Monthly Archives: October 2008

Time to Cry Tuesday – Let the Daughters Speak Out

I first saw this video on PunditMom, a fellow blogger at 50-Something Moms blog. (I simply love her daily commentary).

Sorry email subscribers, you probably won’t be able to view this video without going online to the blog, but I urge you to do so. This is very powerful.

Hey, I love a good Sarah Palin Condom or an SNL sketch just like the rest of them, but my fear is that we have all gotten so caught up with Joe the Plumber, hockey moms, mavericks and you betcha’s that we are mired in the satire and don’t stop to really consider the ramifications. I had a friend say the other day that now is not the time to be a one-issue voter. That our country is in such turmoil we need to look outside our personal pet issues and vote for what is best for this country. Thankfully for me, both of those ideas go hand in hand.

If you have a daughter, this one will give you chills. If you are a women, it will make you feel proud of the generation that is speaking out in this piece. Hey, and if you are a (straight) guy, there is a good chance you can ‘get you some’ if you send this to your significant other. (sorry, even Time to Cry Tuesday needs a little levity).

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Filed under current events, family, parenting, politics, women

Living la vida lunchbox

Oh, my. Kind of creepy, right? I had to take a picture of this! Sadly, poor old Ricky M. was on the discount shelf at the art supply store. Who would have thought the artist with the 1999 song that topped the charts would end up here?

I got a particular charge out of this as that song was the theme of my 40th birthday dinner with the First Thursdays.

I guess every lunchbox has its day.

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Filed under absurdities, carry a camera, humor, humor, music, trends

Sarah Palin Condom!

…or why you should always have $5 in your pocket in Times Square.

I kid you not, my friends. Oh no, did I just say ‘my friends’? Help, I think my brain has been infiltrated by election pop culture. Um, do you think? This is my 4th friggin’ consecutive post on this drivel. I can’t help it, everyday gets more amusing.

Back to the story of the condom. I was walking from Penn Station to meet Gary and some friends for dinner on 56th Street. For those who know NY, this is a walk through the belly of the beast known as Times Square. At rush hour! This is about as out of the basement as you can get.

Overstimulation is an underestimation.

I was getting into the bob and weave of the ebb and flow of bodies and traffic, street noises and meat-on-a-stick smells, when all of the sudden I hear:

“Get your Sarah Palin Condoms. Limited Edition!”

What? Are you KIDDING me? And there it was again, coming from another place. And then another. There must have been a half a dozen young men carrying boxes of condoms. A whole swarm of condom hawkers. (BTW, they also had Obama and McCain – those are simply not funny).

But Palin condoms? With the tagline “When abortion is not an option”. That is absolutely hysterical.

Here is the best part. A young french man came up to the vendor as I was buying one.

French Man: what are theez?

Vendor: Sarah Palin condoms.

French Man: Ugh! I wooood not put my deeeek in one of theez.

And this is when I knew for sure that the humor gods had smiled down upon me once again and I could live another day!

(fyi, you can purchase them here, but they are cheaper on the street if you happen to be in Times Square).

Also, my candidate paper dolls came today. They are so amazing I must do a follow-up post on them. Just a preview… first page, they are in their underwear!

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Filed under humor, politics, products, sex, trends

Joe Twitter

I don’t know how I ever watched a debate without Twitter. (have I said that before?) Today I have a little poll I thought would be kind of fun. The screen grab below is a montage of some of my favorite tweets on the Plumber stream that popped up after about the 5th mention of good ol Joe (BTW, he has no plumber’s license).

Now all you lurkers, let’s show a little love and cast your vote. After all it is your responsibility as a citizen of the couldcryosphere. And email subscribers (you know who you are) you are going to have to jump onto the blog to cast your votes. C’mon, this will make some tweeters out there all sorts of happy. I don’t even know any of these guys… yet. So cast your vote below and let your voice be heard. Oh and don’t forget to check out the t-shirts and stuff.

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Filed under humor, politics, polls, trends

Crosby, Nash and the fat guy sitting behind me

Have you ever been to a concert where the guy behind you insists upon singing EVERY word to every song?

Poorly.

Yeh, well that was the guy behind me last night at the David Crosby and Graham Nash concert. This friggin’ guy thought he was headlining! Imagine the big galoot belting out the words to Our House like a high school girl for G-d sake! “Our Houssssssse, is a very, very very fine Housssssse…”

Jeez bud, give me a break. For the ticket price I would prefer the traditional Crosby/Nash harmonies over you reminiscing in my ear, thank you very much.

It was an otherwise nice nostalgic show. But for some reason it took on the feeling of a Twilight Zone episode. When we first walked in my friend asked me if I had this odd feeling that we were at a terrible high school reunion. I looked around and realized that we were in a crowd of some of the sorriest looking souls I have seen in a long time. Hey, we were absolutely gorgeous in this crowd! (not a bad thing).

We took a walk to the outside deck before the show and suddenly this women started talking to us as if we were old friends. Donna was her name. Let me preface this with the fact that both Ellen and I have this personality trait that makes complete strangers spill their guts to us. Unsolicited, I might add.

Before we knew it we had good old Donna’s life story down. Two grown kids, widowed, took her kid to see Crosby and Nash in ’86 – partook in some questionable activities that led her son to grab the wheel when she was driving, legal secretary – semi-retired, fat stomach that caused her to hike up her pants and ask us if we had issues with our jeans falling down (I kid you not), loves salsa music prompting her kids to call her ‘Mambo’, lives in Queens, does not like the subway, refuses to learn how to text message and was trying like hell to get us to go back stage with her to meet the band.

Ooooooo boy, this was one surreal episode for sure. Our husbands came outside to find us hanging with good ol’ Donna and did not quite know what to make of her. Honestly, we were kind of into Donna. She had an ‘I don’t give a crap about anything at this point of my life’ kind of way that was actually quite refreshing.

Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a post about the annoying fat guy singing behind me? I suppose this post took the same direction as the evening did.

Organic, in a bizarre sort of way.

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Filed under humor, music, rock 'n roll

The Three Joes

Joe update: no license, no really plan on how to buy the biz. And the reason he thought a press conference was a good idea? Score another vetting screw-up for the McCain camp. No biggie, this morning I already heard that Jane was the new Joe. Jeez, fame is fleeting in these times!

Ahhhh, another debate. How did I ever watch without Twitter. My fave comment of all times was about The Three Joes: Biden, Six-Pack and The Plumber. Did all elections have so many cartoonish sound bites? Here is a link from the BBFF Liz that tells you more about who this (in)famous guy is in real life.

Somewhere after the third ‘Joe the Plumber’, Twitter actually put up a most popular category for ‘Plumber’. Can’t make this stuff up!

I made a joke about wanting an ‘I heart Joe the Plumber’ T-shirt and could not resist putting up a Cafepress shop. So here you go peops. Get yours here. And pass this onto your friends. You can even get yourself a nice little button, bumper sticker or mug. I may not be the only one with this idea out there but I am the one you love the best, right?

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Filed under fashion, humor, t-shirts, trends

Campaign Voodoo-Op?


In celebration of the last presidential debate taking place just minutes away from where I live I thought I would bring this wonderful find to your attention.

Dover Publications has jumped on the election bandwagon with these campaign edition paper dolls. (fyi, if you are reading this on a blackberry you MUST find a computer to see this picture!)

I don’t think I can resist the buy. They are ‘collectibles’ for G-d sake. Somewhere down the line I know I will be so sorry if I don’t own these. Kind of like when I had to go back into the store to buy the Albert Einstein action figure last week. Hey, where did I put that? Isn’t it time I start posing him in odd places?

Take a look at the art on both of these. Obama has that suave debonair look of a 1960s James Bond. McCain? Well he has no neck for starters. Or maybe it is just that his head is not on right. (cheap shot, I know).

What struck me was their hands. The gestures are actually quite true to life.

The best part of all? These come with election night scorecards! THAT is truly fabulous.

Maybe I should buy these for Jana to celebrate her first election!

Go ahead, order them, they are only $7.99 each!

Now everyone get ready for the debate and don’t forget to drink on maverick.

I am very excited to be posting at 50-something mom blogs today. Don’t miss my tattoo thoughts.

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Filed under absurdities, humor, humor, Jana, news, politics, products

Time to Cry Tuesday

Wow, Tuesday again? Jeez, I could cry but I don’t have….

Ok, that was lame. Sorry.

I thought a lot about what belonged here this week. Since the last TtCT I have spent a lot of time with family and community for the Jewish holidays. This time of year leaves us Jews all sorts of reflective.

I could have written about the moving sermons given by our clergy (fabulous, actually). Or some of the touching moments with my family. Or how hard it is to have a holiday without our dear sweet Jana-girl. (there we all go, tears are starting).

But there was one incident that stood out this week for me. I have already shared it with a few of you so if you want to go get a cup of coffee now and come back tomorrow I will understand.

On Yom Kippur evening I was near the entrance of the synagogue greeting congregants. (Over-volunteer job #10,000: Synagogue Board Member). An elderly gentleman that I have known for many years came into the lobby with his tie undone. He has not been well for the past few years yet he always makes the effort to attend services. He looked agitated and was asking if we had seen his friend who he asked for by name. With kindess and grace a man I was standing with gently guided this man off to the side and offered to help him with his tie. He had a calming way of helping him with the dignity and compassion that he deserved.

The beautiful thing about this story is that the helper was not someone I would have expected this from. This was a genuine gesture of caring that was so in the spirit of the holiday that it took my breath away. Just a simple act of kindness that made all the difference to someone who has suffered so much.

People will surprise you.

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Filed under communities, friendship, religion

Advice to my son

This is going to be a new series. I have decided to give Danny a piece of solid advice whenever I can. Occasionally, when I have compiled a nicely balanced list, I will post it here.

I am thinking I can establish myself as the teen advice-giver. What do you think? Well, perhaps you may need to sample a few posts before you actually want to share these with your own kids.

I figured this is my last chance to leave my mark on the little bugger. Now Janny, I know this might be pissing you off right about now because I never did this with you, so consider this for your ears as well. (Except when I mention body parts that you don’t have). And there may be one thrown in there for you once in awhile

Here is the first list. It is in no particular order.

1. Be all that you can be (not in the military way). I have actually said this to my kids every day before they left for school, right before they roll their eyes and walk out the door muttering some unsavory name under their breath.

2. Never spend money you don’t have. Credit card debt is a nasty hole you don’t want to fall down. (believe it or not I said this just before the financial crisis hit, I am sounding less stupid to him now).

3. Never show your penis in a business setting. This pertains to a story that I wish I could, but can’t share here. Danny’s response was, “what if I go into the porn business.” Note to self: decide if this is concerning.

4. Keep your eye on your own ball. This one works for everything but is especially crucial during college prep.

This one actually came up the other day in a conversation with Jana (since she thinks she is the more interesting child I figured I would throw her in):

5. Your true friends are the ones that will hold your hair back when you puke. To those who have done this for me in the past – and you know who you are – thank you from the bottom of my heart and back at ya anytime you need it. Or the grown up version of that which is ‘the ones that sit in the emergency or surgical waiting rooms with you’ when you get older. Why does it sound like puking is more fun in this context?

6. Don’t do crack. I figured this might be obvious but it can’t hurt to mention it.

7. Try not to hit anything when you are driving. Again, kind of obvious but he just got his permit and I thought it would be good to start with the fundamentals.

8. Don’t marry an asshole. Not sure how this one came up but it did result in him telling me that he thought I would make a good mother-in-law. Sweet, I will try to remember that and bite my tongue till it bleeds so as not to prove him wrong.

I am going to open this up for comments. Give me your best shot. I will compile and do a ‘Readers Advice to Their Kids’ post from the results, so I urge you to please join in.

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Filed under advice to my son, danny, family, humor, parenting

Textify

This is a little word I coined in a MMCM post a few weeks ago. I used it in the context of teens having 5 kids over. Those who are there become ‘fruitful and textify’ and before they know it there are 30 kids… you get the picture.

This weekend I have come up with an alternate definition: When your kid goes to a big 10 school you can watch the game on national TV and textify them.

Here is a priceless text from Jana in the bleachers at tonight’s Wisconsin massacre game against Penn State.

Jana: girl fight in the student section a few rows down. alexa said nothings better than a girl fight.

I always loved that Alexa, a reader who is quoting! Such flattery!

Unrelated to textifying but related to the game, below is an actual note from Jana during college app days. Here is a link to the entire post. I thought the Penn State reference was ironic here.

Oh, one last thing. Voting is still open for the Aretha or Tina poll with Aretha in a strong lead Although thet the voting is thin, Lon posted an excellent comment. Let’s have some serious participation here please!

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Filed under family, humor, Jana, Mid-Century Modern Moms, travel