Maurice Sendak

My beloved Stephen Colbert is facing some pretty stiff competition in the “my imaginary boyfriend” department from 83-year-old children’s book author Maurice Sendak. I had never heard Sendak speak before watching the first part of his interview with Colbert this week, but now that I’ve had a taste of his brutal honesty and charming humanity, I’m hooked. Not only did I love last night’s conclusion of “Grim Colberty Tales,” I stayed up past my bedtime (don’t tell my kid) to listen to the profoundly touching interview Sendak gave to Fresh Air’s Terry Gross in September. (Thanks to reader Samantha for the tip!) Side note: Oddly, Gross was Colbert’s live interview guest last night, and it turns out she’s a fascinating subject herself.

Check out part two of the Colbert/Sendak exchange (it’s just as funny and delightful as the first) and then I’ll direct you to Sendak’s interview with Gross. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, it’ll be better than If You Give a Mouse a Cookie: Continue reading »

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Maurice Sendak and Stephen Colbert

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love Stephen Colbert. And anybody who knows Stephen Colbert knows that he doesn’t like “children or books or children’s books.” Nevertheless, last night Colbert interviewed Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, Chicken Soup with Rice and In the Night Kitchen. The resulting footage is one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. Not only does Colbert display his signature quick wit, Sendak is incredibly irreverent about everything, including his own career.

“I don’t write for children,” Sendak told Colbert. “I write, and somebody says, ‘That’s for children.’” Ha! There are so many hilarious bits in this interview and I don’t want to give it all away, but let’s just say some of it involves Vin Diesel. Get ready to be delighted: Continue reading »

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Jon Huntsman

If you’ve been at all following the Republican race for the presidential nomination, you probably recognize Jon Huntsman. He’s the former governor of Utah, the (other) Mormon in the race and the former US Ambassador to China. He speaks fluent Mandarin (impressive!) and has served as the Chair of Huntsman Corporation, his father’s chemical company.

His father, Jon Huntsman, Sr., funds a super PAC called Our Destiny PAC, which “is taking credit for helping to double the candidate’s poll ratings in New Hampshire since starting its advertising campaign on his behalf a couple of weeks ago,” according to The New York Times blog The Caucus.

America’s political comedy heartthrob Stephen Colbert took aim at both Huntsmans and Our Destiny PAC last night with a sketch suggesting that “a parent with unlimited cash could make (campaign) commercials that might be embarrassing.” Take a look: Continue reading »

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How much does the tooth fairy leave your kids?

A recent survey of over 1,000 parents shows that tooth fairy payouts have grown smaller during the recession, down to $2.60/tooth from $3.00.  According to CNN, Visa conducted the survey “to get parents talking to kids about money management.”  (Never mind that a credit card company promoting “money management” is like a candy company teaching kids about good dental hygiene.)  Survey results show that on the East Coast, the tooth fairy only leaves an average of $2.10 per tooth.  (I guess on the East Coast, the tooth fairy needs the extra change for the parking meter.)  CNN reports, “In the West, kids pocket more than the national average: $2.80 and up 4% from last year’s $2.70.”  Midwestern kids get an average of $2.80 a tooth, too.

Thankfully, the majority of children – 36 percent – still get $1 or less per tooth.  My daughter hasn’t lost her first tooth yet, but I’m not prepared to shell out $5 for the thing, like San Diego dad Scott Rivers.  He says, “It’s worth it just to see their eyes light up.  Plus, it gives us a chance to talk about what they want to do with the money and what they should. Like donating a bit to charity.”  Aw, man, there’s nothing worse than an adult using a mythical creature to teach kids about real-world do-goodery.  ”Here, Jimmy.  Santa brought you this certificate that says you planted a tree in Niger.  Merry Christmas!”  No thanks.  Just plant the tree.  Don’t make your kid use his tooth fairy money to do it.  My daughter is already offering free cold water to the poor, so I’m not going to make her donate her $1.47 in tooth money to AMFAR.

Scott Rivers isn’t the only wealthy American dad who takes the tooth fairy business seriously.  Based on the recent slide in tooth prices, Stephen Colbert is encouraging his children to “diversify into tusks.”  Take a look: Continue reading »

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Have you noticed how many new things there are to feel bad about these days? Eyelashes, for example. The idea that your eyes might benefit from a fresh coat of paint around the edges was easy enough for me to swallow. I never saw mascara as a judgment about the quality of my lashes. For me, it was more about whether I wanted to look “done” or not. It  wasn’t until the media campaign for Latisse that I looked at my eyelashes and realized how pathetically sparse they were. And here I was thinking my eyes weren’t one of my “problem areas”. Ha.

Well, girls, there’s a new flaw in town.

It’s in a place you might not have worried much about aesthetically before: your armpit. Continue reading »

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Regular families, Jon Stewart wants you

Jon Stewart wants you to ditch soccer practice or get a babysitter tomorrow so you can join him for The Rally to Restore Sanity, October 30 on the National Mall in D.C.

Stewart is calling on normal families, the people who are usually too busy for rallies, the ones with kids and schedules, the ones who don’t normally feel compelled to join a massive gathering of extreme views, anger, or finger pointing.

Tomorrow he’s asking you to bring your indoor voice. It’s a call for reasonableness, because as Stewart rightly says, it  shouldn’t just be the loudest people making off-the-wall clams (like Sarah Palin and her death panels) who get heard.

“Stop it. You are scaring the kids!!”, “Be Civil America” and “Team Sanity: I respectfully disagree with just about everything you said”. These are some of the signs attendees will be waving.

We have a sneak peak at the list of special guests, too: Continue reading »

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The September issue of Esquire features a profile of serial cheater Newt Gingrich in which his second wife, Marianne (pictured), is prominently figured.  Author John H. Richardson describes her as, “goofy and fun and almost completely unguarded, reeling off the stories and digressions with a wry sense of the human comedy that was very appealing.” 

Marianne was married to Gingrich for eighteen years; he met her while his first wife, Jackie (who was his high-school math teacher), was in the hospital recovering from cancer.  Despite all of his philandering, Gingrich apparently likes to keep himself disease-free, because according to The Week, Gingrich cheated on Marianne “a few months after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.”  He eventually made the affair with Callista Bisek official – she’s now his third wife.

As Stephen Colbert said last night, “Newt is so pro-marriage he can’t stop doing it.”

Colbert then ran over to his Moral Compass 5000 Action Center (“Where Jesus goes to find out what he would do.”), revealing some fascinating statistics about American hypocrisy regarding family values.  According to the May 2010 Gallup poll on moral issues, only 6 percent of Americans find it morally acceptable to have an extramarital affair, but a 2007 MSNBC poll suggests that 22 percent of monogamous adults have cheated on their partner.  Or, as Colbert put it, “Do as I say, not who I do.” Continue reading »

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