Sunday's Catch-up

I don't read the newspaper anymore, for many reasons. For many years, I read the Sacramento Bee every day. I had a subscription in college, and made a point of reading it when I moved back to Mom and Dad's house. Even when I worked in Elverta, I would grab the school's daily copy and read it while waiting for my band kids to show up.

I fell out of the habit of reading the paper when I went to England, and since I've been back in the States, I've barely touched newspapers. Mom and Dad get the Peninsula Daily News, which is a nice little paper, but hardly a big one. So I rely on Internet sources such as Google News to find the headlines from around the world. Every once in a while, I find some good ones and want to share them. Sunday seems a good day to do this...after all, who doesn't like lazy Sunday mornings with a cup of coffee/tea/hot cocoa and a big, fat newspaper to curl up with?

Auntie Meg!

The kids are settling in more and more. Aaron and Susanne are, needless to say, exhausted! But also very, very happy. Grandma and Auntie Meg have both done a bit of shopping (hey, I can't let that employee discount go to waste!) and we are excited to play Santa at Christmas. Besides, every child--every single child in the world--should have footie pajamas. : )

Fuel Depot Blast Near London

In the early hours of Sunday, a fuel depot about 25 miles north of London experienced several explosions, scaring many residents who are still grieving the July terror attacks.

Police so far say that it appears to be entirely accidental, and that a plane witnesses say flew over the depot just minutes before the blast was not in any way involved. The depot is near Luton airport.

Okay, So What?

I love looking for deeper meaning in things as much as anyone, but sometimes it is best to just call a spade a spade and let it be.

Case in point: The hype I see brewing about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

According to the London Times, the "liberal intelligentsia" is "desperate to kill the lion."

Okay, so C.S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia with a decidedly Christian tone. He admitted this time and time again. Fine.

Disney has spent mucho dinero making one of the stories into a blockbuster movie for the December movie season. Pehaps they did this to fill young, impressionable minds with Christian ideology? Hardly! They did it to make money. Bottom line! Yes, they are hawking it to Christian groups and secular groups alike--all in the name of the Glorious...Dollar.

I especially take issue with the author's comment on children's literature:

It is one of the odd facts of the life of the mind that books — and illustrations — that are not very good often give the greatest pleasure to children whose imaginations can be passionately inspired by extremely little. Children often love the second-rate. The Harry Potter stories are a case in point; derivative, pedestrian and clumsy, they nonetheless seem to do the business.

Harry Potter slight aside, I want to know what this author thinks is good children's literature. Children's literature is exactly what it is supposed to be--children's. Show me a kid who would rather read Homer and Shakespeare than Rowling and Lewis, and I'll show you a kid who needs to put the book down, go outside, and build a secret fort in the backyard.

And yes, children's imaginations can be inspired by very little--that is the best part of being a child! A pile of pillows becomes a fortress. A Snoopy doll can talk to Grandma. A well-loved blanket can save you from torture of all kinds (including nightmares). We encourage children to leave cookies and milk out for a mythical man in a red suit who gives toys to good children.

Yes, a child's imagination is incredibly simple...sometimes I wish I could have that back.

Another article (even better) that I found about 15 minutes after typing the above...

Is This Where We're Headed?

This scares me...I mean, whatever floats your boat and all, but is the whole world becoming one big excuse for avoiding intimacy?

Who Do I Root For?

The Sacramento Kings beat the Seattle Supersonics last night. Today, the San Francisco 49ers (I started watching their games when I was a little girl) will play the Seattle Seahawks.

Old habits die hard, I suppose. The 49ers royally stink these days but I have a long-running loyalty to the red and gold.

What's On Sale?

My frantic Internet searching would not be complete without a visit to Mervyn's official web page to see what's on sale today.

Looks like a big sale, which means a big pain in my backside. Forty-nine sales in Home Fashions alone. Watch out for SOM's (Shoppers on Missions). They can be quite scary.

Ah, Drat!

Would love to sit here for another hour, perusing the headlines and commenting about them in my little pink blog, but I have to leave in an hour. Two weeks 'til Christmas...and 'till I can think about quitting the whole retail gig.

Cheers,

Meg