Mothers: Be more aware of products you’re consuming when breastfeeding

January 29, 2009 | Ethics,Family

Umm, no.

Companies and manufacturers: Stop putting toxic crap in your products!

Is this heaven, Kevin? No, heaven’s not this cold.

January 28, 2009 | Iowa,Kevin Costner,Music

That’s what you get for writing a song about Leland, Iowa, and not, say … Palm Springs.

The thing about living “in the middle of nowhere” is that not all celebrities fly over. Some drive through on a tour bus. Some actually stop.

That’s exactly what Kevin Costner and his band, Modern West, did. They’re on tour up this way (and they’ll be in Tampa on Jan. 31, my Florida friends), and they stopped in Leland on their way from Minneapolis to Omaha.

Why?

Band member John Coinman has relatives in the area, and he wrote the song Leland, Iowa, for the band’s album Untold Truths released in November 2008. Besides, the local radio station called and asked them to come.

So … who knew I’d be living 10 minutes from where Kevin Costner would sing? For free. In a barn. (Yes. A barn. This is Iowa.)

:::Go to the diner, and they will come:::

The barn could only hold 200 or so people, and Leland residents with tickets got first dibs. The rest of us froze outside for 45 minutes (which is about the time it takes for frostbite to set in), waiting to see him maybe walk from his warm bus to the warm barn. Even better. He stopped and thanked us for waiting so long in the cold. (Everyone was quiet because, well, our lips were numb. I couldn’t feel my toes anymore.)

Then he said he felt bad that there wasn’t room for us in the barn. So he said, “Go to the diner, and we’ll play some songs for you there.” So we did. So did he.

He sat on the bar and sang three songs, the last of which was Leland, Iowa.

He said a few words and kissed a few girls.

He signed a few hockey sticks, shook a few hands and took some pictures.

“Gee, he’s taller than I thought.”

And that was that.

Is it just me …

January 26, 2009 | I'm kidding,Internet,Television,Weird things

… or does Yahoo!’s Year of the Ox ox resemble Noggin’s moose?

Oprah: I KNEW it!

2008 campaign,Barack Obama,D.C.,Ethics,Fundraising,Politics,Television

OK. She wasn’t technically on Obama’s short list, but she apparently was on Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s short list. And that’s the next best thing to being there.

Taking his defense to the airwaves rather than his impeachment trial, Gov. Rod Blagojevich lashed out at his accusers Monday and revealed he had considered naming Oprah Winfrey to the Senate.

Reading winter weather signs

January 25, 2009 | Iowa,Weather,Winter

Remember the pretty sun dog I posted in December? I know what it means now.

Turn back! Go home! Lock up the kids! Stay warm! Hibernate!

Because if you don’t? You’ll have to drive on this.

And this.

And the wind will blow so hard that it will drift over your driveway, essentially snowing you in, which isn’t a good thing when your tractor/snow blower isn’t working properly and you can’t drive a shovel without coughing up a lung (or at least lunch) because of that cold you’ve had for two weeks now.

Come and whisper in my ear, give us dirty laundry

January 22, 2009 | Ethics,Journalism,MSM,Politics

A person close to Kennedy denied her “personal reasons” were concerns about the health of her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, who is suffering from a cancerous brain tumor discovered last summer. The person wasn’t authorized to disclose the conversation between Kennedy and the governor and spoke on condition of anonymity.

So, umm, a person close to Becky at Deep Muck Big Rake wonders why the heck this got published. Someone at AP afraid of a little Gawker?

Tastes like chicken

Barack Obama,Dog,Iowa,Stuff,Weather,Winter

The latest blizzard/snow/ice/wind stuff buried the heavy-duty vinyl-coated galvanized-steel tie-out cable. You know … the one the dog likes to chew.

It also embiggened the snow drift that covered the snow fort.

Which gave the dog access to the clothesline — an itty-bitty version of the doggie tie-out cable.

I still get this “you talkin’ to me?” look.

Yeah. We took down the clothesline.

P.S. Hey, Mr. President. Look at this adorable puppy-dog. Aww, isn’t she cute? Hypoallergenic? Why, butofcourse! Can she fit into life at the White House with the First Family? Why, Yes, She Can-ine! Call me. I know you still have that Blackberry. Call me!

Everything, everything, everything

January 19, 2009 | I'm kidding

I just got this book called How to Cook Everything.

That’s great because right now? I could eat everything.

Dear Yahoo!

January 16, 2009 | Internet,Yahoo!

The new stuff? Don’t like it. Please don’t make me go to Google.

Just not sure how to play good news

Airlines,Journalism,Media,MSM

Have you heard about the “miracle on the Hudson” yet? It’s the plane that went down in the Hudson River yesterday. Everyone on board survived.

It’s nice to have good news, right? Sure, but our media seem somewhat uncomfortable with the whole idea.

I heard about the crash on Facebook, and I didn’t see anything about it on television until later.

I watched Larry King interview two doctors who treated people from the flight. One was in the studio. The other stood outside, probably getting dangerously close to this hypothermia he kept talking about. His nose was red, and his words got more slurred each time they went back to him.

Anyway, at some point, someone told King that everyone survived.

“Hunh,” King said, followed by a weird little silence.

This morning, I watched part of the news conference with the mayor and the rescuers. Some of the questions couldn’t quite get the whole “good news” idea.

“How cold was the water and how long would it take for someone to DIE in it?”

“How does this mission compare with others you have been on?” (You know, others where people DIED?)

The news conference was so relaxed that it even made time for a Spanish-speaking rescuer to take a question from a Spanish-speaking reporter … in Spanish … which CNN, of course, immediately started chattering over, recapping the unbelievable story in which nobody DIED.