Toodlers and Puppies

 My adorable great granddaughter recently had a third birthday party.  While I wasn't there, this reminded me of a posting I wrote a few years ago about the growing popularity of doggie birthday parties.  

After researching the article, I kept thinking about how the suggestions would work for both toddlers and puppies. Here are a few.

     - Have the party in a fenced yard - with the emphasis on the word "fenced."  Imagine having a doggie birthday party in the house.   Now imagine having the same party for 1 to 3 year olds.  It's the same image, right?  But don't try the yard party without a fence because herding dogs and toddlers is like, well, herding dogs and toddlers.

     - Have a responsible adult accompany each dog or toddler - no drop offs!  The article suggests the dogs should be leashed upon arriving until they get to know each other.  While this is might be a good idea for some toddlers as well, I'm not recommending it.

     - Crates available for dogs who might need "alone time."  OK this is not going to work for the kids for the same reason as the leash idea.  My daughter tells me they used to have a big comfy chair, blanket and cuddly stuffed toy available for a weepy or unhappy children.  Her husband, greeting kids at the door, would text her "potential cryer in foyer." 

     - Costumes - The dog party experts suggest having plenty of props for photo ops like bow ties or tiaras and party hats.  The toddlers might like these as well.  But nothing scary for either group.  That can cause all kinds of repercussions.    

     - Doggie Bags:  The dog experts suggest tennis balls and dog-friendly baked treats.  This could work for both groups. Of course you should give the wee children appropriate treats. Just because they like doggie treats is not a good reason to provide them. 

     - Games:  The recommendation for dogs is "bobbing for hot dogs."  Don't do this with toddlers!  They are notorious for choking on hot dogs.  Besides, many moms today think of hot dogs as the next thing to poison. 

The other game suggestion is non toxic, big bubbles.  "Dogs try to chomp them in the air, it's hysterical ."  This would work for both groups.

The article ends by saying "Luckily, dogs don't know or care how much you spend."  This is true for toddlers as well.  



***

The God Particle

 Peter Higgs died last week at age 94.  He was a Nobel prize-winning physicist.  In 1964 he theorized there must be a subatomic particle that would explain how the stars and planets acquired their mass.  It wasn't until 2012 the particle was confirmed.

Maybe you're thinking "so what?"

This particle is known as the Higgs boson and without it, the universe we know and love could not exist.  Hence the nickname:  The God Particle.

It helps scientists understand one of the most fundamental riddles of the universe: How the Big Bang created something out of nothing 13.8 years ago.  

I don't want to brag, but I already knew about the Higgs boson theory.  That's because, for years, I was a fan of The Bib Bang Theory.  Even the lyrics to the show's theme song give us an exciting explanation of how we got here.  But it doesn't give us a reason for how we got here.

On the show, theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper explained the Higgs boson theory several times.  But the best one was first aired on January 19, 2010 where he tried to explain the theory while playing Pictionary with Penny.  She, of course, didn't get it. 

But my favorite explanation was given by Young Sheldon on the second season of that show, April 22, 2022.  Sheldon, who is a little severn year old genius, is frightened because his mother, after experiencing a tragedy, is depressed and questioning her faith. 

She tells Sheldon "Faith is something that you can't know for sure is real." 

He was trying to let her know that the beginning of "everything" wasn't by chance. "What are the odds that it would happen all by itself?"  

 It was the God Particle.

***

Babie's Rights

 

Have you ever seen a two week old baby with a broken arm?  I have.  How about shaking baby syndrome?  What about a baby born to drug addicted parents who drug the baby to get it to sleep? 

Have you ever seen a child who had never seen a book prior to kindergarten? I have. And almost every public school kindergarten teacher has. 

In central Florida there used to be a huge billboard with adorable, chubby babies all over it.  Every time I saw it I thought some of the babies should have black eyes or body casts.  Because that's reality.

If you're having high feelings in the current political climate, here's something you can do.  Buy diapers, lots of them, for parents you know are short on cash.  Diapers are expensive.  They are also a trigger for spouse abuse, and, even if the baby isn't directly abused, wearing a soiled diaper for 24 hours can cause considerable harm over time, not to mention the excuiating pain the baby endures. 

FOLLOWING IS A POSTING FROM 2015

Today marks the 42nd anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. But (as you know if you know me) I don't discuss abortion. 

What I do discuss - and feel passionately about - is birth control.  I am for it.  I am for women and girls having children only when they want to and choose to.  I am for healthy moms and babies around the world.  While I am not a fan of promiscuous sex, I am also not a fan of pregnancy as a punishment for having sex. 

In this respect, I am a big fan of Melinda Gates.  She and her husband are giving away billions to help people all over the globe in eradicating scourges like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis - but Melinda's special passion is birth control.  She wants to cut world wide child mortality in half. 

Not much research has been done in the contraceptive area in the last 20 years but Melinda says that one day we might have a contraceptive that would dissolve, like a breath mint melts in your mouth, though it would be inserted elsewhere.  Or an implant in your arm that lasts three to five years.

Melinda Gates was raised a Catholic.  I don't know how she relates to her faith at this time.  But even Pope Francis, while he did reaffirm the Catholic Church's stance on contraception, just told us last week that we females "don't have to breed like rabbits."

Thank you Pope Francis.  That's good news.


***

Stand Up Comics

 

As most of you who read this blog know, I love stand up comics. And I love it when some I've listened to over the decades, while I walk, have become superstars.  

For example, three of them, Nate Bargatze, Sebastian Maniuscalco and Leanne Morgan. after sharing brutal honesty about themselves, and then exaggerating it all out of proportion, until it's hysterical, for a couple of decades, are now in the superstar category.  

When I first started watching Nate, he presented himself as naive and lazy.  He's now super famous but the persona remains.

When I first started listing to Sebastian, I thought his father was a mobster.  

Leanne is the epitome of a southern girl.  She uses demeaning words to describe people, like "little."  "My little momma and daddy."  But this is common in the south and we're all in on the joke.  She tells outrageous stories about her husband and family.  She rarely laughs.  She has a perfect stare when she's sharing her bad times.  One of her later tours was called her "Big Pantie Tour."  Every woman of a certain age can understand what that's all about. 

Now, about me.  I'm coping with a few health issues.  I have a UTI that won't quit.  For those of you under 60, this is a Urinary Track Infection.  They can do a number on old people, women and men.  I have test strips that let me know when it's visiting (again.)  But don't get nervous, I won't share any further. 

But I will share on of Leanne's bits.  These are not her words, but it is one of the stories she tells about herself.  She had two little tiny children and a traveling husband.  And she missed her period.  So she gathered up her little ones and drove to Walmart to get a pregnancy test.  After buying it she took the children into the restroom stall with her to use it.  Then looked at it with that perfect stare.  Her three year old son said, "Is it positive?"  

I think about Leeane every time I use my UTI strip.  

All three of these super successful "newcomers" who've been doing stand up for several decades, have specials on Netflix. 

***

My Current Problems with Barbie and Ken

 First off, I have not seen the Barbie movie.  But every person in the universe knows about it and the billions of dollars it's earned. 

Also, it's important to remind you that I've had a difficult time with Barbie, the doll, over the decades she's been around. I have previously written about my Barbie woes in this blog. 

Back to the movie, even with the rave reviews, there are those who have said that it emasculated Ken,  I don't know how that could happen to "Ken," but that's not my current concern. 

My concern is this:  Margot Robbie was Barbie.  Issa Rae was another Barbie.  Kate McKinnon was a third Barbie.  Greta Gerwig directed.  As far as I know, all of these people are intelligent women.  Unlike the doll, they are successful humans who know how to speak.

So here's my problem.  All I saw on Oscar night was Ken. His Marilyn Monroe inspired musical number has been, and still is, all over YouTube.  I look at Facebook once a day. He's all over it as well, sometimes as Ken, sometimes talking about Ken and sometimes using his other persona, Ryan Gosling.  Yes, I think Ryan Gosling is funny and smart and fantastic to look at.

But, seriously, don't these women have some things to say?

When my niece sent this cartoon it made me think of Ken mansplaining the Barbie movie.

***

Good Friday

Diana Nyad

 When I was growing up in the 1940s, Good Friday was a very different experience, whether you were Christian or not.  

From noon to 3:00 P.M., everything closed down.  Restaurants, stores, offices, all closed in respect for the perceived time Jesus hung on the cross.  

Lent,  the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter,  has traditionally been a time of introspection for me.  I am not a religious talker so I don't usually share my introspectiveness, but it is there and it is meaningful to me. 

So, for Holy Week, and especially today, Good Friday, I want to be solemn much of the time and contemplate what my life is all about and what the next chapter will look like.

It's easy to get distracted by other things and people I love, and knowing how blessed I am.  

So, what to do?

You may find this offensive, but what put me in the proper frame of mind was watching the torturous movie, NYAD on Netflix.  The movie stars Annette Bening as Diana Nyad, who, in 2013, at age 64, swam from Cuba to Key West without a protective cage.  She covered the 103 miles in 53 hours,  

The movie has received positive reviews but I found it to be almost more than I could bare.   Am I comparing what Diana Nyad achieved to Jesus dying on the cross for our sins?  No.  Am I seeing a person who chose to undergo a truly torturous journey (after four earlier attempts)? Yes.  

And it helped me stay focused on what Good Friday is all about.  I just heard the following quote a few minutes ago.  It speaks to me. 

Embrace the darkness of Good Friday.  

***

Hoop Dreams

 

TOM MESCHERY

In the late 50's my husband, David, went to the University of Kansas, the same years Wilt Chamberlain attended.  He said once in Forum that Wilt Chamberlain was really smart, and an older woman in this group said she taught Chamberlain in high school and, yes, he was really smart,

Who knew?  Everything I knew about Chamberlain up to that point, I learned from Saturday Night Live. 

Another bit of knowledge my David brought to our community was cribbage.  He taught me early on, and others later on, to play.  And to this day, I can, on any given Tuesday, go to the food court  in the mall and find two of David's best (Florida) friends, Charlie and Art,  playing cribbage.

Where am I going with this?

A few days ago, my friend, Charlie, who is a real sports guy, sent me a full page article from The New York Times (March 11th issue) about this guy named Tom Meschery, who started alongside Wilt Chamberlain, and named a 1963 N.B.A. All-Star, and became the first player to have his number retired at the Goldengate Warriors. 

The article is titled, Finding the Words For His Final Verse In Hoops and Love. 

I know what you're thinking because I've never heard of him either!  And why did Charlie send this story to me?  I don't have hoop dreams. 

Tom Meschery is a writer.  He's written five books of poetry, two memoirs, and six novels.  Much of his poetry is about his remarkable life.  He was born in Manchuria to Russian parents. I can't relate to basket ball or being born in Manchuria,  but I can relate to many things he experienced in the decades that followed. 

Much of my poetry came (and comes) from my big and little life frustrations.  When I was much younger and was up to my ears in frustration,  I would write a poem about it. It made me feel better.  Then, if I sold the poem to a magazine for say, five dollars, I felt even better about it. 

TOM MESCHERY

OK, for those of you who know me, or are one of the many folks I've never met but read this blog, you know that, after a long first marriage, the last ten years of which were constant caregiving, I fell madly in love with David.  We ended up playing cribbage all over the world!

Tom Meschery, at a late stage in his life, fell madly in love with a woman he met on line, with the help and approval of his son.  The Time's article says they connected over their creative curiosities and their love of literature.

What?  No way.

So many other similarities in Tom Meschery's life and mine.  I'm beyond grateful to Charlie for sending me the article.  I'll close with a Tom Meschery poem.

This morning, didn't I wake up to

     sunlight

and a warm breeze?  Didn't my wife

poke her head into the office 

to tell me she loved me?

I flavor my coffee with honey that is sweet as

     life.

I should live a little longer.

***