A Birthday Wish

Yep, today's the big day. It happens about once a year, the ole birthday roles around. So I thought for #34 I would make my Birthday wish in cyber space before I blow out my candles. (That's not the same as telling people, right?) What I wish for this year is...better christmas commercials. I have become spoiled over the past several years--GAP, Target, Old Navy--great commercials. This year...uhm...(somebody cue the crickets.)

I like the "can't beat the (insert great old gift) experience" Lexus commercials, but even then I am missing the toe-tapping, fleece pull over, catchy tune experience I have been accustomed to over the past several years. I am hoping that as we move further into December that the ads will get better.



The annual Gravy Bowl is in the books. My step father and uncle squared off in their annual Democrats vs Republicans gripe match. The winner this year--math. That's right, math. The central question of this year's gripe match was whether or not 3% of a 5 cent tax was equal to three pennies. Now, as an educator, I could have stepped in at this point and pointed out that in order to collect three pennies you would need to collect a dollar, BUT I know better than to get between those two. Besides, I was too busy trying to make sure that neither of them had a heart attack. Both of them, from their respective easy chairs, swiveled and cursed and called each other names. My mother sat in the back of the living room, head in hand, trying to avoid the conflict and fretting over his spiking blood pressure. In one particularly heated exchange, my step father referred to my uncle as a "Hannity loving, Limbaugh listening, Kool-aid drinking republican ignoramous ass hole." There is a certain poetry in my step father's rants--one that is better appreciated when the rant is not directed at you.

Fortunately my grandfather, who spent his career as a tax man, stepped in and corrected my uncle's math. You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, and you don't mess around with Poppy. Long live math without calculators.

Until Later

M