World’s Worst Book Title

Cooking With Pooh.

I $h!t you not. Umm…so to speak.

Link via Crooked Timber.

Songs for a Lazy, Dreary Sunday

Still cool and rainy here. I’ve spent the better part of the holiday weekend lazing around the house in worn out comfy clothes, ignoring the laundry and the mess and intermittently putting Christmas decorations up. Blogging, obviously. But very little productive activity. It has been heavenly, and I’m in no hurry for Monday to arrive and usher in the return of Regular Life.

Here are some songs that go nicely with today -

Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us (Robert Plant & Alison Krause)

Tell Her This (Del Amitri)

When I’m Thinking About You (The Sundays)

Waiting For A Dream (Rufus Wainwright)

And here’s one I will listen to when I need to get off my heinie and whip this place into shape.

Kids These Days

Parents have bemoaned the immorality of the kids’ music and dancing since at least the jazz era and probably even before that. So this, while perhaps a common view, just seems like the latest re-make of Footloose.

Was I doing my era’s version of dirty dancing when I was a teenager? Hahaha. Yes. I suspect my mom didn’t chaperone high school dances in order to maintain her sanity.

Do I look forward to watching my own daughters freaking and grinding on the dance floor when they are teens? No. But I recognize that the deep breath I have to take when I consider that spectacle is due to having absorbed the cultural ick relating to contemplating the sexuality of one’s children. The fact is, social dancing has an implicit connection to sex. My job as a parent is not to ensure their dancing is G rated. My job is to raise them to be self-aware, confident and knowledgeable enough that they make good choices about sex. How they dance is a separate issue…except to the extent that their ability to handle potentially sexual situations helps them confidently enjoy a little bump and grind with a hottie, which – let’s face it – is way fun and something everyone should get to do at least once while they’re young.