Episode 128
Notes
[Cue Episode Synth Voice]
[Cue extra lead-in “101 uses for a
jingle”]
[Cue Intro]
Banter:
Hello and welcome to episode 128, the ‘Davey Jones’ edition of the
Daddycast! Sorry, inside joke…So is that
intro cool or what? The Daddycast has
its own official jingle – whaddya think?
That’s Jeff from 100 Year Picnic doing a little a-cappella number. Now I’ve always thought that a gift that
someone gives you that they’ve made is always the best gift to receive. Jeff, your gift really means a lot to me –
thanks so much for that! We’re gonna
hear more from Jeff and his family in a bit.
Sorry about
the delay in this week’s show. I don’t
know if you can hear, but the rain is a pouring down. I was all set to record the show last night
when the power went off. Now I can get a
lot done on battery power with the laptop, but it knocks my internet connection
down, and of course all my audio equipment simply goes – boop – then dark.
On another
topic entirely, Why do engineers have to make something so as washing your
clothes into such a challenging operation?
At least it used to be simple.
Maybe I’m still mourning the loss of my old Maytag washer…OK better back
up a little…
You see, last
week we got our new washer and dryer to replace my old buddy the 1987 Maytag. The replacement washer is a new-fangled
front-load model…has the little ‘energy star’ symbol on it. I’m all for doing my part for the
environment, but if it means I have to get a PhD to get my clothes clean, ummm…I
have a problem with that.
Now I’m a
pretty bright guy – not to brag or anything, but I can work my way around most
things technical. Maybe it’s a guy
thing, maybe its just pride…but the new washer and dryer came with TWO user guides
and a DVD! And after going through all that
I still don’t know what all the features are!
One of our
first loads of laundry caused the washer to go into what the instruction manual
calls ‘suds lock’. See when you start
this thing up, the door electronically locks shut, to keep you from opening the
door while your clothes are hurtling around at 190 miles an hour or so. That part makes sense, but why do they have
this ‘suds lock’? What it means is if
you use too much laundry soap, or heaven forbid don’t use the new ‘low-sudsing’
H-E labeled detergent (H-E for ‘high efficiency’ – or more like ‘hugely
expensive’), you can make too many bubbles, and I guess that’s just plain
hazardous – ooh, watch out – deadly bubbles!
So until
the machine gets rid of all the bubbles, you can’t get your clothes out! Suds – lock.
So we sat back and watched as the washer tried to dispense with all the
evil little foamy bubbles in the wash load, and we watched and watched as the
machine dumped, oh I dunno, about 900 gallons of water down the drain to come
out of suds lock. We watched and waited
– ‘cause of course the door has a little window in it so you can sit around and
watch your clothes get thrashed by being rinsed and rinsed and rinsed over and
over and over again…just about as entertaining as watching cars rust…and so
much for saving the planet! I think I
just used as much water in ONE LOAD as my old washer would use in an ENTIRE
YEAR! But hey – its ‘NEW AND IMPROVED’!
[Cue News_Theme]
Headlines:
Baby Formula Recall, Pediatricians Not Board (Certified), Rotavirus Routine,
Another MySpace News Alert, Big Brother for the Cafeteria, Philosophy For K
Through 6, and more after this…
[Cue PSA “Bruce Hornsby – Why
Music?”]
March is “Music
In Our Schools Month”, and MENC’s mission is to advance music education by
encouraging the study and making of music by everyone. Please visit www dot menc dot org to find out
how you can help promote music education in your kids’ school. This has been a public service announcement
from 101 Uses for Baby Wipes and The National Association for Music Education.
[Cue Synth News Intro v3]
News:
About 41,000 Cans of Baby Formula
Recalled
The
The
recalled 24-ounce cans of formula were stamped on the bottom with lot code
BMJ19 and "use by" date 1 Jul 07. They were sold at major retail
stores nationwide.
If you have
fed some of this batch of Gentlease to your baby and are concerned about the
child's health, contact your doctor.
This recall
is being conducted in cooperation with the Food and Drug Administration.
Consumers
who have cans of this batch of Gentlease should stop using them immediately and
call Mead Johnson for more information at 888-587-7275.
…I did a
special news bulletin on this because I noticed that this story wasn’t picked
up by many media outlets that I watch, so just to be safe, I sent out the
bulletin. I’d be interested to know how
many people heard it first on the Daddycast, or heard about it on their local
news. Let me know, and let me know if
you think the bulletins are a good idea, or a waste of time, or…next story…
Parents: Is Your Child's
Pediatrician Board Certified?
Newswise —
Most parents assume that their child’s pediatrician is board certified, giving
them the peace of mind that the physician has the knowledge, skill and
experience to offer the highest quality of care in the field.
But many of
those pediatricians practicing at hospitals or associated with health plans
may, in fact, not be certified or may not have taken the proper steps for
recertification, according to researchers at the
Results
from two studies appearing in the Feb. 22 issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association (JAMA) show that 78 percent of U.S. hospitals don’t require
board certification to grant pediatricians initial privileging, or permission
to practice in the hospital, and only 41 percent of health plans require
general pediatricians to be board certified at any time during their
association with the plan.
“In a time
when patient safety and physician competency is of great concern to the public,
we were surprised to find that more hospitals and health plans were not
requiring current board certification of their physicians,” says lead author
for the two studies Gary L. Freed, M.D., MPH, chief of the Division of General
Pediatrics and director of the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR)
Unit at the U-M Health System.
“Many
hospitals report they require physicians to be board certified, but our study
found approximately half of the hospitals in
Previously,
once physicians received board certification, it remained valid for their
entire medical career. But in 1987, the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP)
began issuing time-limited certificates to ensure pediatricians remained
competent and knowledgeable in their fields. This process requires
recertification every seven years for a physician to maintain his certification
status.
“Certification
and recertification provide hospitals with a wonderful opportunity to increase
the public’s trust in the care provided in their institutions,” notes Freed,
the Percy and Mary Murphy Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health Delivery at
the
The most
significant finding is that only 41 percent of health plans require their
credentialed general pediatricians to be board certified, says Freed. The
remaining 59 percent never require certification of their general
pediatricians.
…OK – real
simple moms and dads…ask! If you aren’t
sure if your kid’s doctor is board certified, ask them! And if you still aren’t convinced, look
around on the waiting room walls – I suspect that if they ARE certified, there
will be some filigree covered document framed in a prominent place somewhere in
the office. If you find it in the
visitor’s restroom, chances are the doctor bought it online – NEXT STORY…
Rotavirus Vaccine Added to Routine
Infant Immunization Schedule
Newswise —
The federal agency that oversees childhood vaccinations today recommended a new
vaccine for routine use against rotavirus infection, a common childhood illness
that is the single largest infectious disease killer of infants and young
children worldwide. Three scientists associated with The Children’s
Meeting
today in
Rotavirus
affects nearly all children at some point, often with mild symptoms, but in
other cases with severe and potentially life-threatening diarrhea and
dehydration. It causes tens of thousands of hospitalizations in the
Nearly
every child experiences infection with rotavirus, usually as gastroenteritis.
In the
Merck
conducted clinical trials of RotaTeq in more than 70,000 infants in 11
countries—one of the largest clinical trials to be performed by a
pharmaceutical company. The company’s data showed that the vaccine prevented 98
percent of severe cases of rotavirus gastroenteritis and 74 percent of routine
cases, compared to a placebo. Furthermore, the vaccine showed no increased risk
of intussusception, a telescoping of the bowel that had been associated with a
previous, discontinued rotavirus vaccine produced by another manufacturer in
the 1990s.
Currently
the only vaccine available in the U.S. to prevent rotavirus gastroenteritis,
the new vaccine will be delivered by mouth, in three doses, at well-baby visits
at ages two, four and six months. Merck has expressed a commitment to working
with the global public health community to make the Rotateq vaccine available
to infants and children worldwide.
…I covered
the rotavirus vaccine issue on a previous episode of the daddycast, and
complained that the government was in the way.
Well now its been adopted! SO
glad to see the government finally got out of the way and allowed this vaccine
to be used by US – that U-S…it had been used in many countries and was proven
safe.
Authorities: Teens at Risk on Web Sites
By MATT
APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
On
MySpace.com, teenagers can find kindred spirits who share their love of sports,
their passion for photography or their crush on a
Parents,
school administrators and police are increasingly worried that teens are
finding trouble online at sites like MySpace, the leader of the
social-networking sites that encourage users to build larger and larger circles
of friends.
Police in
One girl
allowed a man into her room while her parents were home, police said,
underscoring just how in the dark parents often are about one of the most
popular Web activities for teens today.
There are
other reports like these scattered around the country, prompting some parents
and schools to equate the likes of MySpace with the Internet's red-light
district, even as many experts believe that the worries are greater than the
actual dangers.
Joseph
Dooley is among those who has heard it all before. A retired FBI agent who
supervised the agency's first undercover Internet task force in
Chat rooms
soon gave way to services like MySpace, but Dooley said the rules haven't
changed and parents need to become more engaged.
'Let the kids
know, on the Internet, you don't know who you're talking to,' Dooley said.
'Parents aren't the friends of their kids. Parents needs to know and observe
what their kids are doing.'
That can be
daunting for working parents. Keeping tabs on the kids used to mean knowing
where they went after school, not whom they talked to in their bedrooms.
So when
they hear of a new fad among teens, their instinct is to worry.
And the
horror stories are indeed terrifying.
Last month,
for example, 14-year-old Judy Cajuste was found strangled and naked in a
Beyond the
threat of abduction, bullies who once made the rounds on playgrounds are using
Web logs and home pages to spread rumors and lies faster than the schoolyard
grapevine ever could.
MySpace
forbids minors 13 and under from joining and provides special protections for
those 14 and 15 - only those on their friends' list can view their profiles.
Nonetheless, kids lie when they sign up, and many of their profiles carry
photos of themselves in suggestive poses, along with personal information
against the site's recommendations.
Experts say
that banning children from using social-networking sites is akin to forbidding
them from going to the mall or the movie theater for fear they'll be abducted.
…Here I go
on a rant…’EXPERTS’ say its akin to keeping kids from the mall?! Y’know what?
Perverts can’t plan to abduct a child in private with home addresses,
telephone numbers, and class schedules AT THE MALL!! MySpace is like online catalog shopping for
sexual predators, OK? To draw a
comparison between MySpace and THE MALL is ridiculous! Look parents, keep your kids from revealing
private information about themselves on these sites, and make sure they
understand that there may be somebody living in their neighborhood, just
waiting to get some juicy little detail to enable them to plan your kid’s disappearance. Sound paranoid? Maybe…but I have a guy who is in the Megan’s
Law database living right across the street from me! Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t MEAN they
aren’t out to get my kid! Better safe
than sorry…And keep the computer out of the kids bedroom! Kids will be less likely to get all freaky if
they can be seen while they’re on the computer!
And webcams? Why?
Gravelles indicted in caged kids case (for Listener Eric in
Michael and
Sharen Gravelle were indicted in
The
Gravelles have denied mistreating the children, ages 1 to 15. The youngsters
were placed in foster care last fall after a county social worker likened the
wood and chicken-wire cages to kennels.
The couple
have said the enclosures were necessary to keep the children from harming
themselves or one another. The children have problems such as fetal alcohol
syndrome and a disorder that involves eating nonfood items.
The
couple's attorney, Ken Myers, said the pair was upset but determined to fight
the charges.
"The
Gravelles are good people and they were trying to do the right thing by raising
these children and taking on an almost impossible task," Myers said.
"Instead of giving the Gravelles the help and the resources they needed,
the county has seen it fit to spend countless thousands of dollars to try to
make sure that these people are ruined."
The
misdemeanors and lying under oath charges against the couple do not specify the
couple's alleged offenses, only saying where the crimes were alleged to have
occurred and that they occurred from 1997 to 2005.
The perjury
charges involve sworn statements given in relation to an inspection of the
Gravelles' home by social workers for the couple's first adoption. That
statement was used to help the couple secure approval of five subsequent
adoptions, Leffler said.
Interviews
with adoption officials last fall and reviews of court documents showed that
the Gravelles received thousands of dollars in government adoption subsidies
and disability payments for the children - $4,265 a month in 2001 when the
family had eight children.
Elaine
Thompson, a licensed independent social worker hired by the Gravelles, also
faces several charges, including aiding and abetting child endangering.
Thompson
testified during a custody hearing that she approved of the cages as a way to
help handle the children. But she said she never asked the youngsters how they
felt about the enclosures during her weekly counseling sessions.
Thompson's
attorney, Marilu Laubenthal, said her client, who has worked with adopted
children for 40 years, is devastated. "To end her career like this is just
too much," she said.
The
children were removed from the Gravelles' home in September, and prosecutors
asked a judge last month to place the children in the permanent custody of the
county.
Juvenile
Court Judge Timothy Cardwell set a Feb. 22 custody hearing. The Gravelles are
scheduled to be arraigned on the criminal charges the same day.
If
convicted, the Gravelles could face one to five years in prison and a maximum
fine of $10,000 for each of the 16 counts of felony child endangering. Thompson
faces one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000 if convicted of
the felony charges of aiding and abetting child endangering.
…First, the
government put these kids in the custody of these parents, knowing full well
what conditions these kids had, and how hard they are to handle. These poor kids had little hope of adoption
until the Gravelles came along. Now the
DA is ruing these people’s lives, all because their dirty little secret got
discovered by someone who wasn’t familiar with the case. These people did the best they could with
what they had. To call the beds CAGES is
to completely ignore what a CRIB is – a cage – for protecting the child inside
it. First the
Computer Lets Parents Track Kids' Eating
By JUAN A.
LOZANO, Associated Press Writer
A student
slides a tray toward the cafeteria cash register with a healthy selection: a
pint of milk, green beans, whipped sweet potatoes and chicken nuggets - baked,
not fried. But then he adds a fudge brownie.
When he
punches in his code for the prepaid account his parents set up, a warning
sounds: 'This student has a food restriction.'
Back goes
the brownie as the cashier reminds him that his parents have declared all
desserts off-limits.
This could
be a common occurrence at
Primero
Food Service Solutions, developed by Houston-based Cybersoft Technologies,
allows parents to set up prepaid lunch accounts so children don't have to carry
money, said Ray Barger, Cybersoft's director of sales and marketing.
It also
shows the cashier any food allergies or parent-set diet restrictions for his or
her account, and the student is not allowed to buy an offending item.
Parents
also can go online to track their child's eating habits and make changes.
'If parents
want Johnny to eat chips one day a week, they can go in and make changes to
allow them to buy a bag of chips on, say, Fridays,' said Terry Abbott,
spokesman for Houston Independent School District, the nation's seventh-largest
with more than 250,000 students.
Robin
Green, whose 14-year-old son, Jerry, is in seventh grade in the
Green was
concerned that parents from low-income families without access to computers
would not be able to participate, but Abbott said parents can go to their
school and work with cafeteria representatives.
Barger said
his company's system already is being used in schools in
The system,
which will cost the
In the past
20 years, the number of overweight children ages 6 to 11 more than doubled and
the number of overweight adolescents ages 12 to 19 more than tripled, according
to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Karen
Cullen, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Children's
'Kids need
to be able to make healthy choices,' Cullen said. 'Parents can't be in charge.
Children need some freedom.'
…NEWS FLASH
to KAREN CULLEN – PARENTS ARE IN CHARGE!!
That’s our job! Rather than
telling us what we can and can’t do, how about just giving us the facts and let
us set the guidelines for our kids, OK?
Yes, children need freedom, but some freedom, not absolute freedom.
Kids don’t
make healthy choices – if they did, we wouldn’t be having this little
discussion! The next story makes my
point very well, I think…
Early Lunch Periods May Breed Bad
Habits
By GENARO
C. ARMAS, Associated Press Writer
While many
office workers were taking their coffee breaks, 14-year-old Michelle Pagan was
having lunch.
Not that
she was ready for her peanut butter sandwich and bag of pretzels at
'Am I
hungry? Not really,' Pagan said during her lunch period at
Researchers
at
In a survey
of schools, they found that those with lunch periods starting at
There are
some healthy choices, like salads, too. But the problem is that many children
are having to make do until dinner, said Claudia Probart, a nutrition professor
at
'When this
kind of lunch isn't normal eating behavior, kids develop certain survival
strategies through the rest of the day,' Probart said.
Many
students say they feel like they're grazing.
'A lot of
kids joke that we eat like four to five meals a day,' said Mike Belleville, 18,
Others
might stop at the neighborhood Wawa convenience store on the way home to buy a
hoagie or chips, said student Seamus Hood, 18.
Probart
said so-called 'grazing' could be beneficial for growing teens if they make the
right food choices.
'But it's
pretty unlikely that they would be good choices,' she said. 'What do they have
access to after school? It's only vending.'
She said
the study didn't analyze exactly what early-lunch kids were buying, but 'there
is a lot of chip and soda eating going on.'
The
About 35
percent of schools considered to have 'high' a la carte sales had lunch periods
of
Often,
schools that have early lunches are overcrowded or in the midst of renovations,
the researchers said. The latter is the situation at
…So, what
was that, Karen Cullen, about letting kids make healthy choices? Here’s a study that shows that kids DON’T
choose wisely. And as parents, we know all
too well that given the choice between a salad and something fried, the kid
will opt for something fried! I can’t
get my kid to even TASTE a lettuce leaf!
He has yet to even take one bite of salad. Thank heaven he likes broccoli and carrots.
Now this
early lunch period nonsense is bad for kids.
Period. It messes with their
daily rhythm of when to eat, when to sleep, and it sounds like the schedule is
for the administrators and not the kids.
I get ticked off when my son’s school makes my son go to school early on
Fridays before long weekends…that is for the convenience of the staff and
nothing more. Set a schedule and stick
to it, please! For the kids sake! And if your school is doing this to your kid
– making him or her eat when they’re not hungry – get involved! This certainly isn’t in the children’s best
interest…sounds purely economic (or beaurocratic) to me…feedback on this
please!
And more
news on schedules and kids…
'Sleeping the Day Away' Good for
Adolescent Health
Newswise -
Insomnia, found to be prevalent among teens, appears to increase the risks of
ADHD-like symptoms, psychiatric disorders and other health problems, according
to a study by researchers at RTI International.
"We
found insomnia to be common and chronic among adolescents," said Eric
Johnson, Ph.D, RTI's principal researcher for the study. "That's a
significant concern. Insomnia isn't just about a lack of sleep; it reduces
teens' cognitive function and performance and indicates an increased risk for
depression and substance abuse."
The
research funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and published
in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics is one of the first studies of
the lifetime prevalence of insomnia among adolescents.
Almost 11
percent of the more than 1,000 13- to 16-year-olds studied suffered from
insomnia, with the onset typically starting around 11 years of age.
According
to the authors, the prevalence of insomnia in teens combined with an increased
need for sleep and the other physical, social and emotional changes that
accompany puberty pose a significant threat to adolescent health and
well-being.
"As
adults and parents we often don't understand teenagers' propensity to stay up
late and sleep until afternoon or for sleeping longer than adults,"
Johnson said. "It's not because they're lazy. Adolescents actually require
more sleep than children or adults, and without it they are at risk of serious
health effects."
After
beginning menstruation, girls were found to be more than twice as likely as
boys to develop insomnia, which parallels a higher prevalence of insomnia in
adult women compared to adult men.
…Get ‘em on
a good sleep regimen! Moms and dads,
ENFORCE that bedtime and keep it the same…even on weekends! Sleeping is a HABIT that kids have to get
into. There have been lots of studies
showing how much sleep kids need at various stages. There was a study I cited on this show that
connected lack of sleep with ADHD symptoms, and this story is backing that
theory up…so sleep is IMPORTANT. Make
sure your kids understand that. Some of
the same things we do as parents for our small kids, like bedtime stories and
‘quiet time’ work for the big kids, too.
NO – don’t read ‘em a bedtime story – have them read one! Relaxation tricks, some herbal tea
maybe…teach your kids to unwind before bedtime.
Here’s
another factor the study didn’t talk about – increased caffeine use by teens –
the Starbucks phenomenon. No caffeine
after a certain hour will go a long way to helping kids get to sleep.
Philosophy Department Calls on Kids
to Answer the Mysteries of Life
Newswise -
At first glance, it's just like any other elevated walkway on a busy university
campus.
This one
happens to connect
Dr. Sharon
Ryan wants that walkway to link up some important thoughts and concepts, too.
Which is why, every Friday afternoon for the past two semesters, the philosophy
chair has enlisted the pedestrian bridge as a literal springboard to the big
questions of life.
Make that,
"THE QUESTION." All caps.
That's how
Ryan is billing her project. It's all uppercase, because these brow-wrinklers
call for some capital cognitive power.
Motorists
tooling underneath on Beechurst Avenue can look up to see banners adorned with
brain-benders, a new one every week: Sure, there are standard-issue,
Einsteinesque, eyebrow-archers, like "Does God exist?" and "When
is war OK?"; but a bevy of bull-session musers are sneaking in, too,
queries that make you fire off a quick answer - only to reconsider just as
quickly - as you circle the brain cells for another go.
Teasers
like, "Are NASCAR drivers athletes?" and, "What is a friend?"
It goes
beyond simple points to ponder, Ryan says. For the scholarly aspects of the
study, she's chronicling the answers by interviewing a ready, and surprisingly
insightful, source: youngsters, ages
"Kids
have great ideas," she says. "I want to live in a world where kids
are encouraged to try out their ideas while also opening themselves up to
challenges. I want them to question the ideas of other people, and I want them
to do that with confidence and respect to the other point of view."
And the
major of philosophy couldn't be better formed for just that, she says. Even if,
she says, we don't always realize it.
Part of the
problem, she says ruefully, is that philosophers are often maligned in movies
and TV, portrayed, more often than not, as "tweed-wearing nut jobs saying
all kinds of outrageous things."
…Imagination…that’s
what its all about. Our kids have such
wonderful imaginations, and we spend many years teaching it out of them. We discourage imaginary friends, playtime gets
limited to zero – hey – let your kids imagine and play. I try to do that with my son…keeps my mind
alive – I hope.
Although I
fail to see how answering the mystery of life relates to “Is a NASCAR driver and athlete?” …
Primate Dads-to-Be Pack on Pounds
(iDAD) -- Confirming what many have long
suspected, scientists have found that male monkeys of two different species get
heavier when their mates are pregnant.
The roughly
10 percent gain in male girth occurs in common marmosets and cotton-top
tamarins, both squirrel-sized primates known for their monogamous lifestyles
and devotion to good parenting.
Since
marmoset and tamarin dads are heavily involved in infant care, they may be
stocking up on pounds during pregnancy in preparation for the rigors of
fatherhood, says Toni Ziegler, an endocrinologist at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison's
The
knowledge that expecting primate fathers also experience biological changes can
help scientists better understand what governs human fathering behavior.
"We're
interested in what motivates dads to be good parents because there are so many
men who just aren't good fathers. This work could help to tease apart what
makes a good dad," Ziegler says.
In the last
few decades, scientists have noted weight gain and other symptoms of pregnancy
in human men too, but the phenomenon has never been systematically studied.
Known as the "couvades" effect-from the French word meaning "to
incubate or hatch" - researchers have generally explained sympathetic
pregnancy symptoms in men as entirely psychosomatic events.
But the
UW-Madison work helps "to realize that this phenomena that so many people
know about, is actually real with a possible evolutionary purpose behind
it," says co-author Shelley Prudom, a research specialist at the
"The
males somehow cue in to the cascade of hormonal changes going on in their
pregnant mates," says Ziegler.
That cue
triggers changes in their own reproductive hormones. Rising levels of the
lactation-inducing hormone prolactin, for instance, most likely cause the
weight gain in expecting male primates. Levels of estrogen and testosterone
also rise higher.
…OK wait a
second – did the scientists pose the theory that maybe – just maybe – the male
monkeys depressed because their woman wasn’t paying any ‘special attention’ to
them? So they were stress eating!! How ‘bout studying good dads and bad dads and
figuring it out that way? Why go off and
study another SPECIES??
[Cue Alien Break 2]
[Cue Jazz-ish Intro -9dB]
Today I had
the chance to talk with Jeff Greenberg, from the group 100 Year Picnic. I featured one of Jeff’s songs on last week’s
daddycast, called ‘Mary Faye Tucker’, and also featured one Jeff performed that
was written by his daughter – who was 7-1/2 when she wrote the lyrics with a
friend. Music really is the foundation
for Jeff’s life with his kids. So
listen in as I chat with Jeff, Mary, Lexi and Steven about music, family life,
and Jeff’s music project, 100 year Picnic…
[Cue 100 Year Panic Interview]
[Cue Mailtime]
Good hefty
mail bag this week, thanks everybody.
Remember – no comment’s too snarky, no question’s too sarcastic – I love
‘em all…! Submit at 101 uses for baby
wipes dot com. Take me to task – I dare
ya!! Here we go…
Hello
Dennis … My name is Charlie. Been
listening to your podcast for the past couple of months, really like the
mixture of news and comments and music, which helps a lot on the treadmill in the
evening after our two and four year old boys have tucked in for the night.
Hey, I
wanted to let you know about a new blog that we have on our site for working
parents. I am on the sales side at the
site so have nothing to do with the editorial product, but I really have
enjoyed the blog since it has launched.
Take a look when you have the chance I thought you might enjoy it, and
thanks for the podcast:
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/workingparents/blog/
Thanks
Charlie for checking in – and I’ll check it out.
From Sacha
in the
Just to
say, love the cast (even though I'm a mum, not a dad!) and have done a review
on you - the only one so far - on iTunes
Got a note from
Rob over at Podcast411 regarding the whole amneo scentesis procedure, and about
whether parents would want to know the sex of their kids before birth, a story
we covered last week:
“I would
love to see what the results study on the childs sex would be if they
interviewed just parents of a single child that were planning on having a
second child. I am guessing that the
results would be much higher than 8%. To
me it sounds like a survey conducted with the wrong market.”
“We also
refused the Amneo - When the Doctor said there was a 1:250 chance there was
something wrong, and a 1:200 chance the
test would cause a problem. Plus we also
like you would not have acted on the results.”
I agree
with you, Rob. I think the numbers
seemed low for parents that would want to know the sex. Curiosity can be overwhelming, so can the
need to paint the nursery the right color.
And we agree on the amneo sentesis, too I see. I had forgotten the 1:200 chance vs. 1:250
chance ratios, but now that you mention it, my wife and I had the same view –
why take the risk, if we’re not going to act on the information anyway?
Greg writes
in about a couple things from last week’s show…
I have a
question about your car seat story. I
got the gist of the story, but your comments were a little confusing. Most of the time I get your sarcasm, but this
time I was having a little trouble reading you.
What I got out of it was that the safety issues overlap in such a way
that they are no longer safe. What's
safe for one individual is not safe for this individual which puts this other
individual in an unsafe situation... So
does Evan use a car seat in the front seat of your gas guzzler? You said he rides up front with the airbags
off, but didn't mention the car seat.
Remember the good old days when you'd just have him ride in the back, on
the flatbed?
…What I was
getting at, Greg, is that it seems that the rules keep changing, such that by
the time my son is old enough to smoke and drink, he might be able to drive
without a car seat! The regulators keep
upping the restrictions. For awhile it
was 4 years old, then 8, now its 12, but his head has to be so high above the
seat back, his shoulders have to be just so, etc. etc. ad infinitum. I do reminisce about the good old days! And yes, Evan does use a booster seat at all
times, even in the front seat of the guzzler.
I still question the wisdom of putting high explosives in the dashboard
– that’s what airbags are deployed with.
On appliance
woes…
Our new
refrigerator was delivered yesterday. We
were battling our appliance at around the same time you were watching yours go
to that great laundromat in the
sky. Our former fridge was a side
by side that came with the house. One
day, the fridge door decided to fall off, bumping Nik on its way to the ground. He writes that Nik is OK – thank heaven.
He writes a
bit more here: Upon inspection
of the door, we discovered the plastic housing for the door hinge was broken
and a repairman said that the repair-to-replace ratio was pretty much dead
even, starting with $85 just to stop by and look at it.
Man how
scary is that? To have a fridge door
fall and hit your kid? Glad he wasn’t
hurt, man…thanks for checking in, hope I cleared the car seat thing up for
everybody…
[Cue alien break ]
Here Comes
The Toontest!
[Cue ToonTest 41+42]
ToonTest Answers:
#3: Beyblade, #2: The Emporer’s
[Cue Drop_1]
[Cue Alan Jay_Time]
We’re all
wipes out for this weeks ‘Davey Jones’ edition…questions, comments,
suggestions, gripes, recipes for yummy snacks, please send ‘em to submit at 101
uses for baby wipes dot com.
Special
thanks to Jeff from 100 year picnic for letting me hang with y’all. You can find their music, and this next song
at the podsafe music network, that’s music dot podshow dot com.
Scamper
will take us out – wait wait
[Cue Song #1 “Wait Wait”]
[Cue Evan – ‘George Washington’]
[Cue Podshow ID]