Owls
My daughter and I adore Gail Gibbons’s books, which are typically full of both factual information and enjoyable pictures. Recently we checked out her book Owls from the library in honor of the season, and we were not disappointed. Not only is it fully illustrated with colorful paintings of just about every kind of owl you could ever think of; it’s also completely filled with fun facts about owls.
For example, of the approximately 140 different owl species, did you know that only 21 kinds live in North America? That just doesn’t seem right, since we see so many different kinds. I also didn’t know that owls were killed so often to protect small livestock and that their populations have dwindled so much (although it makes perfect sense). Most of the book is factual information about owls, but there is also some heartwarming storytelling about owls—particularly between mothers and owlets—to be enjoyed as well.
This book is a perfect introduction to owls as well as the book you’re looking for to give your little owl lover this holiday season. My daughter has already drawn several owl pictures while looking at its pages and I’m sure many other children would enjoy doing the same thing.
Cell phone use increases your risk of brain tumors
Read that statistic again. Creepy, right? Downright terrifying, even. So why do we continue to use cell phones when we know the risk they present? I know they are super convenient—my cell phone was helpful to me four times today—but we did live without them every year of our homo sapien lives up until about a decade or two ago. And even in the beginning, it was really business folks and doctors who used them (or pagers or car phones) the most, not everyone.
Can’t we find another way to manufacture phones without the radiation? This damage is particularly harmful to children—and since we just switched from a home phone to cell phones in our house, I now worry about my daughter. She doesn’t make or take calls much just yet—she’s only seven, so she has a weekly call to grandma and that’s about it—but soon she’s going to want to, and I definitely don’t want her getting that radiation! We may have to switch back to a house phone by then.
Until then, here are a few tips to use that can help reduce your exposure to cell phone radiation—as well as more information about these latest findings.
What’s the cruelest food you’ve eaten?
If you talk to me about cruel foods—or food with a face—I really do understand. I do not eat meat frequently; in fact, I was a strict vegetarian before I became pregnant with my daughter. The cruelest foods, to me, are veal and foie gras, two so-called foods I will not eat. I also won’t eat lobster or any other live animal, and don’t see how anyone else could.
That said, I have to get off my high horse and admit to eating chicken, pork, and beef—not daily like some people might, but often enough to make it count. I know in my head that it’s cruel, and you’d think that it would be easy to be a vegetarian today—it really is—but I was so used to fake meat that now that I’m on a family budget and can only purchase what everyone will eat together, it’s one or the other. It’s a poor excuse, but that’s what I’ve got.
Do you feel as if your diet is particularly cruel? Yahoo Health has listed the eight cruelest foods (according to them) for you to check. I did notice that monkey brains are not on the menu, but I suppose the list includes the most average American diet rather than the exotic eater.
Inspiring girl dresses up daily
Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love to dress up as different characters or monsters, trying on new personas and having fun with my family. But Stella Ehrhart doesn’t wait for Halloween; she dresses up every day.
Ehrhart, age eight, selects a different female hero every day from the book 100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century, and dresses up as that heroine. Of course, Stella doesn’t stop there. At school, her teacher uses her outfits as inspiration to look up the female heroes online and to teach the class about them and why they are so important.
What’s both awesome and sad about this story is that the kids in this classroom probably learn much more about female heroes and historical figures than any other classroom in the world. It really is great—but it also serves as a reminder that most classes do not learn about so many women important in our history.
Ehrhart’s story is making its rounds around the Internet, of course, and I hope with all my heart that she inspires even more girls to research their heroes—and even more teachers and parents to help educate both their boys and girls about the important women of our world.
Age-appropriate films for kids
My conservative, Catholic cousin-in-law was once shocked when I admitted to watching R-rated movies as a teen. “Didn’t you?” I countered. He told me no, that his mother wouldn’t let him and he didn’t watch a single one until he was 18. That sounded sort of pitiful to me, but I guess I sound pitiful to other people—I’ve never smoked pot, for example, and I didn’t drink or do drugs in high school. I suppose I should have asked him if he did any of those things.
Then, the other night at a mask-making class, the teacher asked kids to identify a favorite movie that might inspire a mask. While looking at the masks, my seven-year-old was obviously reminded of the movie Labyrinth, which we love. The teacher remarked, “Labyrinth! Wow. Any other movies?” He then decided to use a girl’s example of Beauty and the Beast—a movie in which people die, by the way, while no one dies in Labyrinth; and instead of a girl tolerating emotional abuse, it involves one courageously saving her little brother—for the mask-making. A librarian remarked later, “Labyrinth’s a little old for her, isn’t it?”
Seriously? I know dozens of parents who let their kids see movies like Avengers, which is filled with death. I even know a mom whose toddler watches Lord of the Rings movies, which is just incredible to me—my daughter will not be watching those movies for at least another year or two. How is okay that all of these kids can watch shooting and death and violence, yet it’s wrong for my kid to watch puppets dance with David Bowie?
Tonight I let her watch The Neverending Story, my favorite movie when I was her age. Nevertheless, I kept my fingers on the remote, ready to stop it if she got scared at all. But she really enjoyed the movie—especially the bat and the luck dragon, just as I had expected—and I felt like my judgment was spot-on. It’s not always, but it usually is—and that’s what I trust when it comes to my daughter.
What about you? What do you do to decide whether or not something is appropriate for your children? Do you use ratings, or do you have another system in place? Do you watch movies before sharing them with your children, or trust other parents’ reviews? Share your thoughts below.
Linger
The second book in Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series begins as Sam remains a human enjoying his time with Grace as much as he can. In Linger, we hear much more often from Sam than Grace, as well as from Isabel and a newcomer, Cole, who turns out to not only be one of the wolves Beck had changed in book one, Shiver—but he’s not without his problems.
Grace’s “missing” friend who is really a turned wolf, managing the new wolves Beck infected—including two rock stars—and dealing with Grace’s dubious parents are all on Sam’s plate this year, as is the fact that brilliant Grace is ready for college while he is still getting used to the idea of living as a human for the rest of his life.
Another contention to deal with in this book is Isabel’s father, who wants to kill as many of the wolves as possible after the death of his son. But the main issue in the book is really Grace’s mysterious illness, which is burning her up and eventually bleeding her out.The book is still quite moving and well written, and there are still lots of mystery, romance, and a bit of horror to keep fans entertained. But I was disappointed with the level of romance here. The tenderness between Sam—whom, I still believe, might be based on Supernatural’s Sam Winchester due to his soulfulness and gorgeousness—and Grace still remains, but Sam just doesn’t seem as worried about Grace as he should be. You won’t find the horrible mental and physical abuse you’ll unfortunately find in so many other YA romances these days, thank God, but Sam’s avoidance of that—plus his reluctance to be responsible for the new wolves—made me think a little less of him. It just seemed out of character, even though I know he was doing some self-preservation as well as wanting to wish both away.
In the end, there is a big twist that leads into the third book, which I’m now reading. So far it’s very intriguing, and the tone remains constant as ever—poetic and dreamlike without being too far out of reality, with plenty of realism and real issues woven in. Once I’m finished with this series, I plan on reading everything by this writer’s gorgeous voice, and I would recommend all that I’ve read so far to anyone interested in lovely writing and supernatural, yet natural prose.
Rape is not a gift from God
If you haven’t heard yet, Richard Mourdock, a Tea Party Republican candidate for Senate, made a statement so heinous yesterday several people I know broke things after hearing him say it. Okay, so did I.
Mourdock said that women should be forced to carry their pregnancies to full term from a rape because said pregnancies are a “gift from God.” Let me tell you something, Rich. Can I call you Rich? My middle name, Jean, literally does mean “gift from God,” so you can feel free to use that one. But a rape, or a pregnancy resulting from rape—which accounts for at least 32,000 pregnancies a year, by the way—is no gift. Are you that stupid, or simply that cruel, Dick? Can I call you dick?Do you really think that your God would want babies born out of hate, violence and fear rather than love? If you force women to carry out pregnancies, I will tell you what you’re going to get out of it, and it’s not godly at all:
- Lots of dead or maimed women who attempted to abort their own pregnancies unsafely out of desperation and despair, and
- Women who feared breaking the law, then carried out said pregnancies and had children who looked just like their rapists whom they despised, who then suffered lives full of hate and despair, fully carrying on the cycle.
Wait to go, Dick! You’ve figured out a way to keep women in fear, in poverty, and miserable forever, which I’m sure is your real goal here. I’m not saying that there aren’t women who will carry their pregnancies to full term after a rape by their own choice, and I’m not saying that there won’t be people born from rape who aren’t good people, or who have good lives, either.
I am saying that it must be a woman’s choice to make this difficult decision on her own, and it’s none of your damn business, Dick. YOUR job, as a politician, is to butt the hell out of our medical decisions. If you want to prevent abortion so much, Dick, you need to focus on the cause here, the cause you, yourself, call a blessing—rape.
So how about it, Dick? Show us how you’re going to stop rape. Show us how you’re going to prevent abortion by preventing other Dicks from hurting women. That I am interested in very much.
By the way, click here if you want to give Dick a piece of your mind.
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on October 24, 2012
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on October 24, 2012
Ambient office = .082 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .073 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .074 microsieverts per hour
Bulk carrot from grocery store = .16 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .117 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .107 microsieverts per hour
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on October 23, 2012
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on October 23, 2012
Ambient office = .146 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .132 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .091 microsieverts per hour
Dried blue berries from grocery store = .075 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .088 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .077 microsieverts per hour
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on October 22, 2012
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on October 22, 2012
Ambient office = .083 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .081 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .083 microsieverts per hour
Pine nuts from grocery store = .134 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .102 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .099 microsieverts per hour
