Month: June 2013

What a cute commercial!  That kid is darling.  I noticed a bi-racial couple when I first saw it and thought “hmmmmm self…..I have never seen a bi-racial couple in a commercial.”  It’s about time.  There are about 10 million bi-racial children in America today and who knows how many adults.  Are we just going to pretend these folks don’t exist?

There is a real problem with trolls who sit behind a computer in their underwear (eeewwwwwww) and type out hate and other stuff they lack the courage to say to someone’s face.   Most responsible web masters and blog meisters take down those kinds of comments that shriek hatred  of people because of their race, sexual orientation, religion, etc.

The Today Show revealed the following:

“The comments that were made in our view were not family-friendly, and that was really the trigger for us, you know, to pull them off,’’ said Camille Gibson, VP marketing for General Mills, on TODAY Monday.

Discussing the development, TODAY’s Donny Deutsch brought personal perspective to bear: Twenty years ago, the chairman of advertising agency Deutsch Inc. featured an interracial couple in an advertisement. While he applauded Cheerios’ decision to include a mixed-race couple in its commercial, he understood why some companies would shy away from it.

“What’s unfortunate is that I still think 97 percent of companies would stay away from this because they would say, ‘I don’t need the letters.’ Which is a shame, because in reality when you do an ad like this, yes, there will be some fringe crazy people,’’ Deutsch said on TODAY Monday. “Fringe crazy people go crazy about everything, but in reality you’re making a statement about your company: ‘We’re progressive, we’re inclusive, we are about today.’

Good for General Mills for producing a darling commercial that reflects who we are as Americans.

BTW, who wants to try to get me to believe that everyone who hates President Obama hates him because of his politics and not his race?

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to express your views tonight at the VDOT meeting at the Hylton Center for the Performing Arts.

The meeting begins at 6 PM.

Who is tired of cicadas?  I don’t mind them as long as they stay in trees.

Here is another pest–this time a denizen of the deep…or not so deep.

Gorgeous to watch, misery to have a close encounter with–jelly fish have been the plight of any swimmers in salt or brackish water.  Rivers in tidewater, bays and sounds are laden with jellyfish and they can sting like fire.

Are they any cures for the stings?  I have heard meat tenderizer.  Surely not!

I can remember my brother flying up out of the Rappahannock River like he had a man ‘o war wrapping its tentacles around him.  That was one stung up kid!  I got out and never went back.  I don’t need to experience things existentially to know to stay away.

The blogs are abuzz with grousing about the new Prince William county logo.

It looks OK to me.  Its a logo.  Logos are generally meaningless.  Hopefully they become well-know and instantly recognizable.  Golden Arches,  Windows,  Playboy, Nike, Starbucks, Coke, Apple, Shell, Sinclair Oil, are all instantly recognizable.

Now there seems to be a rush for institutions and municipalities to join the logo race.  Colleges, sports teams and clubs all have logos.  How about towns and counties?  Works for me.  Its sort of difficult to work up much enthusiasm for a county logo. Anyone who uses an avatar has a logo.

The next item that seems to be rubbing folks raw is that the someone in the Office of Economic Development outsourced the design to a firm in Michigan.  It seems that the someone used to work for the company.  This behavior will have to be something that the supervisors work out with their employees.  Folks are really torqued over the cost of $750 for the design.  I don’t think that is unreasonable.

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The more I think about this road, a bi county parkway know by many names, the more irritated I become. Seriously, who thinks that bisecting an entire county with a road intended to bolster someone else’s economic base is good for PWC citizens? Who thinks that opening up rural land for high density housing development is a good idea? Not me, and apparently not a lot of other people also, including the majority of state delegates that represent PWC, at least three of our BOCS, and Congressman Frank Wolfe.

For the first time in a LONG time, citizens are having am impact on bad land use decisions. Let’s remember, this road doesn’t just start in western PWC, it’s beginning point is all they way in Woodbridge, at 95 south! Get ready for a six lane highway pushing itself through the entirety of our county. Get ready for massive truck traffic headed towards Dulles and beyond. Get ready to be a cut through county to benefit OTHER counties. Get ready to have your tax dollars, over a billion of them, wasted on road that primarly benefits developers, frothing at the bit, eager to get buy up cheap land in the rural crescent and then bless PWC taxpayers with paying for all the subsequent infrastructure.

We do believe in economic development, smart 21st economic develop that benefits everyone, not just one county, and certainly not for special interest real estate tycoons. There are smart solutions, they just aren’t being implementend.

So far the Sequester hasn’t been all it was cracked up to be…or has it? We haven’t been hit that hard. We are still sitting in the 9th (is that the number?) wealthiest county in the nation and all my friends have jobs who want one. It also hasn’t hit Fairfax or Loudoun Counties. So what’s all the hoopla over?

The Sequester for 2013 is hitting the invisible folks. Those folks we just don’t see. Meals on Wheels has been cut. The Washington Post had an article yesterday about a church who just wan’t going to be able to afford to keep their Meals on Wheels program going. Some of the people were struggling to pay the $2.50 a day for the 2 hot meals brought to them. What will these people do? Many can’t care for themselves. Many can’t afford food at these prices. Most older folks can’t afford to not have nutritious food.

Another area that has been slammed has been Indian Schools. You know, Native Americans. We don’t have to see it. According to the Washington Post:

The public schools on the isolated, windswept Fort Peck Indian reservation here are at the frontier of the federal sequester, among the first to struggle with budget cuts sweeping west from Washington.

The superintendent can’t hire a reading teacher in an elementary school where more than half the students do not read or write at grade level. Summer school, which feeds children and offers them an alternative to hanging around the reservation’s trash-strewn yards, may be trimmed or canceled.

And in a school system where five children recently committed suicide in a single year — and 20 more made the attempt — plans to hire a second guidance counselor at the high school have been scrapped, leaving one person to advise some 200 students.

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My cousin the biology teacher said it best:

“I believe this guy is confusing social science with science and at the same time confusing his head with his ass. #jerk”

I have never heard such garbage in all my life.

Even Megyn Kelly rose up on her hindquarters and fought back saying ” who died and made you Scientist-in-Charge?

40% of the moms are the breadwinners. Some dads are the caregivers. Why is this a bad thing? Shouldn’t each person do what is best for their family?

The cicadas are at it again.  I am creeped out by bugs but I like hearing them.  I will not like having to clean up the carcasses in a few weeks.

Is it loud where you are?  Do you have to walk on them to get to your car?

A young howlette was very upset that her grandfather stepped on one.  He denied doing the awful deed.  There aren’t that many here.

Enjoy or …skip.