Pancakes in a can?  How lazy can you be, really?  It's embarassing.

I try my best to stick up for the good old USA when my Russian husband and MIL talk smack, but some days I have to admit, their arguments are very convincing.

And what is worse, the guy who invented this 'ready whip pancake batter' has made millions $$.

I am all for invention, but this is slightly disturbing.  Pancakes are pretty easy to make already, friends, no?

Come on, help me out, will you?  Please tell me you did not purchase this nectar from a can so I can look my family in the face and mean it when I say, Americans are not THAT bad.

(College students exempt)

http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/23/smallbusiness/batter_blaster.fsb/index.htm

http://www.batterblaster.com/tv.html

Maybe the Mayans were right about the end of the world.

The latest barbie - A poll dancer?

News around the blogosphere is that there is a Barbie Poll dancer on the market in the UK and Asia, but no one can find the manufacturer, so I am unsure of its validity.

Not that it would surprise me if this was real.

One more day, I have to admit, I am happy to have a son.

At least I only have one penis to worry about. 

In honor of Banned Book Week.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
13. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
 

 * American Library Association.

Top 100

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm

Salinger, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Rand, Woolf, Morrison

Reasons why:

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/reasonsbanned/index.cfm

Now I have my winter reading list.

but I am a little annoyed by all the Michael Jackson coverage.

I used to be a big fan, and I do feel badly that he died alone, broke and under a lot of allegations.

BUT, I am annoyed by what the media focuses on, the over analyzing and the 24 hour news cycle that chews people up, spits them out and then feeds that cud to us over and over instead of anything insightful or helpful to our daily lives.  How many evening news broadcasts can we take with the top 10 stories all about rape, murder, pitbulls, child abductions, teachers taking advantage of their students, and politicians and talking heads talking to us as if we are stupid.

I am troubled that our culture only starts to focus on being good to each other when there is a tragedy or appreciates others after they die.

I feel badly for Farrah Faucett, Ed McMahon and other people who have lost loved ones this week and any other time when those stories and memories were trumped or swept under the carpet.

Most importantly I am bothered by the stories we ignore.

I know I'm not my normal witty charming self today,  but . . . I'm just sayin'

...

In the century of the artist, some things should remain sacred.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/06/03/salinger.catcher.lawsuit/index.html

OH NO!

can it be true?  American Gothic- paint by numbers??