And I'm still thinking about it because I spent several hours being upset yesterday. I suspect we were all played, and it makes me angry, but I still have this shadow of feeling left over from yesterday.

I think I'm jaded. And for me, as soon as it turned out the kid had been hiding the whole time, any concern I felt just evaporated. But ... see above re: jaded.

What I find infuriating is that we (the general we) feed into it. See: The Today Show and GMA having the family on this morning. If publicity was what they wanted, they certainly got it. My feeling is, it's over, the kid was never in danger, story over, why are we still talking about it?

On Morning Joe they were discussing the family being on several shows this morning and on Larry King last night and how they weren't going to feed that publicity monster. One of their guests rightly pointed out that they just had done that once again. If they were serious then don't mention it at all. They were embarrassed, but still continued reporting the story, although not interviewing the family.

I think I'm jaded. And for me, as soon as it turned out the kid had been hiding the whole time, any concern I felt just evaporated. But ... see above re: jaded.

Yeah, I started hitting the cynic button the minute the family's background came to light and that's while the balloon was still in the air. So by the time it landed and it became clear the kid wasn't there, I was no longer surprised.

My grandmother tripped and fell while walking several years ago and broke her nose. She was completely unphased and actually almost gleeful. "I look like a raccon!"

Friend called me last night freaking out because her cat had killed a mouse, and rodents are a THING with here. (Think Jilli and spiders turned up to 11.) So I came over with with one of those thing Ben Franklin invented to pick up books with, dropped dead mouse into baggie, baggie into garbage. Then I clean the gadget with hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, soap and water followed by more hydrogen peroxide followed by a through drying. Then I cleaned by hands with soap and water, followed by rubbing alcohol,followed by hydrogen peroxided followed by more soap and water and a good drying. Possibly I'm not completely cool with dead rodents myself...

I'm wiggy enough about Dead Things that I don't find it strange at all, Typo Boy.

I went to downtown Evanston for lunch. Got sleeted on on my way back. Also, I have cupcakes.

Can you tell Arial from Helvetica: [link]

I was doing great, then I bombed five in a row and ended up with 12 right.

Our dogs recently killed a raccoon in our backyard, cleaning that up wasn't fun. Though, now that I think about it, far better than road kill patrol way back when I did highway work.

Pictures: World Animal Day