I managed to break a glass door at the pool that we belonged to by running through it while chasing my sibs outside, but never broke a window or door at our house. I do remember hearing stories from my parents about the times that one of us managed to lock ourself into the bedroom and they had to take the doorknob apart to get in, but otherwise, we were a fairly nondestructive bunch of kids.

My brother and SIL were redecorating their first house a room at a time, and their removal of the hallway wallpaper (gold-flocked black velvet--very 1970s) was speeded up when my (at the time) baby nephew took it upon himself to start tearing it off the wall.

Thank god my cat is old and mostly sedintary, she doesn't do much damage. She's declawed so that was never an issue. I didn't have her declawed, I was against it, but that was 16 yrs ago when I was 16 and Mom wanted her declawed and she had the final say. Actually she's never declawed a cat after that.

However, Anna loves to chew on carpet strings and has worked one out in the corner of the room. I don't know why she does this, but it beats her eating pine straw and then throwing up.

speeded up when my (at the time) baby nephew took it upon himself to start tearing it off the wall.

I have to share that with my friend who has an 18 month old. They have this charming gold foil and pale turquoise striped paper with gold fleur de lis gold flocking over it in their main foyer and staircase hallway. It's fugly.

I did little household damage. My siblings were legendary for their quick and fierce destrcutive powers.

My sister once painted the walls of her bedroom with vaseline. Very hard to clean, and paint over. Another time my siblings banded together to get the back off the TV (this would have been in the 60's and none was older than 9) then they pulled out all the tubes from the TV.

Another time my sister and our Newfoundland burrowed under the fence and made an escape attempt.

I'm going to have to move sometime in the next few months (current place, all wooden floors, is going condo), and I'm a bit leary about getting a place with carpet. My cat loves scratching the posts on her carpeted cat condo, as well as has taken to puking up liquidy hairballs on a fairly regular basis in the summer, so carpet might be a bit high-maintenance.

I need some help debunking an email "alert" that someone from work showed me. I looked on Snopes but I could find it. I don't believe it and my co worker doesn't either but we need something to show to the person who sent it to her (who keeps sending her hoaxes).

The alert is about a new way criminals are carjacking/mugging people in parking lots. They put a piece of paper on the back car window, so when you get in the car and start it and put it in reseverse and look back there's paper. So you get out (leaving the car in park) and the car jacker/mugger jumps in the car (from seemingly no where) and then almost runs the victim over.

There's a bit in there that sounds like "But wait! there's more!" where the "law enforcement agent" writing this says that women are especially at risk because they'll leave their purses in the car, then the mugger/jacker has your keys, wallet, address. etc.

I have to share that with my friend who has an 18 month old.

Just tell her to get a loose edge going near the floor, and put the kid down to play right in front of it--he/she will have a ball!! Cyn (SIL) told me that she wished she could have had Clayton work on the basement walls as well (red velvet w/silver flocking), but the paper was on the top half, paneling on the bottom below the chair rail.

Clayton did have fun when he saw my brother and SIL's brother putting up a wall in the garage to add a weight room. He watched them mark up the cutting places of the boards and sheetrock in pencil, and thought that meant he could do the same on other, more finished walls in the house. Took a while to disabuse him of that notion.

It's on Snopes, askye

[link]

Thanks Allyson! I didn't think about looking under "Warnings" in Crime.

7 frightening foods for the fearless eater

With a picture of a woman selling grilled spiders. Big-ass, grilled spiders.

Re: sea cucumbers:

One major issue, as the Oxford Companion to Food dryly notes: “It is distinctly phallic in appearance, a feature which is underline by its habit of ejecting sticky threads ... when squeezed.”

The Ortolan (a small songbird):

Once captured, the ortolan would traditionally be left in a dark box, where the lack of light would prompt it to gorge itself. When plumped up to three or four times its normal size, the bird would be drowned in a snifter of armagnac, then quickly roasted for six or eight minutes and served hot.

It's the brandy part that usually raises eyebrows; in an era of bolt guns and humane slaughter, drowning your food seems a tad gratuitious. The only obvious corollary is drunken prawns, found on some Singaporean and Indonesian menus, drowned in rice wine. Drowning a rare songbird somehow seems more sadistic than dunking a shrimp in booze.

The traditional means of eating the ortolan is whole — bones, innards and all, except the head or beak, which is bitten off — with the diner's head covered by a napkin.

The upfront explanation of the ritual? This impromptu headgear allows the diner to inhale all the roast bird's earthy, rich aroma.

Huh. That article is the perfect way to temporarily eliminate your appetite.