Occasionally I tear items from newspapers that amuse or astound me with the intention of using them in a blog entry but I rarely do. Months ago I cut out a small piece in my daily paper describing a major university study about the ways divorce impacts our environment. Broken families create twice the paper waste (in settlement agreements alone), twice the gas usage (for all those custody visits, I imagine), and the additional carbon footprint that results from one family living in two places.
As I was reading this article, it struck me that the university study succeeded in creating twice the guilt as well. Divorcing parents feel dreadful enough about the death of the future they so lovingly planned, to say nothing of the lasting effect on the children they brought into the world. Now they have Greenpeace on their case. You never know how seriously people will take studies like this and I wonder if someday it won’t be unusual to hear, “Well, we would have gotten divorced long ago were it not for the environment.”
Which reminds me of an old joke. A very elderly couple appeared before a judge requesting a divorce. The judge looked at them incredulously and said, “You’ve been married 75 years. Why divorce now?” To which the wife replied, “We were waiting for the children to die.”
We just returned from several days in Florida and our neighbor was kind enough to stack our newspapers inside the front door while we were gone. In perusing the news stories we missed, I spotted a notice under Corrections, the column in which the paper acknowledges its printed mistakes. It read, “Skip Biminetti is a Mets fan. A story Tuesday said he was a Yankees fan.” I tore it out wondering how this grave error came to light. Did the guys at Skip’s local sports bar call in to set the record straight or did Skip have to do it himself? Did his wife ultimately e-mail the editor and say, “There’s no living with him! Say it isn’t so!” Too bad there’s no Follow-up to Corrections column.
The reason we were down in Florida was to visit Husband’s parents, a beguiling pair of elders I’ve written about in entries here and there. I just find them adorable and Husband suggests that’s possibly because I’m not from Planet Husband. He has this theory modeled on the Superman-Kryptonite reaction that says unless you’re from the home planet of the specimens being observed, you’re not affected in the least by their behavior. What might be perceived by natives of the home planet as incredibly annoying can present itself to visitors as charming quirkiness.
After dinner one evening, my 85-year-old father-in-law said he needed some assistance on his computer and because I’ve helped him before he came to me again. He has an e-mail account, he surfs the net, he even does his banking online. I asked him what he needed and he said he had two favors to ask. One, he really wanted to navigate YouTube and I said I could certainly show him how. The second request was regarding something that might be too delicate a matter for me to handle, and after he shuffled around a bit I told him to just come out with it.
DAD-IN-LAW: Well, I keep getting these e-mails. . . they seem to be of a dubious nature. . . I’m really not sure. . . (lowering his voice) I think they’re, you know, pornographic.
OSV: It’s all right, Dad, I get them too. Everyone does. I can easily show you how to block them.
DAD-IN-LAW: Block them? I need to know how to open them.
OSV: HONEY! COME HELP YOUR FATHER!!
After several entries with Featured Fotos from Costa Rica, Daughter brings us Back To The City
manhattan bridge
high bike
east river
another hydropower fountain sculpture installation