Picket Fence Post

Item #1: Meet Max

After nearly seven hours of driving to a dog shelter in New York State and back, the Picket Fence Post family now has a new member: A three-month-old wheaten terrier/Havanese puppy whom we named Max. (At least we think he’s a wheaten terrier/Havanese. That’s what we were told by the shelter folks, though his paperwork mentioned something about a Skye terrier. . . )

Max didn’t sleep well in his crate last night, even though I quasi-slept on the sofa near him. The scared little thing whined intermittently, reminding me of a baby awakening and crying during the night. After dusting off our baby gates and using caffeine this morning like a controlled substance, I feel as though I’m returning to my “new mom” days. A column on our search for Max is in the works.

Item #2: Papi Letdown

I was out on the road all day yesterday with the Picket Fence Post family getting Max, so I didn’t catch up on the heart-rending news regarding Big Papi until late yesterday and then read full coverage in the newspapers this morning. (Reading newspapers, on dead trees, how old school.) Hearing that David Ortiz in 2003 tested positive for performance enhancing drugs felt like someone had taken away Christmas, especially because of how it endangers the perspective on the special, glittering gem of a 2004 season. It’s a gut-level disappointment for someone like myself who hopes and wishes that seemingly good, decent guys like Ortiz wouldn’t and don’t mess around with such things. This, according to the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan, makes me “terminally naive.” However I think it’s one thing for a show-off of a guy like Manny to test positive, quite another for the quiet, affable Papi.

Item #3: Pot-Dealing Mom on ‘Weeds’

Over on Mommy Track’d, I wrote about my recent Weeds-a-thon, where I OD’d (pardon the pun) on the Showtime comedy/drama about the widowed, pot-dealing soccer mom who used to peddle her wares to fellow suburbanites in order to provide for her kids. However after watching the Nancy Botwin character evolve over several seasons — in a recent episode she gave birth to the baby of a Mexican drug lord — I wasn’t thrilled by the transformation. Despite all this, the show continues to be riveting.

Item #4: Potter is the New Skywalker

In my latest GateHouse News Service column, I make the argument that, for kids today, the Harry Potter series is to them what the Star Wars series was to us in the days when Star Wars was merely a trilogy and not a six-pack. I also think that, as heroes go, Potter is better than Skywalker, writing, “. . . [U]nlike Luke Skywalker, who had the tendency to whine and be gratingly self-absorbed, Potter suffers and doesn’t whine, which sets my kids’ favorite childhood character several notches above the one I admired as a kid.”

The only way The Spouse is gonna see me wearing a yellow polka dotted dress and heels while in the kitchen, looking like a happy domestic goddess is in this image, circa the 1960s and AMC’s Mad Men web site. (I couldn’t resist having my Mad Men doppelganger toting a newspaper. And coffee. Not unlike today, or most days when I have my morning java and read the newspaper. Except that I don’t dress like that.)

AMC’s Mad Men web site has a new app where you can Mad Men-yourself, select your body type, hair, eyes, nose, clothing, extras and your scene, anything from a bar with Don Draper and the offices of Sterling Cooper, to the Drapers’ kitchen with Betty. For this blog, I chose the latter. And then laughed at the unlikely image.

For those of you counting down at home, the third season featuring Don Draper & Co. premieres on August 16.

Okay, so it was actually the actor, Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter in the films, who appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to promote the new movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but some ‘rents might not know who Radcliffe is, hence me putting “Potter” in the headline.

My resident Potter fans liked the Radcliffe interview (watched it twice), particularly when he talked about not liking to clean up his apartment and when Letterman compared photos of him when he starred in the first Potter movie to now. As far as teen idols go, he’s cuter than Zac Effron or the JoBros.

Item #1: Acupressure

I took  The Girl to visit a medical acupuncturist today. Instead of using the acupuncture needles, he used acupressure — pressure applied to the acupuncture points sans a needle – and other techniques, like cupping . . . which was a good thing, given how apprehensive the 10-year-old was. I did the best that I could to calm her and soothe her worries. The staff put in a great effort to try to alleviate her fears by talking to her and affording her the chance to feel the hair-thin, flexible needle so she’d see that they weren’t some metal behemoths waiting to be jammed into her arms and legs. But every time a staff member left the room, The Girl’s eyes filled with tears and she told me she wanted to leave. NOW!

For those who’ve been following this saga, The Girl has had persistent ankle problems since January 2008 when she first twisted it during a basketball practice. Since then, she’s missed half of several seasons of soccer and hoop because of flare-ups. This spring we finally saw a youth sports specialist in Boston who recommended water therapy (which she’s been doing for a few weeks), TENS therapy (we just got the unit this week) and acupuncture.

The Girl had been dreading this acupuncture appointment ever since the orthopaedist first mentioned it. For weeks she’s told me there was no way that she was going to let anyone put the acupuncture needles into her, no matter how thin they were.

So, did the alternative techniques the doctor used today work? We’ll have to wait and see. (*fingers crossed*)

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In honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, this week’s Friday Funnies is Potter-centric. My resident Potter maniacs find these two Harry Potter Puppet Pals videos hysterical.

This one is insidiously catchy and will worm its way into your brain if you’re not careful:

This one mocks Harry Potter’s “cool” status as “The Chosen One:”

Item #1: Harry Potter

I took my resident, twin 10-year-old Harry Potter addicts to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday and was unpleasantly surprised by the trailers that were run prior to the showing of PG movie being played in the middle of a weekday. They were extremely violent, more so than the magical, wizarding violence in the Potter series.

One film, spearheaded by John Cusack as the dad of two kids, was about the end of the world. We saw streets and major landmarks being swallowed up, a fake newscast about mass suicide, children being put in danger. There was a preview for a vampire movie for which I don’t think my kids are mature enough to see. Then there was the Sherlock Holmes trailer which I likewise have no plans to let them watch when its released in the winter. These were previews geared toward a teenaged audience, not the mostly a tweenaged one obsessed with a boy wizard and catching a 1:10 p.m. flick.

Some may ask whether it’s hypocritical to complain about scary, violent movie trailers when I was bringing my kids to a scary Harry Potter movie with one seriously creepy scene. Here’s my response: My kids have read all the Potter books a bazillion times and have seen all the previous movies. They knew what was coming and when to avert their eyes. (I pointedly did NOT take my nearly 8-year-old to see the movie because I thought it would be intense.) As for the trailers that aired before Half-Blood Prince, I thought they were distinctly age-inappropriate. I looked around the theater and noticed many kids my children’s age who looked terrified.

Here’s one that was aired for the apocalyptic film 2012:

As for Half-Blood Prince, while The Girl and The Eldest Boy did like it and said they want to see it many times over again – albeit once it comes out on DVD and we can fast-forward through scary parts if they so desire — they were disheartened by the several changes made in the movie that didn’t jive with the book, particularly in a pivotal scene. When I read aloud Entertainment Weekly’s Whitney Pastorek’s “Harry Potter geeks: Vent your frustrations about the movie changes here” blog item, the two kids roared with approval. While I was unhappy with some of the changes, I WAS, overall, highly entertained.

Item #2: Three-Hankie Entertainment

Continuing with the cinematic theme . . . I enjoyed Michelle Slatalla’s column in the New York Times about her daughters’ obsession with books and films that make them cry with their dreadfully melancholy premises, and who dragged her to see My Sister’s Keeper, a tragic, sick kid movie which makes me grab for the Kleenex just at the mere thought of its premise.

Slatalla wrote:

“. . . [I]nstead of ‘All-of-a-Kind Family’ or ‘Betsy-Tacy,’ in which the biggest excitement was the simple act of growing up, my children always preferred tear-jerkers featuring girls with fatal diseases, in which protagonists were forever going into and out of remission and meeting similarly doomed boys at summer camps for the terminally ill.”

Item #3: The Scourge of Naked Kids

Some parents are comfortable allowing their very young children to run around in the buff. Some aren’t. This is news? The New York Times ran a huge story in its Home section yesterday entitled, “When Do They Need a Fig Leaf: Children Like to Strip Down But Not Everyone Approves,” and quoted those in favor of naked kids and those opposed, including parents of young children who are offended when their 3-year-olds are in the presence of naked friends:

“For many parents, allowing a child to run around naked at home is perfectly natural, an expression of the physical freedom that represents the essence of childhood, especially in the summer. But for others, unclad bodies are an affront to civility, a source of discomfort and a potentially dangerous attraction for pedophiles. These clashing sensibilities can create conflict, even when the nudity in question takes place at home.”

Some questions for you, my intrepid readers:

1) Have you taken your kids to movies and been unhappy with the content of the film trailers?

2) When you were young, did you like to read books or see movies that made you cry, or is this a new teenaged girl phenomenon?

3) Do you think that seeing naked little kids frolicking in their own homes is a scourge?

Image credit: Warner Brothers via GateHouse News Service.

Now that the dust has settled, folks have returned from their July 4 holidays and Sarah Palin has attempted to clarify why she’s quitting her post as Alaska’s governor midstream, I’ve deconstructed her resignation in my Pop Culture column this week, arguing that what you think about her and her decision largely depends upon your political perspective and life’s experiences. From where I sit, I view Palin’s tale as a “meta-working mom” story.

Ten days after her initial announcement, Palin’s bombshell is still making news. The New York Times has a page one story today which also seeks to explain Palin decision, saying that she’s become so stressed out lately that her friends are worried that her hair’s thinning and she’s becoming underweight.

At the risk of inviting your ire (*putting on my flak jacket and ducking*) I invite you to weigh in on Palin and her decision to quit.

Image credit: Jim Wilson/New York Times.

This video is taking over the internet. You might have seen it. It’s got babies. On rollerskates. Playing an 80s era rap tune. And break dancing. While shilling Evian.

Creepy or funny? You decide . . .

Talk about a high-wire act. You’re picked to play on the All-Star team for the second consecutive year. Your pregnant wife who’s due at the end of August, winds up being hospitalized in premature labor. Then she’s stabilized, though still hospitalized.

Now there are a handful of  macho guys who’re apt to say that there is no question or decision to be made here. You play the game, no matter what’s going on at home. They’d tell Pedroia to go to the All-Star game in St. Louis and be a starter. It’s his duty, they’d argue. He can be with his family when his baseball career’s over.

Then there are legions of others — myself included — who think that family comes first. Pedroia and his coach agree. Pedroia will be staying in Boston with his wife.

The Boston Globe had a good story on Pedroia’s decision.

Red Sox Manager Terry Francona, who helped Pedroia through his decision process, told the Globe: “I said, ‘Pedey, look. What’s the worst-case scenario if you don’t go to the All-Star Game? He said, ‘Well, I’m mad.’ I said, ‘What’s the worst-case scenario if you go and Kelli is not . . . ‘ And he said, ‘I can’t go.’ . . . I think he has been stressing about it. I think Kelli has been stressing about it. It’s not something he took remotely lightly at all. I know it’s the right decision. Because you can’t predict the future it’s the only decision.”

In a written statement, Pedroia said, “I am disappointed that I will not be able to enjoy the amazing experience with the other All-Stars, especially with my Red Sox teammates, but it is important that I put my family first at this time.”

I browsed through a number of Red Sox blogs, fan sites and the comments sections of news media sites and, with the rare exception of a few stray knuckleheads, people largely seem to be supportive of Pedroia. Which is a wonderful thing to behold.

Image credit: Jim Davis/The Boston Globe.

Item #1: Dear Summer

To: Summer, c/o Mother Nature

From: Meredith

Dear Summer,

Words cannot express how disappointed I’ve been with you in recent weeks. You’ve been dour and temperamental and unpredictable. You’ve been behaving like an insane toddler. Or Gov. Mark Sanford, whichever analogy works for you.

For weeks on end, you’ve given us gray days where the temps don’t exceed the 60s (sometimes many daylight hours have lingered in the 50s), not to mention the rain and the hail. It’s July in New England for goodness sake, what’s up with that?

I tried to revel in and deeply appreciate the beautiful weekend you bestowed upon New Englanders over the 4th of July holiday. While my husband and children enjoyed your outstanding weather at Fenway Park while they watched our beloved Red Sox win (a team for whom I know Mother Nature now roots, as does God), I celebrated you and your dear mom by finally filling the wooden window boxes on my house with thriving pink and white petunias. They looked fabulous. I even removed weeds from several locations around my front yard, though I’ve still got lots more to tackle in the back yard.

Then you proceeded to unleash two straight days of lightning, pounding rain and vicious hail which rendered those bright petunias in two of the window boxes destroyed. Plus, you ruined the afternoon of swimming my kids were counting on. (I’d been dangling the possibility of allowing them to go to the pool after I finished up some of work in order to get them to give me some peace, but by the time we were ready to leave, we heard the first crack of thunder.) You also flooded basements, back yards, streets and municipal buildings in the greater Boston area, causing loads of problems for people.

Did I mention that it’s July in New England, not March or April? On behalf of the Picket Fence Post family, I respectfully request that you start behaving in ways to which we’ve become accustomed. Either that, or take a Prozac, or Zoloft.

Yours truly,

Meredith

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