My Sick Mind

Weeks after an Australian variety show made headlines around the world after a group of white performers donned blackface to perform as the Jackson brothers, Tyra Banks is making headlines herself for turning her latest "America's Next Top Model" candidates bi-racial for a photo shoot. During Wednesday night's "ANTM" episode on The CW, Tyra took the remaining six young women of Cycle 13 to Hawaii, where she took pictures of the models after they were transformed into different races. At some point, I stopped myself and wondered why I was reading that story and thinking that I was so much better off as a human that America's Next Top Model didn't matter to me either as a concept or a television show. It goes back to the American Idol philosophy that says we don't have a shortage of singers ... or models, so one wonders how a TV program is produced that manufactures either. Moreover, I think that donning blackface to perform as the Jackson Bro...

I know there's a World Series going on, but in the interests of equal time, I'll present this thought-riddled essay on life and living. Have a seat. My blogger buddy Howard posted this haiku the other day about our behavioral quirks and how our self-consciousness affects the way we behave: beneath the facade is a me so seldom seen; peel back the layers It got me to thinking about an old thought and something I struggle with when I'm forced to struggle with it. When I'm talking to parents and they're talking about the behavior of their children I tell them that even though I have no children, I know that there are three types of personalities, and they're based on which one of the Three Stooges their children resemble, Moe, Larry or Curly. I tell them to evaluate which one their kid is and which ones their kids are friends with, because the similarities are important. I know it sounds stupid, but follow along: Moe is the leader. He's the one that the o...

NEWS FLASH : Grade schools in Oregon, public health officials in Georgia and nursery schools in Tennessee now teach kids to cough and sneeze in their elbows. The Lake County, Ill., Health Department recommends elbow coughing to help prevent the spread of whooping cough, or pertussis. The Montgomery County Health Department in Maryland endorses it; so does the Colorado Children's Immunization Coalition . "They've been doing it since kindergarten; it's an automatic reflex for them," says Nessan, a teacher at Meridian Park public elementary school in the Shoreline section of Seattle. Over the past decade or so, schools and day-care centers around the country have gradually adopted the technique as a way to ward off colds, flu, whooping cough and other easily transmitted bugs. It's been replacing the traditional cover-your-mouth-with-your-hands-or-a-tissue approach that has long been considered the polite and most sanitary technique. You have to be careful tho...

Sunday was too nice a day to spend inside watching football or doing laundry, so I took out for our beautiful city, camera in tow, to try to find something interesting to liven up the black space - both here and inside. One of the good things about being single is that I can pick up and go someplace. It's really the only good thing, but I digress. The entire time, that Hall & Oates song "Fall in Philadelphia" was running through my head, although all I could remember was the chorus [I'm gonna spend another fall in Philadelphia] and some odd lyrics here and there. When I got home and looked it up , I was a little (a lot) confused about what the song is about and didn't have the energy to analyze it, so I just posted some photos. As usual, I think you can click on them and view them full-screen, but I've lied about other things, too. That's obviously Independence Hall, and one of these days I'm going to take the tour like thousands of foreigners ...