You Run Like a Girl…No Wait, You Don’t

Caster Semenya has a problem.  She’s too good a runner to be a girl.  The 18-year old women’s 800-meter gold medalist at the world championship track and field competition in Berlin last week has had her medal withheld until an investigation of her sex has been completed.

The reason for the investigation is not clear, the International association of Athletics Federations simply says there is Continue reading »

They Say: BPA-Free? Maybe Not So Much

Apparently tests run on supposedly Bisphenal-A (BPA)-free baby bottles have turned up positive…for BPA.  A study sponsored by the Canadian government was run in advance of a planned BPA ban, and as a control, bottles not made with polycarbonate plastic (which usually contains BPA) were tested, along with the known BPA-containing bottles.

What they found shocked health officials.  There were traces Continue reading »

Federal Program Aims at Increasing Adoption of Black Foster Kids

While only about 15% of U.S. American children are African American, over 30% of the children in U.S. foster care are Black.  A new federally funded campaign aimed directly at encouraging Black parents to adopt Black children from foster care launched this week to try and balance some of the disparity.

Programs to help place children with biological relatives have already moved the numbers of Black children in foster care from Continue reading »

On the Road: What to Feed the Kids?

Next weekend I’ll be putting two kids in the car and driving 10 hours to visit the grandparents.  Whenever I’m faced with any kind of day-long (or longer) travel with kids I spend at least a week preparing.  One of the main concerns I have is food.

How to eat healthy and roughly on schedule while traveling is a puzzle for the ages.  The kids need to stay relatively close to their routine and eat food that’s not going to make them crazy (in our family that means no sugar), so they can sit in the car longer than nature ever intended children under eight to do.

I’ve assembled a little chart here of travel food options, complete with the pros and cons.  I invite you to add your own suggestions and experiences in the comments! Continue reading »

Sesame Street Marries a King to a King

I know I had everybody excited for naught back in April, but this is for real, folks.  In the skit below, a (mouse) queen tries to choose which of two kings she will marry.  After giving up and asking to be blindfolded so she can choose arbitrarily, the kings take a look at each other and decide that maybe they’d be happier together.  They have their hands ceremoniously joined by the singing narrator of the story and leave the scene to live happily ever after: Continue reading »

Kid-Squid Subculture?

I recently came across this picture of a so-called piglet squid and my first thought was, “that has to be fake!”  My next thought was “tell Strollerderby!”

A bit of googling led me to yet another piglet squid (see below), leading me to think it isn’t fake after all.  Two google hits is Continue reading »

What Do You Teach Your Kids about the Police?

When I was a child, “Officer Friendly” came annually to visit our (95% white) school.  He (it was always a “he”) gave us basic safety tips, when we were a bit older, offered anti-drug lessons and sometimes passed out treats.  But always, always, we were told that Continue reading »

Lettuce Recalled Due to Salmonella Concerns

Tanimura & Antle Inc. of Salinas, California announced a voluntary recall yesterday for cartons of bulk or wrapped romaine marked with the lot code 531380.

The lettuce was shipped to Continue reading »

They Say: Gum is Good for You!

Remember the ad that went “dentists recommend sugar-free gum for their patients who chew gum?”  Now they’re trying to convince us to take up gum-chewing; yes, even to give gum to our small children to “protect” their teeth.

The idea is that Continue reading »

Family Dog Seriously Injures Newborn

Here’s a sad, sad story.  A newborn baby in Lexington, Kentucky was apparently taken from his crib and dragged into his back yard by the family dog.  Alexander James Smith’s parents thought their new son was sleeping, when they looked outside and saw Continue reading »