Last-minute Christmas jitters

Just one last post until I disappear until after Christmas...

I may be procrastinating, but our elusive Santa Claus costume, hidden somewhere amongst our boxes of Christmas wares, is driving me bonkers!

The fact that hubby might not make it home on time for Christmas is driving me bonkers!

My kids insisting that we get dressed and leave for hubby's aunt's house (seven hours early!) is driving me bonkers!

The fact that I am facing my FIFTH green/snowless Christmas in a row is driving me bonkers!

I hope you all have a wonderful, stress-free Christmas!

Parallel-parking 101

We have all seen it before; the driver with absolutely no sense of how big their car is. It can be especially annoying when you are stuck on a narrow road because someone is having a hard time parallel-parking their huge car.

I usually give the driver the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they are driving a rental, or they have newly purchased the car, and have yet to adjust themselves to the dimensions of it.

Drivers such as the one in the clip below, however, just make you want to scream how much room there is – never mind the fact that they are driving a Smart, the car that practically fits into your pocket!

Bush's secret service detail

I am certain that everyone knows about the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at Bush. Jon Friedman posted these insightful questions for the secret service on 236.com:

1. Shouldn't you have jumped in front of that shoe?
2. Shouldn't you have jumped in front of that second shoe?
3. Second shoe = the one thrown after being removed from foot after first shoe was thrown.
4. Let's say people had three feet. Would you have allowed a third shoe to fly unimpeded?
5. While the shoe was in the air, were you like, "Oh, its just a shoe."
6. Same question about the second shoe.
7. Do you think this is funny, "Throw a shoe at me once, shame on--you. Throw a shoe--you throw a shoe, you can't throw a shoe again."
8. Is there not "protection training" for lunatics launching objects?
9. Let's say there isn't training for that--but do they tell you that if someone does throw (or shoot) something to be on the alert in case they want to repeat this behavior?
10. Where were you?

BONUS QUESTION: Do you think the Iraqis want us there? (Hint: their journalists are throwing their shoes at Bush)

My guess is that the secret service detail found the sight of shoes being hurled at Bush so funny that they forgot they were on duty. Then they had kind of an "Oh f*ck! I was supposed to stop that!" moment, and figured that an ambush overkill would compensate for their momentary absence.

If I had the time, patience and skill...

...I would definitely prepare Bento like this for my kids. It would sure circumvent the all-too-familiar battle my rugrats over finishing their food. These wonderful Bentos are created by Anna the Red, who made her first “kyaraben-ish” bento for her boyfriend not too long ago. On her blog, she gives wonderful step-by-step instructions and how-to photos. I think I will give it a shot when hubby has time off work next month.

Adultery = Criminal in South Korea

Upon first reading this article, I had to double check which Korea it was about. It may be an over-simplification, but when one thinks of how the two Koreas are different, it can be said the North is backwards and the South is more forward, like the US.

But wait – in parts of the US, adultery is still punishable by law, which leads me to ask: Should an extramarital affair be deemed criminal?

Of course not. The only time adultery should ever be considered in a legal proceeding is whilst negotiating a divorce settlement, as the adulterer did break his/her oath. Anything past that is ridiculously outdated in the western world.

Can the same be said about South Korea? I am not in a position to confidently say that revoking the Anti-Adultery Law would be ‘damaging to social order’. Taking the circumstances in which the law was originally enacted into consideration (namely that it happened in 1953 and only applied to married women), I think the main question becomes: Does South Korea consider itself a forward-oriented country?

Image source: blinkbing.blogspot.com

I feel sorry for Adolf Hitler…

...and that is surely not an easy thing for me to say. I am actually referring to Adolf Hitler Campbell. He is a three-year-old boy who was denied his name on a birthday cake at ShopRite. (I would have refused to inscribe the cake as well.)

I feel sorry for him and his two sisters, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie. As long as they keep these names, these children will be branded by their parents’ small and hateful minds. Whether or not they believe in Nazi ideology in their adult lives, they will be equated with one of the world’s worst hate crimes.

You can be sure that these children will never have a chance for a decent job. Just imagine: A newspaper headline “Adolf Hitler new Director of Communications at XYZ Inc”. How about your child running home from school saying that their new history teacher is Adolf Hitler?

I sincerely hope that these children will have the chance to grow past their parents’ limited mental capacity. For Pete’s sake, they could not even get Himmler’s name right (for Adolf’s sister)!

Photo source: AP

Playboy apologises

Are you offended by this magazine cover?
I am not. All I see is the typical Playboy cover; a suggestively clad woman with enough exposed skin to be scandalous, yet enough covered skin to be permissibly printed on the cover.

I do not see the need for Playboy Enterprises Inc. to apologise. Is not every single Playboy cover offensive to a group of people? Why single out Mexican Catholics as worthy of an apology?

Realitätsfremd

“It could have been worse.”

That is how John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch, defends his request for a $10 million bonus for 2008. Under his watch, the company’s stock performance burnt through billions of investors’ money. Under his watch the company needed to sell itself to Bank of America to ward off a Lehmann Brothers-like scenario. Goldman Sachs, not nearly faring as poorly as Merrill Lynch, will not pay out bonuses to senior management. And yet Thain feels he deserves the moolah because it could have been worse.

I was dumbstruck.

English has, by far, the largest vocabulary amongst the European languages. Despite that, you occasionally are at a loss of words when confronted with an outrageous situation, such as this.

I scoured my mind (and thesaurus) for a single word that encompasses the delusion that Thain must be experiencing. Initially, I thought that it was my being sick, and not a lack of words, that stopped me. Then hubby saved the day…

Realitätsfremd – German. Out of touch with reality, in the sense of being estranged from reality. Marie Antoinette-esque delusion.

I could have simply used the word delusion, but there is a marginal, yet significant, difference in meaning. Thain seems to find his success in how much more of a failure he could have been.

Sad. Very sad.

A musical you don't want to miss!

Love it!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Rick's Rant

One of the lovely things about living with kids is the certainty that once once person gets sick, it is only a matter of time until everyone else at home is sick as well. Having said that, I have been busy taking care of my sick hubby and kids, awaiting my turn to share in the "fun".

Of course, all this happens during a very interesting week for Canadian politics. Oh yes, those Canadian politicians have worked themselves in such a frenzy that CNNI actually dedicated some air time during their hourly world news report to the mess, and when CNNI reports on it, you know it's got to be interesting.

I am a little too preoccupied at the moment with my sick family to dedicate any significant depth to this post, so invite you to watch this clip, where Rick Mercer sums up what I think many Canadians are thinking...

Word of the day

irony

• noun (pl. ironies) A state of affairs that appears perversely contrary to what one expects, as in 'Bush receives International Medal of Peace'.

'Nuff said.