said he doubted the project would do much good.

"I think it's a crazy idea," he said. "There ain't nothing in this town. You can't buy a pair of socks in this town. You ever been to a town where you can't buy a pair of socks?"

Like many here, Mr. Moe, with his molasses drawl and deep wrinkles, seemed broken by the consequences of economic decline. He said his grandson had been shot and killed outside a convenience store about a month ago, part of an increase in crime that has generally tracked with the recession.

It was not always so rough, Mr. Moe and others said. For much of the 20th century, Pahokee — derived from Pa-Hay-Okee, which means "grassy water" in Seminole — had been one of the many towns in Central Florida that thrived because of its nutrient-rich, ink-dark soil known as muck. The town was labeled "the winter vegetable capital of the world" at one point, and as recently as a generation ago, most of Pahokee's roughly 6,000 residents seemed to have a job, at least during the harvest.

"Everybody was working," said Henry Crawford, Pahokee's vice mayor, who has lived here most of his life, except for a tour in Vietnam. "In the '60s and '70s, it was Christmas every day."

Agricultural mechanization changed all that. Sugar replaced vegetables, and machines replaced workers. In the 1990s, the last wave of Caribbean workers stopped showing up for the harvest, and the local economy collapsed. In 2000, the census showed, a third of Pahokee lived below the poverty line.

Standing outside a trailer that serves as City Hall, Mr. Crawford ticked off the closed businesses as if they were dead relatives: "A Ford dealership, Chevrolet, restaurants — a Burger King, a KFC — filling stations," he said. "We had everything."

City, county and state officials have pushed repeatedly for the town's revival, and the marina has become a cornerstone of that effort. Their ambitions are visible in the signs at the entrance that list public officials below proud declarations like "American jobs, American values" and "higher-skill, higher-wage job opportunities in your community."

The signs, however, are from 2006. Three years later, plywood peeks out from behind the paint and Mr. Stankard has 11 employees — nine from Pahokee, he said, and most in maintenance.

He said the company he works for, Seven Kings Holdings Inc., which owns 10 other marinas in Florida, had been trying to reach out. The outpost will host its second annual free Christmas dinner on Saturday night for around 700 needy residents. But whether such efforts — along with the tax revenue from the marina and its cottages and campground — will be enough to keep people happy is an open question.

From the start, residents in this mostly black town have expressed fears that the upgraded site ("like Disney but rustic," Mr. Stankard said) would be only for wealthier outsiders. When a group of residents were told to stop fishing near the edge of the marina a few months ago, it seemed to confirm some people's fears of being pushed aside.

But Diane Harvey, 53, one of the people asked to move along, said that it was because of work being done on the dike, and that some of her neighbors' fears were misguided. "I can obey the rules," she said. "It's for the betterment of the town."

Mr. Crawford said most people had come around to a similar view, once they learned that the marina was on public land, for use by all. Generally though, Pahokee residents seem resigned to having little choice but to compete for the same tourists and snowbirds as the rest of the state.

"It'll be for the higher-up group, not the people in Pahokee," said Georgia Jones, 66, the owner of Poppa Jimmy's Catfish and More. "But that's all we got to hope for — pulling people in."

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From ‘Vibrator’ to ‘Cougar Town,’ It’s Still a Man’s World - New York Times

Posted: 18 Dec 2009 08:01 PM PST

"Is not this new instrument wonderful?" Dr. Givings exclaims in Sarah Ruhl's Broadway debut, "In the Next Room, or the vibrator play." "Thank goodness for Benjamin Franklin and his electrical key!"

Skip to next paragraph

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in "The Proposal."

Neither the 19th-century doctor nor his contented new patient, Mrs. Daldry, realize that the electrical contraption he has designed to cure hysteria, a common female ailment in the Victorian era, is actually a sexual aid or that her sensation of "dancing on hot coals — and down — down there — cold and hot to the touch — my heart is racing" has anything to do with erotic pleasure.

The point, as Ms. Ruhl shows, is how much control the mostly male medical establishment exercised over women, and the degree of ignorance women (and men) frequently had about their own bodies.

To a 21st-century audience, bombarded 24/7 with graphic sexual images and language, such prim naïveté is hard to imagine. American culture so openly embraces sexuality that you practically expect souvenir vibrators to be sold in the lobby of the Lyceum Theater, just as umbrellas with parrot heads are for sale nearby at "Mary Poppins."

But as Ms. Ruhl herself acknowledged in an interview, today's overexposure can exert its own brand of tyranny over attitudes toward sex. The difference now, say media, feminist and cultural critics, is that the mostly male-run film and television industries, as well as the profit-driven medical and pharmaceutical establishment, can aggressively promote their own self-interested standards of beauty, sexiness and normality.

"Men comprise the majority of the creative community," said Martha M. Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, and one result is "male fantasies of women's sexuality." Dr. Lauzen studied the 2008-9 television season, surveying more than 2,100 of the most powerful jobs in prime-time network broadcasting, and found that only one out of four was held by a woman.

She did a similar examination of the film industry, which revealed that of more than 2,700 people who worked on the top 250 films at the domestic box office last year, women accounted for 16 percent of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors. Nearly a quarter of those films employed no women in any of those key jobs.

Focusing on directors, the Lauzen team found that women made up a mere 9 percent of the total — the same as in 1998.

The way that these mostly male creators and executives portray female sexuality include women who resemble Victoria's Secret models, voracious female libidos and routine pairings of older men with women 20 and 30 years younger. The new film "Crazy Heart," released this week, which matches Jeff Bridges, 60, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, 32, is just the latest example.

"The Proposal," a hit over the summer that starred Sandra Bullock, 45, and Ryan Reynolds, 33, is among the few films that switch the age disparity. Generally, in these sorts of films, Dr. Lauzen noted, "the entire story has to revolve around explaining that relationship, because how can it be that a younger man would find an older woman attractive." An older man-younger woman relationship, by contrast, is "just accepted, no explanation needed."

Exceptions to the male view are "startling because you almost never see them," Dr. Lauzen added, mentioning as an example the TNT cable series "Saving Grace," which stars Holly Hunter and was created by a woman, Nancy Miller, who also serves as executive producer. In scenes that depicted Grace's lover fulfilling her sexual desires without reciprocation, "it was about her pleasure, not his pleasure," Dr. Lauzen said.

One twist in the new film "Up In the Air" is that a female character exhibits what is considered typical male behavior: sex without emotional attachment.

Ms. Ruhl, who spoke from her home in New York, said: "We get a lot of the male gaze on female sexuality. In the theater, a lot of woman have to be naked onstage."

In "In the Next Room," Dr. Givings (Michael Cerveris) ends up standing in front of the audience, nude, while his wife (Laura Benanti) does not.

"I don't take it lightly to ask an actor to take his clothes off onstage," Ms. Ruhl said, but added that she felt that it was important in this context. "It is about his character's vulnerability, but also about her looking at him. I feel we see a lot of examples of men looking at women, and audiences' being asked to take the male point of view. We're so unconscious of it."

What has largely disappeared from the media are distorted portrayals of women as frigid or uninterested in sex. What has replaced them, however, are shows like "Cougar Town," "Private Practice," "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" — all on ABC — that frequently portray women as rapacious sexual predators, always in the mood for sex and without qualms about bedding down as many men as possible.

Lenore Tiefer, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at New York University Medical Center and a sex therapist, complained about "the standardization of sex."

"Everybody has to like sex, want sex, be good at sex," she added. "In the face of that, it's inevitable that people feel insecure."

Older "characters who look their age and have sex are still taboo," Dr. Lauzen said, adding that on screen, women "age faster" than men.

Normal signs of the passing years are erased, so that anyone over 35 still has a whipped-cream complexion and an ice-cream-stick figure. Because viewers are so unaccustomed to seeing faithful renditions of older women, when they do appear, people assume that the characters are older than they really are. The rampant use of Botox, facial fillers or cosmetic surgery among female celebrities has caused the eyes to readjust.

Not propositioning anyone this week or engaging in passionate love before the dinner dishes are cleared? Perhaps it's because you have a low sex drive or wear a size larger than 2.

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Ministers ask for full accounting in woman's death - Toledo Blade

Posted: 18 Dec 2009 08:01 PM PST

The shooting death of a 62-year-old woman armed with a 10-inch scissors by a Toledo police officer this week sparked calls for full disclosure of the incident and greater care when dealing with the mentally ill.

Linda Hicks was shot at least three times by Officer Diane Chandler, who responded with her partner to the adult family home at 1321 Fernwood Ave. when the caretaker called 911.

Police Chief Mike Navarre said Ms. Hicks didn't comply with the officers' commands and tried to attack Officer Chandler with the scissors.

A five-person police firearms review board will review the shooting after the initial investigation, which includes a complete forensics analysis, the chief said.

Sixteen religious leaders from different churches gathered yesterday in front of the home where Ms. Hicks was killed to demand answers.

"We need some serious answers of what it looks like every time something goes down, someone is shot and killed, so our concern is to try and help the police make it better, that these things will not continue to happen," said the Rev. Theodis Horton of Shiloh Baptist Church. "When you see a 62-year-old woman taken out by police, it is really sad and it hurts our community."

The Rev. Cedric Brock, pastor of Mount Nebo Church on North Detroit Avenue and president of the

Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, called for full disclosure of the shooting.

"We are not here to bash the police," he said. "We as community leaders, as pastors, are very concerned about the inconsistencies surrounding the recent police shooting of Ms. Hicks."

He said pastors have received an outpouring of concern about the shooting.

Mr. Brock asked that the FBI get involved in the investigation.

"We understand the officers involved may have been young, but at the same time, a life is taken, and we are just very concerned," he said.

Donald Perryman, pastor of Center of Hope church, said the public is cognizant that police officers need to protect themselves but said there is a perception that the use of force by police is exceeding what is needed.

"We are also concerned … about what may be a growing culture of callousness when it comes to the most vulnerable in society, including the mentally disabled," Mr. Perryman said. "There's an understandable sensitivity in the city toward the plight of animals, but an inexplicable cultural callousness toward human life and to that end we are not here to bash the police."

He said police should collaborate with area mental health agencies regularly.

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner asked for patience regarding the incident. "As we await a complete review of this matter, I urge all citizens to allow a thorough and complete investigation to occur before passing judgment," the mayor said in a statement.

City Council's Public Safety Committee yesterday reviewed the police department's standard policy for dealing with mentally ill and nonrational subjects.

Monday night, police said Ms. Hicks refused to comply when the two female officers ordered her to show her hands.

They then tried to subdue Ms. Hicks with a Taser, which malfunctioned.

Police Lt. Mark King told the committee the department's 460 Tasers are tested before each shift. "They are complicated devices, and we do have malfunctions," he said.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness Ohio and the Ohio Adult Care Facilities Association released a statement on the death of Ms. Hicks.

"In many cases, caregivers see these situations brewing and know when help is needed, unfortunately, that help is not available until the situation becomes so grave that the police must be called in and by then it is often too late, as was the case with Linda Hicks," the statement said.

The groups urged more funding for mental health facilities and people with mental illness.

One mental health official said he expected the death of Ms. Hicks in an adult family home to generate renewed interest in the crisis intervention training offered by the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Lucas County.

Robert Kasprzak, the agency's manager of prevention and early intervention services, said police chiefs told him budget restrictions wouldn't permit them to pull officers from duty for the 40-hour week of mental health intervention training. But this was before the shooting of Ms. Hicks.

Toledo has sent 165 officers through the Crisis Intervention Team program since 2001, according to agency records.

Jacqueline Martin, the agency's executive director, said Ms. Hicks' death would have an effect on the CIT curriculum.

"There will be more focus on working with group home operations, more emphasis on site visits and officers' getting to know the homes and the workers at the site," she explained.

Mr. Kasprzak and Ms. Martin spoke after a scheduled meeting of the CIT planning committee, which has been working on improving the training curriculum.

Contact Ignazio Messina at:
imessina@theblade.com
or 419-724-6171.

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