Taking care of black folks' hair is a different thing from white folks, but I'm depressed at what so many people seem to want from a happy and healthy-looking four year old.

Kids tend to look a mess from time to time

Thing is, I haven't seen that picture yet, where she looks a mess. Or I'm missing something.

From what I'm understanding too, ita, is that a lot of the critics are basing their criticisms on the mother/daughter bonding rituals inherent in "fixing hair" prevalent within the African-American community. I think it was Ta-Nehisi Coates who made the point that the Jolie-Pitt kids, by dint of their nomadic global upbringing aren't exactly American, so folks have no business pinning any cultural expectations on those kids.

With the disclaimer that my black hair knowledge is at the "try to listen and not show your ass" level -- "child looks well taken care of" seems like a reasonable expectation no matter what the culture; whereas "all black girls should be getting hot-combed daily by age 3" seems like, how shall I put this, OMG crazy woman STFU with your issues.

To hell with fixing hair. My mother never fixed my hair. I know plenty of black American girls whose hair got fixed by professionals. That's a big crock of shit.

What amych said.

And no, P-C, that's not the name. I'll never tell!

I don't name stuff, not cars nor electronics, aside from my iPod because it asked me to name it.

Which is why my iPod is named "Tamara's iPod".

My Shuffle is named Smellerbee. My previous Shuffle was named Pipsqueak. I have an iPod that my brother gave me and I've never used, but if I ever get around to using it, it's named The Duke.

My car is named Caprica.

I didn't use to name things but it seemed like everyone else did, so I started.

This laptop is Illyria. My dual-boot netbook has two names: KAZ-2Y5 (XP) and CNK-80Q3 (Win7).

My iPhone is Sophia, so I can send nasty messages to Perkins' iPhone (Chad). This is possibly funny only to us. The iPod I can't find right now (don't know which purse she's in) is Ruby. My First iPod is Diefenbaker.

Possibly, I should not be allowed to name things.

This is possibly funny only to us.

I'm giggling.

My old laptop was George. I haven't named the new one yet...must take care of that. The iTouch is TouchSuzi (REAL creative, eh). The Mustang will always be "Mom's car".

The poor cat is named Miss Kitty. At least I did ok with the kids.

Owen and Olivia make up stories like this.

I also made up stories like this. I convinced a preschool teacher that my whole family was moving to Africa. She went on at my mom for a while about how much they would miss us.

Sadly for some, this is not a trait I've outgrown. As recently as three years ago, I told my brother that when they took out my gall bladder, they replaced it with the largest salt water shark tank on the East Coast.

Stories make life more interesting.