Fenxy

No, Gnorb, I'm last. (or at least last on this thread). I'm glad -- it is oh so very lonely having a grammar hissy fit without you around. xo

Not surprised really. It's just one of many wakeup calls for her, and quite likely one she won't heed. Anyway, there's a difference between not having physical custody of a child following a split-up, a decision that can be changed when the parent shows that they can step up to the plate and be a decent parent, and having your parental rights terminated, which is a truly huge deal, one which severs your parental relationship with your child. You can regain custody in the family law system by showing that you've done some things about your sorry self (like drug and alcohol treatment and some decent counseling, for starters) but once you screw up so massively that you end up in the child welfare system, your chance of being able to parent your child is on a very fast downward slope. It is almost always better for children to be with a parent, than in the foster care system, even when the parent is not so great at their job, and I wish her well. I agree with Tyme that being a child celebrity is just so terribly damaging -- she's very good evidence of that. It's a wonder anybody at all survives that time.

As for her husband, I haven't heard anywhere that he's not doing a good job parenting those children. Sure, he's a really really bad musician, has very poor personal grooming, and looks terrible in a fedora. He's not the only guy to try that out (or to have children with more than one woman), but that doesn't mean he should have his children taken away from him.

Dook has clearly been drinking that pink Paris kool-aid.

I love Chicago and wish I lived there, but alas, I do not, except for one summer when I house sat a house across the street from the Ambassador Hotel, a block from the lake. A truly wonderful summer. And really, any store called Graham Cracker Comics deserves a wide and loyal following. Are you going to blog about it for those of us who live in the hinterlands?

The Essential Geek -- what a great idea. I like it that you can sit in the back of the cafeteria and find out what matters -- or at least not get your ass kicked.

And thanks for the Cowboy Bebop tip.

I was just thinking about this a minute ago, as a matter of fact -- what's up with igoogle?

I'm pretty fond of words themselves, and even though I know it's a little stuffy, I'm not that taken with things that append a letter in front of a real word. But that's just me.

Why, thank you Peroty. Still, Church Puppet, etc. has a nice ring to it.

Can you say Family Values?

Quarter Past The Monkey.

of course.

I would just like to add that I took a poll in my household about what song might be my theme and the unanimous vote was for "I'm Bossy" (Kellis & Too Short).

Bossy, by the way is pronounced "Boss-ay"

I am bored.com -- what a fine idea. And that clip -- I love those accents.

I believe it can all be summed up by the great Peggy Lee in "Is That All There Is?"

It's sad, really, how little is out there to see right now. I want to see something really, really funny that doesn't involve ice skaters and that has just not been possible this month. Our solution was to rent a Fish Called Wanda and that worked okay, but it is just not the same as going to a movie theater and sitting around with a lot of other people, all laughing until your stomach hurts. And Josh, your movie theater maybe crap, but at least the food's free. Lucky you.

In my car, music (KFOG). On the train, I listen to a book or music if I can't get a seat, and I can, I read.

I do not like the way I feel when I get someplace after having listened to people yell at each other on the radio for my entire drive.

And while they're at it, they're going to stop doing their laundry and emailing their parents to tell them how things are going in Spanish 101.

Take that Mr. President.

Thanks for that tip, Rich. I'm looking for motivation to finish a project at work. Maybe getting to buy new music will be just the thing!

Oakland is a GREAT place for pho. You cannot move, really, without tripping over a steaming bowl of noodles and everything else that goes along with it.

Oh, I do love good food.

There's a thriving writing community in San Francisco -- Daniel Handler (he of Lemony Snickett fame) and Michael Chabon (who wrote the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) being only two.

You might want to check out the 826 Valencia website: http://www.826valencia.org/ to see more -- there are lots of interesting things for high school students on that site.

Also interesting is the film noir San Francisco -- your students might enjoy knowing more about Alfred Hitchcock's use of the city as a setting for movies like the Maltese Falcon and Vertigo.

There's a great piece about their reunion in yesterday's Sunday New York Times. It sounds like they have a lot to work out. I guess when you're in your fifties and reunite, older and wiser, you actually deal with the issues that made working together difficult.

I wonder how many people who become really well known are actually good people? It must be terribly corrosive to be told you're a god all the time. But then again, I could use a little of that. For a week. Maybe two.