Neurotic Nurturings with Food

September 28, 2006
Memo to Nanny: No Juice Boxes
By Jodi Kantor

“The issue is a trying one even for those gifted in the delicate art of
parent-nanny diplomacy. The conflicts are partly a result of the
educational and economic divide that leaves many nannies less
knowledgeable (or neurotic, take your pick) about nutrition than their
employers. But it is also partly a struggle over the emotional issues
involved in leaving a child in another person’s care. . .“

Check out Snook link list for lots more (like this for instance) on how we get neurotic about kids and food –

MOVIE REVIEW | ‘LITTLE CHILDREN’

Definitely not for little children. Something tells me we’ll be hearing a whole lot about this one soon — JJ

Playground Rules: No Hitting, No Sex

“Little Children,” Todd Field’s superb film adaptation of the novel by Tom Perrotta, begins in a clean and leafy suburban playground, where toddlers cavort under the watchful, benevolent gazes of their pretty young mothers.

This may strike you as a rare tableau of innocence in a hectic world, unless, that is, you have spent time in such a place. For the playground really is a scene of primordial brutality, in which a few agreed-upon rules — play nice, share your toys, no hitting — barely suppress the essential savagery of the human species.

I’m not talking about the kids; they’re perfectly sweet. “Little Children,” its title notwithstanding, is a rigorous study of adult behavior . . .
. . .the chorus of viciously competitive moms, who reappear now and then throughout the movie to pass judgment and enforce social norms, amounts to a caricature, tinged with snobbery and misogyny. . . .

Set in a Massachusetts suburb and filmed mainly on studio sets, “Little Children,” which will be shown this weekend at the New York Film Festival before opening in New York and Los Angeles next Friday, balances tenderness with satire. It takes seriously the complaints of people whose lives are, by any objective historical measure, almost impossibly privileged (though they would no doubt describe themselves as middle class) . . .

Daily Show: Different Strokes for Different Folks?

Senate Chamber Desks

The prolific Diane Flynn Keith sends out a daily home-learning link to subscribers, this one a refreshing change to what passes for government and political news, especially in Congressional election years. See more about this in a minute . . .

But first, did you catch the Daily Show last night??

I squirmed through an unfunny, peephole-sex-would-be-classier episode of the often smart and satiric show last night — with my kids, my bad! — and was ready to call the cable censors myself.
EEUUUW!

“Daily Show” viewers are 78 percent more likely than the average adult to have four or more years of college education, while O’Reilly’s audience is only 24 percent more likely to have that much schooling. . .

(Are they kidding? No kidding, nothing “kidding” nor informative about the Sept 28 episode, which isn’t for kids or their moms, imo. But don’t go look now, dummy! It’s flat and smarmy and sad. The biggest joke of the day was when the interview with a real elected political figure, actually in the news for writing a lies-sex-and-government scandal book, segued so seamlessly from pathetic-guy masturbation in libraries as tv journalism -also apparently based on real news rather than fake?)

I’ll get over it, likely watch again next week — I have so much college education myself that it’s probably compulsory for me like it or not . . . But I know thinking moms and kids who’d prefer something like Diane’s recommended site of the day, for THEIR daily dose of fun political news and info at home.

One difficulty in verifying the desks’ 19th century assignees is the fact that for many years Senate doorkeepers closely guarded such privileged information. Isaac Bassett, who worked in the Senate Chamber from 1831 to 1895, feared that souvenir hunters might damage the historic furniture if it was widely known which pieces were used by such famous senators as