The crazy lady strikes again

I read a story this morning on AOL about the possibility that William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy might return to the big screen to reprise their roles as Kirk and Spock, respectively, from Star Trek (known as Star Trek: The Original Series, or often TOS for short, among Trekkies/Trekkers). I have no idea how they would do this, but I would think that the blogger I'd read this morning might have a point: that they would provide an introduction to the film along the lines of telling a group of... Sign in to see full entry.

As of this writing (10:31 AM Central Daylight Time, on 9/7/2006), I have 999 hits (or unique page views) for this blog. I'm eager to top 1,000 sometime today, and I hope this post pushes me "over the edge." So far this month, I'm doing about as well as I did last month, and we're only a week into the mission. I haven't been writing as much, particularly in here, because I've been busy doing research for future entries. I hope to have a whole raftful of topics at the ready, so I can get back to... Sign in to see full entry.

According to a slide show presented by AOL, dieting can be expensive. The average single American not on a weight-loss regimen spends $54.50 per week on food. On some of the weight-loss regimens - such as NutriSystem and Jenny Craig - one can spend at least twice that on food, if one buys the food sold by that program (such as Jenny's Cuisine). That strikes me as too high a price for a weight-loss diet. The irony is that NutriSystem in particular seems almost proud of the cost of its prepackaged... Sign in to see full entry.

By now, it is common knowledge that Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin died the other day. I noticed something about the coverage of his death that I wanted to discuss here. Coverage of Irwin's death provides me with an excuse to contrast it with the coverage of Rosa Parks, who refused to get up and move from her seat on an Alabama bus, and who sparked a bus boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mrs. Parks did something equally important, even though she did not intend to do so, but coverage of... Sign in to see full entry.

Yesterday (9/5/2006), I was watching television coverage of the first day of school in Chicago. (The Chicago public schools start their new school year on the day after Labor Day every year, while suburban school systems usually start during the week before Labor Day, in late August, a practice which started to take hold during my school years several decades ago.) Mayor Richard Daley went to Sherman Elementary School to ring a ceremonial school bell marking the start of the first day of the new... Sign in to see full entry.

This morning, I was watching CBS' The Early Show. (My husband prefers CBS programming because the Chicago outlet, WBBM, is least likely to engage in fluffy "happy talk," and therefore most likely of all three of the network outlets to feature hard news early in the morning. Yes, we're both news junkies; I hate it myself when the early-morning news shows feature "fluff" at the expense of the important stuff.) On The Early Show this morning, the host featured a story about a father in Stockton,... Sign in to see full entry.

This next series of entries - interrupted occasionally if a breaking story or something else (current news, of course) grabs my interest - will focus on New Age and holistic-health topics, written from my personal perspective as a Catholic Christian. Right now, I'm working on research for a series of articles I plan on writing for Constance Cumbey's consideration. I'm taking her up on her suggestion - which she made in a telephone conversation with me today (I called her on her cellphone) - that... Sign in to see full entry.

The other day (as of this writing), five members of the Ramirez family, and the child of a family friend, died in a house fire. There is no dispute as to the cause: The family has been using candles to illuminate its apartment since May, when Commonwealth Edison (our Chicago-area electric company) disconnected the family's electrical service. One of the candles ignited something flammable (I'm not sure what, because news reports didn't specify what got lit up), and the entire apartment went up... Sign in to see full entry.

Does anyone remember the Kellogg's cereal called Raisin Squares? This cereal was actually a package of miniature shredded-wheat biscuits (they would have been called mini-wheats had they been frosted) with actual raisins imbedded in them, instead of some sort of raisin flavoring being sprayed on the shredded wheat. (That's what they do now - there's a mini-wheat cereal out now with cinnamon flavoring sprayed on the shredded wheat, made by Post. Of course, we are all familiar with Frosted... Sign in to see full entry.

It's Labor Day (9/4) in America. As far as I know, we in America are the only Western country which celebrates Labor Day in September; in Europe, Labor Day is customarily celebrated on May 1, I understand. (We wanted to avoid the association with Communism, as the officials of the former Soviet Union used to make such a big deal out of May 1, which they called May Day.) I felt that Labor Day in America provided me with a convenient excuse to talk about - well, duh - labor and its role in the... Sign in to see full entry.