Deluge of Lies and Contradictions

Anyone who isn’t a hermit has heard about the woman who gave birth to octuplets. Nadya Suleman gave birth to octuplets through in-vitro fertilization despite already having had six children this way.

This occurrence disturbs me for so many reasons. I’m not just bothered by the fertility doctor’s decision to implant her with embryos or that she was already receiving close to $500/month in food stamps besides disability payments for three of her six eldest children. I’m also bothered by the fact that when she was implanted with the embryos for her previous six children, she was receiving disability payments for herself after being injured at work. Also, the medical bills are being covered by the government. Why implant someone with embryos if they are obviously employed and are receiving disability payments? If they are receiving disability for an injury, is it safe to purposely impregnate them?

Even after all of this information became public, Nadya insisted that she didn’t receive government help. However, in her interview, she followed this statement by mentioning different government assistance she was getting. She also says that she will and has stopped her life for her children, but she’s going back to school in the fall for her master’s degree and still pretends that she will have enough time to give all of her kids attention.

 

I am shocked at the naivety of this 33-year-old woman, she is already over $50,000 in debt and believes that she can pay for daycare and support her family through donations and student loans. If volunteers tire of providing help, her daycare bill, for the octuplets alone, could be $4000/month. She already knows the public opinion of her (she was in hiding because of death threats), and if she is unemployed with that much debt, who is going to dish out that much money for her? Look at the economy. It’s not that easy to get loans anymore.

But maybe she has discovered that she can’t rely on student loans because she is trying new efforts to boost the public opinion of her: she has placed a gag order on her mother. Her mother has made it clear that she didn’t approve of her daughter’s actions as it is the grandmother is providing much of the support for the children, and she can only do so much. Her whole retirement check disappears in a flash and she doesn’t know she can support eight more children in their already crowded three bedroom home.

Nadya says that it wasn’t about publicity or money, yet she has an agent. Also, the embryos were implanted within a year of the cancellation of her disability payments she had been receiving for the previous ten years. Not only does she have an agent, she’s been seen getting manicures and shopping for video games. If she did this just for the sake of having a bigger family, it was kind of a pointless action, because social services will be interested in how an unemployed single woman can take care of her fourteen kids, most of which will likely receive disability payments.

What future will these kids have? Either they will have to be raised by a psycho mother, or they will be split up.

Where are my clothes?

I moved to Minnesota with my mom and siblings when I was three-years-old. Even though I’ve lived in the state for almost my whole life, I was still surprised about some of the things mentioned in the book Weird Minnesota. My boyfriend and I bought the book at B Dalton hoping to get some ideas of sites to see when we go on a road trip this summer. I had seen or heard about many of things in the book, but one thing I hadn’t heard about really interested me: the grasshopper attack of 1876.

In 1876 Rocky Mountain locusts attacked the entire state ruining crops and eating clothes right off of the line. Can you imagine going to get your dry clothes only to discover that they had been eaten? This is what farmers had to endure for the summer of that year. They were relieved when it was over, believing that things would be better the next year. Scientists pointed out, though, that the locusts had laid an abundance of eggs that would hatch in the spring of 1877 and the scourge would be much worse.

The only plan anyone could think of was a statewide day of prayer. Governor John S. Pillsbury was scoffed at for his plan of attack.  But he did have several supporters. Father Leo Winter argued that the plague was a punishment from God for all the disbelievers who quit going to church. He built a chapel near Cold Spring where sinners could repent.

The day of prayer came and bars were closed across the state as people prayed at home or in church. Then a miracle occurred. A winter storm appeared and froze all of the eggs just as they were starting to hatch. Nobody expected such a storm.

The Assumption Chapel a.k.a Grasshopper Chapel was torn down by a twister in 1894, but rebuilt in 1951. There hasn’t been a scourge of grasshoppers in Minnesota since.

Superstitions

In honor of Friday the 13th, here are some superstitions to be aware of to get through the day A okay.

• A swarm of bees settling on a roof is an omen that the house will burn down.
• If you say goodbye to a friend on a bridge, you will never see each other again.
• If a clock which has not been working suddenly chimes, there will be a death in the family.
• A dog howling at night when someone in the house is sick is a bad omen.
• It is bad luck to cut your fingernails on a Friday or Sunday.
• A bed changed on Friday will bring bad dreams.
• If the palm of your left hand itches, you will soon be paying money.
• Stabbing needles through your yarn balls brings bad luck to anyone who wears something made from that yarn.
• If you sing before seven, you will cry before eleven.
• If 13 people sit down at a table to eat, one of them will die by the end of the year.

A Sugary Child

5:46 a.m.

I wander over to the shrine aka my coffeepot. Three scoops of Cinnamon Swirl Folger’s coffee is dropped into an innocent filter and two cups of water are poured into an opening so that my potion can be concocted.

In minutes the brew is done, almost. The wateriness of the liquid proves to be unappetizing and I dump spoonful after spoonful of sugar into the cup, stir, then add chocolate creamer liberally. Sugar is magical and the coffee drippings becom liquid happiness. Then I realize something. Not just anything, a truth of life.

We grow older. We change. But we can never erase the child in us, no matter how much we try to. The past is, and will always be, a part of us. It is what made us into who we are. When I sugared up my coffee, I traveled back in time to a morning in my childhood where cheerios were all that was left in the cupboard. Not honey nut cheerios, just plain, old, excitement-is-for-the-weak cheerios. Yet sugar was able to do wonders for the bland cereal. It had my back then as it does now.

I may be older, but I still believe in the childhood tactics for creating deliciousness. Don’t ignore the child within you, sometimes it can be your best friend.

PB&J...Goes together like peas and carrots

Two Jars and a Dime

A 72-year-old milkman, Robert Holding, recently plead guilty to delivering pot along with milk to his customers in England. He was selling the drug with good intentions, as he sold it to help his elderly customers with their aches and pains. I’m not too concerned with his judgment or with his procedures (customers left notes on doorsteps). I’m only curious as to how it all began.

Who first suggested the deal? Was it him or a customer? He might’ve seen a customer walk out, bend over to pick up the milk, and struggle to get up. Was that what lead him to make an offer?

But maybe a customer thought he was a stoner, or had connections with stoners. Did an old woman whisper in his ear, “I’ll give you 5 pounds for a dime.” Maybe not. Perhaps she was too shy to suggest such a proposal face-to-face and opted to slip a note with a request for some herb into an empty milk jar instead.

A lot has been written about what has happened. I just want to know how it started.

He Exists….but Where?

I’ve been obsessed with bigfoot sitings ever since I watched Harry and the Hendersons for the first time as a child. My fascination grew even greater when I heard from my father that my deceased aunt had actually seen the animal when they lived in Grants Pass, OR and had later taken pictures of the footprints.

Just recently I’ve heard a rumor of a bigfoot siting in Bagley, MN. Although I believe in it’s existence, I can’t believe the rumor. How can there be enough virgin territory in the area for the animal to have remained hidden all this time? There are a lot of wild animals in the area that people don’t realize live in the woods outside of their homes. Cougars and timberwolves have been known to pop up and leave their mark by occasionally killing horses and livestock. But I think the idea of bigfoot being spotted in Bagley is a little farfetched.

If you don’t believe in the existence of bigfoot, consider the fact that new species of fish are discovered every day. If that doesn’t change your mind, think about the discovery of the pygmy tarsier or the chupacabra.