From the category archives:

FUN FUN FUN

Post image for Dr. Laura Quits

Dr. Laura Quits

by Sasha Stone on August 18, 2010

Full disclosure admission: I have been listening to Dr. Laura off and on for many years.  Many many years.  Even though I am one of the “bad people,” according to her code of ethics: single parent, not married, had baby out of wedlock.  I did stay home to raise my kid so in that way she would approve of my lifestyle.  I’m a bleeding heart liberal but I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t get much from Dr. Laura’s show over the years.  I just tuned out the political stuff or anything I disagreed with.  I found much of what she said valuable.  And beyond that, it was occasionally entertaining not just to listen to her berate callers (why did they call her if they knew she would tell them what they didn’t want to hear?) but to hear people who were far worse off than I have been.

[click to continue…]

{ 7 comments }

Post image for Making Sense of the Mommy Bloggers

Making Sense of the Mommy Bloggers

by Sasha Stone on August 10, 2010

I don’t get the whole mommy blogging thing very well.  One thing I noticed is that almost everyone wants to be a prototype, or a brand.  They have to sell an identity – like a sitcom star, or a reality TV star.  The brand they’re selling is often helpful and entertaining.  They give back more than they take, which is why they’re making money.  But every once in a while you can see behind the curtain.  That’s what I love about this photo.

You don’t often see what it really must like a lot of time at the Drummond ranch in Oklahoma as Ree Drummond displays a fantasy life for her readers.  It is all fantasy, with a smidge of reality thrown in here and there.  I really don’t begrudge the fantasy – I just sometimes feel like a sucker for being pulled in, I will admit.  I prefer hardcore truth in writing.  But I also enjoy the fantasy.  Why not, right?

[click to continue…]

{ 2 comments }

Missed it by That Much

by Sasha Stone August 10, 2010 AHOLES AND ELBOWS
Thumbnail image for Missed it by That Much

Last year, before my daughter moved to our old/new apartment (we switched from a tiny one bedroom to a two bedroom), we had a fantasy about living on the top floor of a duplex apartment down the road from where now live.  It was out of our price range but so much the kind of place we’d wanted to live in. For one thing, we didn’t have to “be embarrassed” about where lived.  This was squarely in a good neighborhood, an upper with lots of light and windows, a hard wood floor, a fireplace and a huge kitchen.  Two tiny bedrooms. My daughter saw the ivy crawling up the brick wall outside and fell in love.  It had its own yard and a patio area.  It was the kind of place in which you could build a container garden, for instance.  It was the closest thing to a “home” that [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Why I Choose Life in Twenty

Why I Choose Life in Twenty

by Sasha Stone April 22, 2010 EVOLUTION-OBSESSION

I came across this story from New Scientist about what makes life worth living if you take away religion. From a brain perspective, there ought to be a good reason why a person feels like bothering with this life. It ain’t easy. It ain’t pretty. And it feels like it goes on forever. Beyond that, there is much suffering in life. I thought briefly about what it would feel like to have a son travel to Iraq and die in some useless, futile IED explosion. How would I go on living? Moreover, a recent memorial of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing showed mothers who lost babies in that pseudo-patriotic, mind-numbingly senseless terrorist act. As a sidenote, isn’t it ironic that we reacted to the terrorist bombings of 9/11 in quite a different way from Oklahoma City? Why didn’t our National Guard descend upon the psychos in America with [...]

Read the full article →

O Tiny Houses. I Love You So.

by Sasha Stone April 14, 2010 FUN FUN FUN

I have a new weird obsession.  Tiny houses. Did you know there was a whole movement of tiny house enthusiasts?   They are even more than just enthusiasts – they are devoted followers.  Most of them are environmentalists who believe it’s possible to live in a tiny house that has just the things one person would need to live.  The key with the tiny houses is that they are small enough that they don’t need a permit to build them and so one can build them anywhere.  Theoretically. The Tiny House Blog, though, doesn’t highlight tiny houses (but it does have those) – it also has just cute little houses in unexpected places.  Thing is, I love the little places.  I’ve never been a person who craves a big house.  I look at big houses and they look lonely to me. I would make an exception for a chateau or a [...]

Read the full article →

Heidi Montag: What is it, and Why is it Here

by Sasha Stone April 11, 2010 THE WEIRDNESS OF LIFE

Oh god. There are many aspects to celebrity culture that freak my shit out but none more than Heidi Montag. The first thing I ever knew about her was that I couldn’t stand her. It’s not even worth my time to explain why because my goal was to make it through a day of interneting without reading any story about her, the self-made fake celebrity that she is. But — after she did this to herself: It became my business. Why? Because can you believe we live in a world where women spend lots of money and go under the knife to look like this? What could be more horrifying? Well, okay, so lots of things: child abuse, school bullying, mass murder, rape, torture, sending soldiers off to die for an unjust and pointless war. Yes, lots and lots of tragedies emerge every second of every day. Heidi Montag is [...]

Read the full article →

Dairy Farmer Kills 51 Cows Then Himself

by Sasha Stone January 23, 2010 Featured

This story has to be one of the saddest ever: COPAKE, N.Y. – State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself. State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police. State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues. The Columbia County hamlet of Copake is about 115 miles north of New York City. Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.

Read the full article →

No One Cares About the Asteroid

by Sasha Stone March 4, 2009 THE WEIRDNESS OF LIFE

A gigantic asteroid silently flew past our planet, avoiding us by a mere 45,000 miles.¬† The thing is, it was undetected.¬† Why is it that no one seems to care about this.¬† Most people just shrug and say, oh well.¬† Nothing much we can do about it anyway.¬† I even told my friend Clara that maybe we could prepare to hit it with one of our powerful nuclear warheads? “That’s only in the movies,” she responded.¬† This is what happens when you ask a dumb question.¬† Here I was, obsessing on Bernie Madoff (how could he have…how could anyone have…how could the SEC have…), and mildly meditating on a PBS documentary I saw last night on the guy who invented the labotomy.¬† And all this time I could have been nurturing free-floating anxiety about the asteroid.¬† It’s not like it’s never happened before.

Read the full article →

Only in L.A.

by Sasha Stone June 13, 2008 THE WEIRDNESS OF LIFE

After driving through this hot and crowded city in pursuit of an elusive paycheck, I drove down Hollywood Blvd. for the first time in a while and what did I see but two reality shows being filmed, a lot more fans crowding in front of the Mann’s Chinese than ever before, including spillage over to the Kodak Building, which used to see no action, and a vibrant tourist season in full swing. Driving over Laurel Canyon Blvd. and into Studio City what should I pass but three bikini clad girls being photographed in the middle of Ventura Blvd. It’s funny and surreal all at once. Rush hour? Three half-dressed girls bending over? Emma, who was with me, kept saying “OH MY GOD!” And it was worthy of that. Unfortunately, I had no camera with me to record this tawdry event. I hope someone somewhere did.

Read the full article →

Great Quakin’ It

by Sasha Stone April 14, 2008 THE WEIRDNESS OF LIFE

It was announced today that by 2037 we can expect The Big One to hit California.¬† Yay!¬† I have long since past the point where life seemed surreal, then it was just evil and now, well, I’m at the indifferent at a distance phase where gaze back upon life as the curiosity that it is; there is no making sense of it.¬† Then again, I’m sure if I had faith I wouldn’t feel this way.¬† Either way, so it’s going to hit and it’s going to be ugly.¬† The scariest part about it is how old I’ll be.¬† Emma will be a full grown woman and I will be very very old.¬† It’s kind of horrifying to think that in roughly that long I will be an old woman in my 70s.¬† That is not a long time to live an unfinished life.¬† And then add a big old earth [...]

Read the full article →