FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  What is your Food Spirit Animal?  Mine is Sriracha:

Just like Sriracha, you are spicy, exotic, and sassy. You likely have a sarcastic sense of humor, and are well-cultured. The only think you like better than traveling the world is going on crazy adventures along the way.

Check out the quiz for yours here.

2.)  According to a Public Policy Polling survey, 29 percent of Louisiana Republicans say President Obama is more to blame for the botched executive branch response to Hurricane Katrina while just 28 percent blamed George W. Bush. A plurality of 44 percent said they were unsure who was more responsible, even though Hurricane Katrina occurred over three years before Obama entered the presidency when he was still a freshman Senator.

Sigh.

3.)  New research finds that copper in amounts readily found in our drinking water, the foods we eat and the vitamin supplements we take likely plays a key role in initiating and fueling the abnormal protein build-up and brain inflammation that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

The LA times article  outlines the study and findings.  I can't help but recall that in the late 1990's everyone was getting rid of their aluminum pots and pans, not buying deodorant,  baking soda and other products which had aluminum in them because the scientist thought aluminum was the culprit behind Alzheimer's.

Another article I read today said poor food choices caused the disease.  

Sometimes I think these studies should not be reported while still in progress.

LITTLE BOYS LOST

Fox news has joined in on the junk science of the "war on men" in an article by one of those odd women like Phyllis Schaflay who want to protect women from losing their rights to be "dependent housewives" while themselves being working professional women.

Statistics have been floating around about more women than men pursuing higher education, young women enjoying "higher levels of success" than young men and fewer men valuing marriage and family as much as women.  The reason, according to Fox News writer Suzanne Venker, isn't that the achievements of women have made men less valued:

 It has pissed them off. It has also undermined their ability to become self-sufficient in the hopes of someday supporting a family. Men want to love women, not compete with them. They want to provide for and protect their families – it’s in their DNA. But modern women won’t let them.

Okey dokey. 

On a personal note - I say "I'll let you!!  I will give up my dead end boring stupid job that I do so our family can have medical benefits!!  Provide for me!  Protect me! I'm all in."

Got that out of my system.

I am not one of those modern women of which she speaks, I know she is speaking  of young women who have managed in ONE generation to twist male DNA into shreds due to efforts to educate themselves and be economically and socially independent.  I suppose my generation started it by saying to our daughters: You can be anything you want when you grow up you just have to get a good education and work hard.  And when it comes to having a family, well, there are going to be hard choices to make.

Wow - who knew how powerful we were? We wanted our daughters to be able to support themselves in case they didn't marry or theirs was one of the 50% of marriages which ended in divorce - and BOOM we changed men from loving, protective providers to slackers.

I can't wait for all the lovely women in their 20's and 30's to just quit their jobs, buy some cookbooks and dusting cloths and through the power of "surrendering to their femininity" magically turn all those gamer guys into productive members of the working class ready with a ring.  Paying rent in the meantime may be an issue - but hey, anything to help the guys find their way back to their true nature...

FRIDAY FAST ONES

1.)  Somehow hearing that Britney Spears turns 30 today makes me feel older than having my 58th birthday yesterday!

2).  The Christmas stuff went up at work on November 21.  We were immediately the stop for everyone taking a stroll down the street.  Our manager really tarts up the place!  I had forgotten how stressful it is to be on guard over all the decorations, ornaments, stuffed toys, nutcrackers and extravagant nativity scene with kids and families swarming the lobby.  But that's why I get the big bucks!

3.)   The Bad News is that a Kentucky Baptist church has  banned interracial couples from joining their church or participating in  their services.  This after the daughter of 2 church members attended a recent service accompanied by her Zimbabwean (Black) fiance.

Following that occasion, the church voted against interracial couples as a measure to "promote greater unity" for it's members.

I guess they don't have to love their neighbors in Kentucky churches.

4.)  The Good News is that Elizabeth Warren is "surging" ahead of Scott Brown in the race for
Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat.  Good news because that seat seems to be such a symbolically Democratic one and also because she is a wise, smart and caring person.  When heckled and called a "socialist whore" by a jobless Tea Party member at a recent speech:

Hours later, she said she wasn't upset with the man himself, but rather with those who attempt to channel his anger in a malevolent direction. "I was thinking more about the heckler. I'm not angry with him, but he didn't come up with the idea that his biggest problem was Occupy Wall Street. There's someone else pre-packaging that poison -- and that's who makes me angry," she said.

Gotta love a person like that!

5.)  Our a post Thanksgiving dinner we were all riffing on the Occupy movement and the Balck Friday shoppers.  Why could they camp out at the mall but not at city hall, etc.  you know, "Occupy Best Buy".  Ally said they could have signs saying "We are the 99% Off!"  Clever girl.

So now I am going out to occupy a few stores.

MY NO CHARGE MARKETING PLAN FOR DENTISTS

An article in the LA Times about the declining revenues for dentists caught my attention.  The article is about the new marketing efforts of dentists who are seeing their profits drop as patients are skipping cleanings, fillings and other dental work.

Their response is to seek new marketing strategies.  They are paying marketing consultants to tell them about social media, upgrade their websites and even to add spa like amenities to their practices.

That's why Vines hired Steffany Mohan, a fellow dentist and marketing consultant who says that keeping patients satisfied is as important as persuading them to walk through the door.


Mohan emphasizes personal service: Dentists should offer sedation to patients nervous about pain, and make dental care feel like a trip to the spa with amenities such as scented neck wraps, moisturizing lotions, heated massage pads and video screens mounted on the ceiling above dental chairs.

"People don't necessarily remember what you said or did, but they'll remember how you made them feel," Mohan said. "We're going for giving them an experience they'll remember so they won't go anywhere else."

Vines said he expects to spend $35,000 to $50,000 over the next year on Mohan's marketing strategies.
 
Okay.  The economy has tanked, 10% of the population is unemployed, even more are underemployed.  Companies are cutting benefits right and left and we all know that having dental insurance is pretty much a joke because , beyond a couple of x-rays and cleanings, the cost of any procedure is prohibitively expensive. 
 
I have had a broken crown for 3 years.  I finally had a job with benefits and opted for the dental so I could get it fixed.  The difference in cost with $100.00 a month insurance and no insurance?  I would "save" $435. on the crown, making my out of pocket cost $600.00 for the insurance and $985.00 for the crown.  The crown, by the way that the same dentist supplied me about 7 years ago.  I still have a broken crown and am cancelling the insurance in January.
 
My experience is that dentists are big on price fixing.  Have you ever called around to see if you can get the services for less?  Don't bother. 
 
If my business was losing revenue, I might look at my pricing, my hours (our dentist was closed on Friday, closed for a week at Thanksgiving and 2 weeks at Christmas - making it impossible for my college kids to see her when they were home.  We now have a new dentist) and better financing options for my patients.  Hey, how about some evening  or weekend hours so people don't have to skip work to have an appointment?  How about offering some kind of discount to people without insurance who are paying cash? 
 
Personally I would not be soothed by warm scented towels, I would be wondering how much the damned thing was costing me.
 

TWO LIVES

On Saturday April 30 they closed off the streets around the VFW Hall in my town for a memorial service.  A young man from my town, Army Specialist Jameson Lindskog, was killed in Afghanistan on March 29.  He was 23, the age of my son.  A young man under his command flew in from the Middle East and was hosted by our hotel while he attended the service.

On Sunday May 1 a guest came into the hotel and asked if I had heard the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed.  I spoke out loud my first reaction - it won't change anything.  He seemed surprised by my reaction.  I have been surprised by the reactions of many Americans considering the fact that they call the people of other countries barbaric and sub-human for celebrating American deaths.

And, really, what have all these deaths gotten anyone?  And why are they continuing?  And it isn't just death, is it?  There are nearly 200,000 disabled vets now.  Two Hundred Thousand young people whose lives are forever altered, whose families lives are forever changed no matter how happy they are that their soldier survived.  The suicide rate of vets from these wars is occurring at a rate of 18 per day. 

So we managed to kill Bin Laden.  Hurrah.  What does that change?  We went to war in two countries and he was sitting around in a

third country to which we have been sending millions of dollars that our vets could really use to try to put their lives back together.  Not to mention the people of this country who need jobs and education and health care.

So really, what is it we are celebrating?  Are the wars over?  Is everyone coming home?  Will the military budget be shifted from the industry of war to the needs of those who have served? 

CBS = GREED OR WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS?

I was never going to write about C****** S****.  I don't even talk about him, except briefly with my husband in the privacy of our home to bemoan the ongoing media coverage.  My husband made a goddesses joke.  Once.  He got my wifely stony response and that was the end of that.

So why do I mention "he who has been over covered" here?  Now?  Do you know that CBS is actually trying to hire him back?  I am writing because I think it is time for a complete boycott of CBS if such a craven, money mad thing is actually  true.

I am sorry if you watch Survivor or The Good Wife or something else on CBS.  Perhaps it is easy for me to suggest such a thing because I no longer watch anything on CBS. (The Amazing Race finally got too repetitive for me.)  But really.  How low can a company go?  How low do they think viewers in this country will go?  Maybe that is really the worst part...