Ugh ita, bad day? I have a stretch class at noon but other than that I can run an errand or two if you need it.

I've grown out of my sensitivity to novacaine but I can vividly recall lapsing into convulsions on the dentist's chair. And that was with only 1/2 the standard dose. That was when the dentist told me that novacaine was related to cocaine and suggested that I'd be wise to avoid it.

Does anyone know what college admission officers are looking for in recommendation letters? I've been asked to write one.

Unrelated... I just discovered that my program bio has been changed without my approval and it's not good.

When I write a rec letter I figure the most important thing is that it doesn't sound vague and/or generic. I want to say something specific about that person, maybe what she's like or what she wrote for my class. I always say when I met her and in what capacity, and I try to include something about her interests outside of my class, if I know about them that is. If I feel the student is really special, I make sure to demonstrate that in the letter.

Has anybody been following the Nebraska Safe-Haven debacle?

I just saw a news piece where more than 30 teens and kids have been abandoned, as opposed to the unwanted infants the law hoped to protect.

I must confess to wildly mixed feelings. On the one hand, if a parent is so...whatever it takes...that they can be okay with pitching their kids, the kid has to be better off without them right? Do we mean it when we say it takes a village?

On the other. The fuck? So much for the blood is thicker than water theory.

But, then, who foots the bill?

I know. Let's set up well-run Islands for Misfit Toys, where at risk kids get the attention, guidance and dare I say it, love, they deserve and tax the bejesus out of the parents who can't step up otherwise.

I know. Let's set up well-run Islands for Misfit Toys, where at risk kids get the attention, guidance and dare I say it, love, they deserve and tax the bejesus out of the parents who can't step up otherwise.

This could become part of Buffista Island.

Has anybody been following the Nebraska Safe-Haven debacle?

Yes. I think you're being awfully hard on the parents to imply they don't love these kids, bonny, without much information about who these people are and what they're up against. Services for parents who want to get help for their older children are much thinner on the ground than they should be.

It seems like the problem may be that there's a whole lot of nothing in between the choice between giving them up or getting no help for them at all.

And my little liberal heart would be happy to have the gov't supply some of these services (mental/behavior health) since so many insurance policies won't cover them (or are limited in coverage) and it's damn expensive to seek that kind of help on one's own.

I have gotten much better over the last year, regarding needles. I have been needle-phobix since a disastrous blood-darwing episode involvinh two arm casts over the elbow, an overeager resident, and a hospital policy on not drawinf blood from the legs or the necks.

I was stabbity. LIke 11 times.

What with all the sugery this year, I've gotten a lot better. I canNOT look at the needle at all, and always warn my docs. And my veins are rolly and splaty -- when they put in the pre-antaetheic for my operation, I bled so much it looked liked they's chopped of my hand.

Now, sutures. I can watch people including me being stitched up, take out stiches, get my hands bloody, whatever. It's the IV needles that really get me. And vomit. I'm a sympathetic puker. Can't even hear it, much less smell it.

I remember once when I was a kid, our dog threw up and I heard it/smelled it, and then I went, and then my sister went and my mom had to leave the room. Poor dad was stuck cleaning up 3 for the price of 1.

Let's set up well-run Islands for Misfit Toys, where at risk kids get the attention, guidance and dare I say it, love, they deserve and

Hey, that's my new job! I start tomorrow! (Seriously, it mostly is!)

Yay Erin! The kids will be lucky to have you.

Sparky, I didn't mean to imply that the parents don't love their kids. I don't think love even crossed my mind.

It seems like the problem may be that there's a whole lot of nothing in between the choice between giving them up or getting no help for them at all.

The information that doesn't seem to be present in the stories I've seen is whether or not the parents have asked for the type of help you suggest. They certainly didn't seem to have in Nebraska.

The father who dropped off 9 of his 10 kids invoked the 'no questions asked' portion of the law. This struck me as less a cry for help than a statement.

And my little liberal heart would be happy to have the gov't supply some of these services (mental/behavior health)

See, my liberal heart wants us, as a nation, to go a step further. I'm having it up to here with the 'states rights' notion that we should be able to take care of ourselves.

The fact is, too many of us just don't. Is that something that deserves nothing but compassion or do we need to figure out a way to finance collective care?

I'm even less interested in a structure where we AREN'T challenged to be better people, but dang. There has to be some middle ground.

The information that doesn't seem to be present in the stories I've seen is whether or not the parents have asked for the type of help you suggest. They certainly didn't seem to have in Nebraska.

How on earth would we know this? Or do you mean they didn't ask at the hospital at the time of the event?