Out in Left FieldOut in Left FieldWhere parenting and politics meet, but don't always play nice. Articles
Secrets are bad for your health
2011-04-21 22:12:00 I come from a large family where most relatives make it their business to know exactly what’s going on with everyone else. They pry because they care. Some cousins excel at this particular game. Endless fountains of information, they’re the ones I gravitate toward during gatherings and reunions. In the span of about a half ... More About: Health , Secrets
How to survive FCAT
2011-04-13 02:06:00 The FCAT is here, that magical standardized test that spreads stress around like frat boys spread venereal warts. Educators, students, and parents have to deal with pressures that could make soldiers in Libya feel nervous. It’s everyone’s least favorite time of year, but like that man you all elected governor, FCAT isn’t going away anytime ... More About: Survive
Full column: 3 embarrassing signs of impending old age
2011-04-10 14:25:00 …From the 4You section of The Tampa Tribune. Our bodies fall apart as we get older. No matter how often we exercise or eat carrot sticks, every one of us will deteriorate, lay down for a nap and die. This reality can be easily ignored in our twenties and thirties, when we maneuver ourselves into ... More About: Signs , Column , Full
Free Disney On Ice tickets
2011-04-09 17:48:00 On the last day of April, I will give away 4 free tickets to Disney On Ice presents Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3 to a lucky reader from the Tampa Bay area. Here are the details: • Buy a copy of Olivia’s Kiss or Learning Curves (only $1.99 each) for any e-reader. • Forward the receipt ... More About: Free , Tickets
3 embarrassing signs of impending old age
2011-04-08 01:41:00 Our bodies fall apart as we get older. No matter how often we exercise or eat carrot sticks, every one of us will deteriorate, lay down for a nap and die. This reality can be easily ignored in our twenties and thirties, when we maneuver ourselves into pretzels during yoga class without first signing a ... More About: Signs
Them folks in Edgewood are nuts
2011-04-06 01:36:00 Arcadia, a small, rural town in south Florida, had some trouble back in 1987. A group of concerned parents gathered together to protest the presence of the Ray children in their elementary school. Richard, Robert and Randy Ray were brothers, hemophiliacs and AIDS patients. By the mid-1980s, most of us knew that AIDS couldn’t be ...
Middle school madness
2011-04-01 13:33:00 “I’m not old enough to have kids in middle school.” I say this a lot lately, despite all evidence to the contrary. My arms jiggle more than they used to and my kids roll their eyes more than they used to, which indicates to me that we’re all getting older. There’s no way around it. ... More About: School , Middle
April Contest: Free Disney On Ice tickets to a lucky local reader
2011-03-31 01:48:00 On the last day of April , I will give away 4 free tickets to Disney On Ice presents Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3 to a lucky reader from the Tampa Bay area. Here are the details: • Buy a copy of Olivia’s Kiss or Learning Curves (only $1.99 each) for any e-reader. • Forward the receipt ... More About: Contest , Reader , Free
My kids aren’t normal
2011-03-29 20:33:00 I remember when it first hit me that my little boys weren’t like other kids. We were enjoying a picnic lunch with one of those Let’s Compare and Complain mommy groups I joined to get away from Oprah. With a healthy dose of fear and pride, I noticed my sons were the only toddlers listening ... More About: Kids
Ways in which childless couples are a lot like senior citizens
2011-03-24 18:51:00 My closest friends have a lot in common with one another, beyond a fondness for Beastie Boys, inappropriate humor, and arguments that last five years. Another is that few of them have children. These folks are in healthy and happy relationships; they enjoy showering my sons with love and affection, but for one reason or ... More About: Senior , Couples
Parenting in pictures
2011-03-23 02:27:00 Creative Loafing usually features words with pictures, but this week they will be featuring pictures with words and asked me to submit 3-5 pictures with captions from which they could choose. This was my response: “You are so funny. I’m a Jewish mom, with two kids who are 11 years old and you think I ... More About: Pictures , Parenting
What’s in a name?
2011-03-22 18:59:00 I’m forming a non-profit advocacy group and political action committee. Because with two successful careers and a thriving personal life, not to mention kids and under-manicured nails that demand attention, I simply need more to do. Here are some names under consideration – join the fun! In the comment section below, in a private email, ...
A modern Irish-American-Jewish-and-Everything-Else family
2011-03-15 19:11:00 St. Patrick’s Day is here and I find myself thinking of my great-grandparents. Back in the 1800s, when they took a boat from County Mayo in Ireland to Pennsylvania, they also took quite a chance. They risked their lives to make a better one for their children and grandchildren. When they first arrived, my ancestors ... More About: Family , Jewish , American , Irish , Modern
How to enjoy a colposcopy
2011-03-11 22:17:00 Come on – cold fingers, cold instruments, and one rather large telescope – what’s not to like? If you get a call from your doctor saying they have to take a look-see based on an abnormal pap smear, here’s how to get through a colposcopy without unraveling psychologically. Try not to imagine the worst: If ... More About: Enjoy
To all the older single ladies
2011-03-10 15:23:00 “Wow, she’s so amazing and well-put together. I’m surprised no one has snatched her up.” Have you ever asked this question after meeting an eternally single woman in her forties or fifties? Yeah, me neither. Many good friends, of a certain age, are temporarily single and too busy cultivating a career or raising children to ... More About: Single
Why chaperones drink – a clash of cultures at Cracker Country
2011-03-08 17:04:00 When I can’t talk my mother into the gig, I am sometimes called upon to chaperone my children’s field trips. Over the years, adventures include Lowry Park Zoo, museums, and Cracker Country . For those outside the Sunshine State, and Godspeed, seriously, Cracker Country is a journey back to the late 1800s/early 1900s; where school groups ... More About: Drink , Cultures
Welcome, Canyon News readers
2011-03-04 22:09:00 View from the Hill, my popular column about the joys of getting older and the indignities of dry skin, is now syndicated and set to debut this Sunday in Canyon News , a newspaper serving the greater Los Angeles area. Every Friday, I will post a sneaky peek to get the party going. Longtime readers will ... More About: Readers
When a kid kills a cop
2011-03-01 15:04:00 After the parents of 16-year-old Nicholas Lindsey turned him in for the murder of Officer David Crawford, the first question many asked was, “Where did this kid get a gun?” A better question might have been, “Where were his parents when he got one, and why was their son out on the streets at 10:30 ...
Who can relate to hot moms?
2011-02-24 16:07:00 Hot moms, with wrinkle-free foreheads and perky derrieres, are strange and fascinating creatures. They don’t seem to live in the same world as the rest of us. What’s their secret? Pampering oneself into a blissful state of constant beauty looks fun, but all that plucking and waxing must be exhausting. I’m not talking about moms ... More About: Moms
It took balls to get up there in a stuffed bra
2011-02-21 23:00:00 At my children’s school, there’s an annual Grandparents Day, where all the Bubbes and Zaydies, Nanas and Grandpas, show up for a morning of fun and frolic. And hopefully, leave more than a few donations. They tour the school, oooh and ahhh over all the future Einsteins and Seinfelds, and are treated to a musical ... More About: Balls
Time to go to the fair?
2011-02-15 16:15:00 There are certain things I never thought I’d do, like forget to shave my legs on a regular basis or curse at my DVR when it stopped working properly. I also never thought I’d attend a fair, theme park, or carnival and actually enjoy it. But here I am, getting older, unable to understand modern ... More About: Time , Fair
FULL COLUMN: Get off your knees and move your butt
2011-02-13 13:14:00 This is the full column that appeared in this Saturday’s Tampa Tribune. I tell my children constantly that they are required to take care of themselves. We talk about all the reasons for good, healthy living. They will feel better. They will be able to run, jump, and dunk the ball with more ease if ... More About: Column , Move , Full
Get off your knees and move your butt
2011-02-10 15:14:00 I tell my children constantly that they are required to take care of themselves. We talk about all the reasons for good, healthy living. They will feel better. They will be able to run, jump, and dunk the ball with more ease if they are fit. I’m a Jewish mom and not above using guilt ... More About: Move
If your kids are mouthy, here are 9 things you can do besides shoot them
2011-02-08 14:49:00 According to police reports, Julie Powers Schenecker, a fifty year-old Tampa mom, shot and killed her two teenage children because they were “mouthy” and talked back. Most moms are familiar with the frustration brought on by disrespectful children. But clearly, killing kids before they get to that wonderful age where they realize you were right ... More About: Kids , Things
Turns out, I’m a little Chinese
2011-02-01 19:12:00 Amy Chua is making news lately thanks to her controversial new book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Chua is accused of promoting the idea that Chinese moms and their techniques are superior to Western parenting styles. But the truth is, like pesky Christians who believe Harry Potter encourages devil worship, those getting upset and ...
4 things to put on your bucket list
2011-01-27 14:55:00 Lots of people cherish their ultimate to-do lists, those interesting collections of activities to try and places to see before we kick the bucket. They are usually filled with adventures like jumping out of airplanes or getting in touch with long-lost friends, but not always. For example, my mom wants to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving ... More About: List , Things
Science projects – fun for the whole family?
2011-01-25 19:58:00 There aren’t many statements that bring on a headache like, “Mom, we have to pick a science project.” I know history and literature. Graphing data and proving a hypothesis makes me tired and confused. When my kids ask for help that doesn’t include a fun dissertation on why Woodrow Wilson was an ass, they almost ... More About: Science , Family , Projects
Lessons through loss
2011-01-14 01:09:00 Having been raised in a family of strong Irish Catholics, funerals are nothing new to me. End of life rituals are strange, sad, important, and sometimes funny events where we mourn the dearly departed and celebrate their memory at the same time. With a drink or two. Paying tribute to these old souls always seems ... More About: Loss
Full column – Your dinner table should be more powerful than Palin
2011-01-12 15:54:00 This past weekend, a troubled young man opened fire on a crowd in a Tucson grocery store. Today, the world is mourning the violent deaths of the six people he killed, including one child, in that rampage. Jared Loughner also wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, as well as others, and is now being charged with five ... More About: Dinner , Column , Full , Table
I get the best emails – ongoing
More articles from this author:2011-01-05 23:37:00 To: Ms. Robinson From: Tim 01.04.11 3:02pm I was intrigued by your comment (in your column published in the Tampa Tribune on 1/1/11) about Rush Limbaugh’s heart being a “ruined, wrinkled mess …”, particularly juxtaposed with Ann Coulter’s column of last week. In that column Ann writes: “In a single year, Schweizer* reports, Rush Limbaugh ... More About: Emails 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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