| Have you heard of the competition for the oddest book title? It seems that there are people who scour the world searching for these and then allow the public to vote for the worst. The list included these gems: “How to Bombproof Your Horse” “How to Avoid Huge Ships” But the top title was “Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers” There was also a book titled: “People who don’t know they’re Dead.” Maybe there should be one titled: “People who don’t know they’re not writers.” ***** I usually stay away from politics. However, Sarah Palin transcends political party. What an amazing woman! I can’t believe she just had a baby 5 months ago and now she’s running for vice president. With my last baby, I was sometimes too overwhelmed to leave the house and here she is, on a race to the White House. I have a confession to make…we don’t have cable or satellite television at our house; we only have 3 channels (yeah, 3 because who counts channel 9 when your kids are too old for Barney?). And now that the digital doesn’t come in clearly, we have almost given up on television altogether, except for the Republican National Convention. This was the most-watched convention in history. I, for one, was not disappointed and it was worth my time to see Piper Palin give her brother’s hair a spit shine. Click here if you missed it. This little demonstration revealed quite a bit about Sarah Palin’s family: They believe that resourcefulness is good, use what you have, even if it’s just spit. They camp in the wilderness, not at campsites. If it needs to be done, do it yourself…mom is not your servant. Their ice cream is served in cones, not cups. They don’t buy self-adhesive stamps. They take spit-shined to a whole new level. I’ll bet they have a 10 second rule in their home. This scene from the convention reminded me of something else… When I was growing up, we had a dog who was one of the most fantastic pets I have ever had. His name was Lucky and he was exceptionally sweet. One of my favorite memories of this dog was created shortly before Christmas one year. We had a houseful of guests who were seated in our living room. All had been done to make the house festive. Christmas music played softly in the background. Lights were on the tree, punch was served in the finest glasses, hors d'oeuvres were handed out on china plates and we had a nice bowl of Christmas candy on the coffee table. It was ribbon candy and the pieces were somewhat stuck together but the guests made jokes about it as they pried off the parts they wanted. It was the kind of candy that no one in our family particularly enjoyed so only guests were eating it. Just after the last guest had successfully pried the stubborn candy from the bowl and popped it into his mouth with a satisfied look on his face, Lucky entered the room, having managed to gain access into the house through the back door. What occurred next seemed to happen in slow motion…Everyone sat back in their chairs and watched as Lucky walked by the coffee table and nonchalantly leaned over, gave the candy that was left in the bowl a big long lick, and then kept on walking. We all looked at each other, not quite knowing what to say. My mother had a horrified expression on her face. Finally, someone rolled their candy to the side of their mouth and said flatly, “That’s why all the candy was stuck together.” Then someone else added, “And why no one in your family is eating it.” Few events can compare to a moment like that. I’ll never forget the facial expressions that were in that room…just thinking of this makes me laugh all over again. Yeah…I confess that I laughed. After all, I was only 15 years old! To my way of thinking, the dog had found an “all day sucker” or more like “all week sucker” as the candy had been on the coffee table for quite a while. However, no one seemed to want to hear me philosophize about what could have been the dog’s motivation. Do you think that dogs have some inner motivation for the weird things they do? My daughter has a dog with obsessive compulsive disorder. I know this because I diagnosed him myself. He runs patterns on the lawn every morning. When I mentioned this to a friend, she said she believed that this was a result of nurture, not nature. Oh great! Now besides having guilt that I have somehow damaged the dog’s psyche, I am paranoid that passersby will see our dog running patterns on the lawn and think, “Something really wrong is going on in that house.” When my daughter was at camp for several days, the dog ran more patterns than usual so perhaps my friend is right. But aren’t we all a little OC in some way? Don’t we all have at least one thing we obsess over? Lately, I've spent a lot of time worrying about tacos…yeah, we ate burritos from the now infamous taco wagon. So far, I’ve been hearing and reading about people who are siding for or against taco wagons. I viewed this wagon from a totally different angle. I’ll tell you my thoughts next Friday. ******* Someone just asked if I would have any more writing contests…like the Countryside Counselor contest. I don't know. The website was 6 weeks old when I did that and only had about 40 readers...not many of them responded. That was a bit disappointing. But maybe if I do have another contest, it should be closer to Christmas so I can give Christmas ribbon candy as a prize. That's always been a big hit. Many will read, few will sign... Contact me Back to the Home Page at www.redbluffismytown.com |