Gawd, that's the worse place... because it tickles there.

There are flowers and candles piled up around the fire hydrant on my corner. What a fucked up thing.

I read that article this morning. How awful, brenda. Glad you weren't home.

Those on-the-spot memorials bother me. We don't see them around here too often, but they're just not my thing.

We don't see them around here too often, but they're just not my thing.

Really? I can think of two in my town off the top on my head, and a third only disappeared when they bulldozed the intersection as part of road reconstruction.

Of course, we also have the former site of the Station, which has dozens of memorials on it.

Last summer, I was visiting my cousin in Reno, and a few of us took a twisty-turny road in the mountains to Virginia City (which was kitschy tourist heaven, but very fun). We passed by more crosses laid out in the ground on the side of the road than I have ever seen in one strech of pavement.

I have a whole rant on memorializing the terror-and-pain-filled physical spot where someone died. There's usually a gravesite, where it's accepted custom to leave flowers and other memorial tokens. Tending those roadside and sidewalk shrines is ghoulish to me, attention-seeking more for the tender(s) than the deceased. And it seems to me that devotion and whatever money is spent shrine-tending would be a better memorial spent on something the deceased loved doing, or was active in--a scholarship in the deceased's name to a cheerleading camp, or an art school, or funds for team uniforms for kids who might not be able to afford them, and otherwise couldn't play.

Flowers, photographs and candles on a public thoroughfare do nothing meaningful to memorialize the deceased. I think it's better to celebrate their life than the instant of their death.

Roadside memorials, especially if they're in a spot where more than one accident occurs over time, can draw public attention to a very dangerous intersection/stretch of road. I know that one intersection near my hometown had a few fatal accidents in the course of only a few months, and the growing number of crosses that sprouted up there finally drove the city to put up traffic lights, when they had been resisting the suggestion to do so for years.

There was a piece on public radio (I don't recall what show) about them. I have a vague recollection it is a tradition that grew out of the southwest. Lord knows where I grew up they were everywhere. Hell, the town I'm from, Las Cruces? Means The Crosses, and may have its origins in that tradition.

From this site: [link]

The Spanish travelers followed the Rio Grande River, but some strayed from their course into the desert. This new course became known as Jornada del Muerto, or Journey of death, still notorius for claiming many lives due to the rough terrain and lack of water.

The naming of Las Cruces has never been satisfactorily explained. Numerous stories are still told about how it came to be known. One reported account, with minor variations depending on the storyteller, tells of a group of travelers who were killed, and of how the survivors placed crosses over the graves.

One former name was La Placita de Las Cruces, the Place of the Crosses, or now Las Cruces. Another story is that the city’s name was the Spanish translation for the “crossroads.” Regardless, what is known is that in 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, and as a result, the Mexican War was ended.

This is from the NY Times today [link] regarding the Buster cartoon on TV that included a same-sex parented family.

Farah Siddique also knows what it means to feel marginalized, and she is grateful to "Postcards From Buster" for helping her feel less so. Farah, 12, lives in a Chicago suburb with Pakistani and Filipino parents who are Muslim. In a telephone interview, she explained why she was happy to appear on "Postcards From Buster," wearing her hijab (a head covering) and studying the Koran.

"It was important to tell people about my religion and everything," she said. "Some people think we're bad because of 9/11 or something, and I'm telling them we are not bad, we're not trying to hurt anyone or do anything wrong."

Asked what she thought about PBS's decision not to distribute the "Buster" episode about the children with two mothers, she said: "We don't believe in that stuff. My opinion is that it is bad or wrong. My sister is 7, and she watches PBS Kids shows. I wouldn't want her to watch that kind of thing."

What if people said they wouldn't want to watch the episode about her because they don't like Muslims?

Without hesitation Farah replied: "Wow, I hadn't thought about it like that. Can I change what I said? If people were judging me because of my religion I would get really sad. Now I think maybe they should show it."

If a 12 year old can figure it out that fast, I feel hopeful.

The people having the shitfits over this sooo had a bone to pick. A local reviewer saw the episode in question. He noted that had it not been for the uproar, the main thing he would have noticed was that the shabbas dinner(? I don't know the proper terms. Hey, maybe I should watch this show.) Not the two moms deal.

Caveat: never seen the show, but am going by the local tv critic's synopsis.

Buster Postcards is all about the tolerance and seeing new places and people and whatnot. According to critic, Buster is an asthmatic bunny with divorced parents and he's travelling around with his dad. All about seeing past differences, for crying out loud.

I am miserable! there is "something new" in the air around me that is really making my sinuses react. I can't figure out what it is and nothing I've taken has helped. I am sneezing and sniffling and my eyes are watering and my nose is sore from blowing! Wah!