Catching Up with PEOPLE Magazine

Springtime is here, and with spring comes mass insanity for me where work is concerned. So much so that there is little time for casual reading. So this morning, my first completely inactive morning in ages, I am just sitting around, listening to my iPod playing Slainte Math by Marillion, and looking through some older issues of People while (now) blogging.

This one is not too old - the 30 March issue with Natasha Richardson on the cover. Oh, now... that is a topic worth blogging about. Here is something that hits close to home for those in the emergency services. I'm always telling people to go to the hospital to go get checked out - even if it seems minor. If someone called 9-1-1, it was not major to them at that time. And Natasha Richardson, had she not refused medical care, might have lived. In her case, it seems a very strong likelihood that she would have survived. And now, three weeks later, all kinds of blame is being assigned to different things by the survivors. I guess in the time of loss, it is easy to want to find someone or something to blame; but here the blame was put to rest with Natasha. People die. And a lot of deaths could have been staved off for that time by smarter thinking.

This issue also had "Northern Composure", an article on Sarah Palin and her family. I did read it and I was gratified to see that Bristol Palin grew a brain or at least stopped hiding behind her mother's misguided ideas of teenagers and sex, and openly admitted that it is unreasonable to expect kids to abstain. Sarah Palin would have been a disaster in the White House. But she is thinking of running in 2012. Well, even if she wins the November election of 2012, the world is supposed to end on 21 December 2012, so we won't have to worry about her taking the reigns!

You don't actually buy that crap, right?

Jennifer Anniston's suddenly single, again. I can't imagine who was sitting up nights waiting for this issue to tell us that one out of how many actresses can't seem to make a go of a long-term relationship? I'm sure that there is someone out there for Jennifer but between whatever issues she may have and the press making a thing of this everytime her relationships don't work out, she'll really be scarred by something that should not be so big a deal.

Kelly Osbourne opens up about rehab. Another overblown thing that the famous have to deal with that afflicts all people but is hardly newsworthy.

Ah, here's one I liked entitled "Teen Queen" about Molly Ringwald, also age 41. I don't know when she was born but we're the same age and I like that. I loved Molly Ringwald's movies when I was a teenage angst headcase. John Hughes is my hero - those movies may have seemed stupid and trite to some, but at the time they came out, they meant a lot to me, since I always could identify with the teen underdog and basketcase and loser. That was me. And Molly always did well there. When we were teenagers I had a couple of friends that told me I look like Molly. Huh. I wish! But I can kind of see it a little bit. Only a little bit, I assure you. No one would confuse us standing side-by-side.

I was also told I look like Ally Sheedy, but I can't see that at all.

"Shopaholics No More" was also a good read. I was a heavy shopaholic when I was a lot younger. I shopping my way into $30,000 worth of debt and by the time I was 30 years old. Now I am 41-years-old and finally mostly out of debt. I have one Amazon (Chase) credit card that seems to always hover around $4,000 of the $5,000 available on it and no other cards. That's it. I went from $30,000 to $4,000 of debt in 11 years. Not bad. I still love to shop but with more circumsepction and less impulse shopping.

The women here (no men, I noticed, ironically enough) shopped on designer jeans (why?), sale items and shoes/handbags. I had to chuckle at that. Who am I to comment? I buy candles, books, pens, writing paper, Smurfs, bank notes from other countries/times, Old Farmers Almanacs, jigsaw puzzles, etc. But the shoe thing makes me laugh.

Here's one I haven't read yet: "The Dangers of Sexting". I'm guessing this has to do with texting, something I find I am opposed to and never ever use. Yes, I'm adamantly behind the times on this, but I really find texting odious. Let me read this... two 14-year-old boys in school received a text message with an image of a 13-year-old girl with one breast exposed. Two other students told the principal and suddenly the school is taking action and thinking they should level charges of trafficking in child porn. Overreacting?

A lot of people would undoubtedly jump to the school's side. I am opposed to actual child pornography, yes, but this? Hardly would I call it that. And not for nothing, but these are ALL children; they hardly are 30-year-olds lusting after a just-budding teen. And the two boys did not think anything of the message and did not do anything with it. They just happened to receive it. I would be more likely to start the conversation with the kid who sent it. And just as a refresher, while the method of forwarding such images is new, the forwarding of them is not. When I was 22 there were some nudie shots of me circulating the Renaissance Faire. I didn't care. I knew that might happen, people being reliable that way.

That concludes that issue. Let me see what else I've got here...

The 9 March issue had U2's latest release under MUSIC, the CD entitled No Line on the Horizon. It is good, although only two songs jumped out at me. I really like "Get on Your Boots" and I need to relisten to the CD more. One listen is usually not enough. But I will say that No Line on the Horizon did not grab me the way All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb did. But I have been listening to U2 since 1981 - when October was released. I'm always going to like what they put out as a fan of the past 30 years. And again, there is so much more to good music than just tones and instruments.

Coldplay is the newer version of U2. I really never thought I'd embrace another band as much as I did U2 until I heard "Clocks" in 2004.

This was a boring issue. It was mostly pages and pages of people attending the Oscars and what they wore. If you want to put me to sleep, talk about designer anything. I pay little to no attention to fashion and can barely stand dressing up for work. I will occaisionally show up looking quite well-dressed (in my own happily bizarre way) but normally the best I muster is wear Khaki-style pants (not the colour khaki, but the style... if that is right) and a passing acceptable top. Footwear is always riding the line. I don't care for shoes that hurt and somehow shoes that look good and are comfortable don't happen too often.

I need to show you my taste in shoes. It keeps coming up in this post, so let me clean out the closet and see what I've got.

Not as much as most women I know!