Does anyone else think it's amusing/confounding that many, many people (a few of whom probably haven't even read the constitution they claim to REVERE to the point of worship) think they are WAY smarter than the nine people who, out of the 350+ million of us who live in America, were chosen for the Supreme Court? I also think it's interesting that the liberals of the high court are never considered idealogues for ALWAYS voting as a block, and as everyone expects them to, but that Scalia, Thomas, and Alito (and, until recently, Roberts) are uniformly chastised when they all vote together. I need to do some research to confirm this suspicion, but I am fairly certain that liberal justices have rarely (never?) trended more conservative as they age (that quote by Winston Churchill notwithstanding--something like, "if you aren't a liberal at 20, you have no heart, and if you aren't a conservative at 40, you have no mind"), but that there are several instances of judges who were appointed as supposed stalwart conservatives who tend to drift the other way the longer they are on the court (see Souter, Kennedy, O'Connor et al) I wonder why this is the case? There now. Have I managed to be offensive in both directions so that everyone can feel frustrated with me? I keep meaning to go read the opinions so that I can actually formulate some sort of personal opinion that isn't handed to me by a political commentator. Then I decide to take a nap instead. I take democracy for granted, I know.
A couple of nights ago, I was reading in bed and decided I needed to go and finish the chocolate Haagen Daaaz (too many 'a's'??) that the husband bought that had been languishing in the freezer for a few days. The husband is not much of a sweets eater, though he will, on occasion, get inspired at the grocery store and instead of just buying a single pint of ice cream, he will come home with five. Then he'll eat a little and the rest will be there to taunt me until I can't stand it anymore and have to eat it. Anyway, I got to the freezer and discovered that he had actually finished the chocolate the night before. There was almost a full pint of strawberry, but I refuse to eat fruit flavored full fat ice cream because it offends me. In fact, I firmly believe fruit and dessert should never be mixed, with the possible exception of cobbler, and maybe, on rare occasions, pie. Because strawberry flavored Haaagen Daaaaz tastes like it might be pretending to be healthy, only it actually is akin to having something like 5 Big Macs when you consider the fat grams. Anyway, I couldn't let go of the ice cream craving that had gone unsatisfied, so last night at Target, I got a pint of chocolate peanut butter Haaaaaaaagen Daaaaazz. Weird, but SO good. The peanut butter makes it a little salty, which is a surprisingly pleasant combination.
I think it is important to note that I have an entire paragraph of opinions about ice cream, but can't be bothered to care much about Obamacare.
When Harper was around Helena's age, she began using the word 'usual' in place of 'regular.' So instead of saying "I'd like regular butter on my toast instead of almond butter," she would say, "I'd like usual butter, please." I thought is was cute and never set her straight, and now all three kids do it. Maybe we'll just have our own quirky little family lexicon at some point.
My parents got back from a trip to northern Europe a couple of weeks ago and brought the kids, among various other delightful trinkets, a few Euro coins for them to keep (is this illegal? Don't tell the EU.) Helena was showing hers to me and I said, "Those are Euros!" and she responded, "YES! They ARE mine!" which I thought was funny. She has started referring to Harper and Hudson as "the kids" which I think is also pretty cute. She'll say, "I'm going upstairs to tell the kids goodnight!"
We went to the library yesterday so the kids (plus Helena) could pick up their trophies for reading (or having been read) 20 books apiece. I thought about asking the librarians why the bar was set so low, but decided not to. These are their first trophies, and they are pleased. I refrained from a lecture about how I hoped they all realized that Reading is its Own True Reward. I think Harper was aware of the impossibility that they could all be, as their trophies proclaimed, "#1 READER!" but she kept her doubts mostly to herself. There were a few quiet comments about how actually reading 20 books all by oneself might be slightly superior to having to simply sit and listen to 20 books being read TO you, and that MAYBE there should be a slightly different (bigger) trophy for this superiority.
That's enough for one day.
2 comments:
My grandmother always had peanut butter and chocolate ice cream on hand when Brian and I went to her house. It haunts me to this day that I cannot find it and now you are telling me I should be looking at Haagen Daaz for this combination? I never would have thought. And now that it's in my head again, will be obsessed until I find it. Even Jonathan did not believe there was such a combination of ice cream on the market ever. Now there is proof. I approve of your really long paragraph about ice cream, and agree about fruit flavored ones....boring.....unless someone sat on an old fashioned ice cream churn and put out home made peaches and cream, for that I will make an exception.
Your kids read more than I do.....a LOT more.
I'm with Harper and Hudson. It seems a little unfair to group all books together as equally worthy of this weighty prize. I mean, "Charlotte's Web" is equal to reading "Hug"? I felt a little guilty getting Aiken a prize, but he had sat through a few books and I didn't want to pay for a museum ticket (the week's prize). So, I went ahead and signed him up and used his prize. Is that cheating?
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