It’s a new year!! I’m not going to go so far as to say I’ve made a resolution to be a better blogger, but I have written it down on my “To Do” list. To Do” list sounds much less intimidating than “New Year’s resolution” list, don’t you think? Resolution just sounds so . . . icky. And hard. Like Geometry. Which I made a D in, if anybody was wondering. (But I still managed to graduate from college and law school, so HA Mr. Shedd! You were wrong! I DIDN’T need to know whether point b was an interior angle of AOC or LMNOP or whatever the heck those letters were you were always talking about.)

So, in the interest of being a better blogger, I thought it might be fun to start doing a weekly (monthly?) roundup of random, interesting news articles. Naturally, by “interesting” I mean scandalous/pointless/gossipy stuff, preferably involving celebrities.

For example, has everybody heard the big news? Kate Gosselin got new hair.

Or rather, as the LA times blog put it (much more succintly) “The Hedgehog is Dead.” LOL. Except . . . I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I almost think she looked better with the hedgehog. That was her thing, you know? I mean, besides the eight kids, bitchy vibe, & smarmy ex-husband. The hedgehog was her trademark. Now she’s just another chick with blond extensions. I didn’t even recognize her until I read the headline. Although she does look less like a scary psycho soccer mom who is just waiting for you to fall asleep so she can stab you with one of her Pampered Chef knives, which is probably a good thing if she’s really “making room for romance.” I think she and Marilyn Manson would make a good match.

China Builds Women Only Parking Lot

(From BBC) A shopping centre in China’s Hebei province has built a car park with wider spaces that it says is designed especially to suit women drivers. The women-only car park in Shijiazhuang city is also painted in pink and light purple to appeal to female tastes. The parking bays are one metre (3ft) wider than normal spaces . . .The Wanxiang-Tiancheng shopping centre had also “installed signs and security monitoring equipment that corresponded more to women’s needs” . . . The Global Times website says female parking attendants have been trained to help guide women drivers into their parking spaces. The bays also have extra lighting.

Some People may consider this concept sexist, but personally I think it’s THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER. Giant pink and purple parking spaces just for girls? Sign me up. Who cares if it seems chauvanistic? Not me. I freely admit I can’t park. Other people freely admit it too, as evidenced by the  concerned motorist who left a helpful note under my windshield at Olive Garden that said: Learn how to park you stupid idiot!! (prompting my then-4 year old daughter to exclaim,”Wow, Mommy! I didn’t know you were a stupid idiot!”)

Ditto for the female parking attendants and extra security lights. I’m all over it. How could you not be? You never hear about a guy getting kidnapped from the mall parking lot. It’s always some poor woman who gets snatched outside the food court and stuffed in a trunk, never to be seen again. This idea isn’t sexist; it’s just good sense.

In fact, I like the whole “women-only” thing so much, I think they should extend it to other areas of life. Like grocery stores. Specifically, the jars they sell at grocery stores. You know, the ones that an enormous robot apparently welds shut with super-glue and a flamethrower back at the factory? They usually hold pickles or pasta sauce or the strawberry jam I would really like to put on my toast except I don’t keep enough dynamite around the house to get the lid off?

It would be so great if they could give some of those bright pink and purple easy twist-off lids and put them in a special “Women Only” aisle. I thought getting married would solve this problem, but it turns out my husband isn’t keen on staying home 24/7 in case I need a jar opened. He also doesn’t like being awakened at 2 in the morning to unscrew the lid from the Peter Pan jar either. I’m not sure why. So having special “Girls Only” jars would help him too. It’s a win-win situation.

Parents Arrested for Tattooing Children

(FromChattanooga Times Free Press) Two Chattooga County parents have been released on bond after charges that they tattooed six children with a homemade contraption consisting of electrical cord, spliced wiring and a guitar string for a needle . . . Both Ms. Marsh and Mr. Bartels were tattooed with the device and, on the same day, six of their children — a 10-year-old, two 11-year-olds, a 12-year-old, a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old — also were tattooed, the sheriff said . . . the only person not tattooed was a 7-year-old boy. . . They said he was too young,” the sheriff said. . . All six children were tattooed with the same needle, in the same way and on the same place on their bodies.

“Electrical cord, spliced wiring, and a GUITAR STRING string for a needle??!!” Are you serious?? These people are actually allowed to go about in the world unchaperoned? Because I’m pretty sure you have to have the IQ of a goldfish to do something that spectacularly dumb. And reckless. It’s bad enough they used a guitar string as a needle but using the same guitar string on ALL SIX KIDS? Have these people never heard of germs? It’s 2010, not the middle ages. I thought everyone over the age of 5 understood the basic concept of how diseases are spread. Even if they’d used a brand new, hygenic tattoo machine with disposable needles the whole thing would still be so, so wrong, but man . . . why not just skip the tattoo part and drink each other’s blood, or go down to the local hospital and lick some bedpans? Geesh.

And that’s all for now. More ranting next week.

xoxo
Julie