I just read a passage that made me think of Penn State:

“When confronted with a potential emergency, people typically play it cool, adopt a look of nonchalance, and monitor the reactions of others to determine if a crisis is really at hand. No one wants to overreact, after all, if it might not be a true emergency. However, because each individual holds back, looks nonchalant, and monitors the reactions of others, sometimes everyone concludes (perhaps erroneously) that the situation is not an emergency and hence does not require intervention.”

- Gilovich, Medvec and Savitsky from their study of The Illusion of Transparency

Hmm.

I think that sounds like a great gift.

I LOVE it! I get Lucky, Real Simple and BH&G.

And Real Simple, if you have a print subscription, you can also get it on your Nook Color and various other devices for free with the little code thingie number on the mailing label. I read the newest RS on the Nook last night! COOL! Although I love the print mag too, because I rip pages out of things I like, and recipes, and tag gift ideas...and, um, keep a pile of mags in the bathroom.

We have to be careful with the movies M sees. He's okay with cartoon scariness, but live action, there are certain things. He loved watching Ghostbusters, but had a bad dream about the Gozer dogs.

I don't know how much of it is he's really scared, or his mom harps on so much about SCARY MOVIES ARE SCARY! that it psyches him up to be scared of them. She lets him watch Family Guy and South Park, though, and I won't, until he's older.

He's really sensitive and I'm trying to -- I can't say this in a way that doesn't make me sound like an asshole -- toughen him up a little? Give him better coping skills, I guess. I would never, EVER make him watch something that he didn't want to watch, but his mom method of dealing with fear is to complete avoid the source, and I don't think that's the best message to send.

So with the Gozer dogs, he got to sleep with us the first night, and then we talked about FX, and looked at some FX sites on the web, and learned about prosthetics and green screens and stuff, which he thought was cool.

He wanted to sleep with us again the next night because he was worried he'd have bad dreams, but we said no. He kept getting up out of bed for water, or because he thought the cat was in his room, etc. and I read him a couple of stories and checked on him a lot -- my office is right across from his room -- and eventually, he fell asleep, and the next morning, he hadn't had any bad dreams.

(Holy crap, I've become a person that blabs on about their kid! Wow. Huh. Cool.)

ita,

doesn't that refer to why people in groups don't respond well to emergencies? Individuals are supposed to do a lot better.

I'm watching the live feed of the vigil. There are a TON of people there.

(Holy crap, I've become a person that blabs on about their kid! Wow. Huh. Cool.)

So cool. Sounds like you handled it pretty well, at least to this non-parent.

Since we're going up to 11 today:

11 Women Warriors of World War II

#1:

Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, Nancy Wake was a journalist in New York and London and then married a wealthy Frenchman and was living in Marseille when Germany invaded. Wake immediately went to work for the French resistance, hiding and smuggling men out of France and ferrying contraband supplies and falsified documents. She was once captured and interrogated for days, but gave no secrets away. With the Nazis in hot pursuit, Wake managed to escape to Britain in 1943, and joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British intelligence agency. After training with weapons and parachutes, she was airdropped back into France -as an official spy and warrior. Wake had no trouble shooting Nazis or blowing up buildings with the French guerrilla fighters known as maquis in the service of the resistance. She once killed an SS sentry with her bare hands. After the war, Nancy Wake was awarded the George Medal from the British, the Medal of Freedom from the U.S., and the Médaille de la Résistance and three Croix de Guerre from France, among other honors.

ETA: Then there's the Russian sniper chick, "with 309 confirmed kills, including 36 enemy snipers."

Whoever is filming this vigil for the live stream can't see the speakers at all, so is filming the crowd, and every so often switching to filming the moon for a little while. It is a very pretty moon tonight, but that seems kind of pointless. And the audio is pretty bad, so that I can barely hear the speakers. I think I'll switch back to just getting the highlights from the newspaper's twitter.

And now the camera person is completely walking away from the crowd. This feed, by the way, is from the local ABC affiliate.

I'm trying, smonster. It's still pretty newish territory for me, but we rub along real well. I set clear boundaries, always explain, give lots of love and physical affection. I'm pretty strict about things like manners and lying, but I am also a big doof who likes water guns and plastic swords fights.

Hil, I'm pleased to hear there's a large presence at the vigil.

Re: crises -- yeah, a responder has to be CALM in an emergency. Freaking out just sets others off, and can escalate stuff. Plus, it wastes time that can be essential. I can overreact to small, niggly stuff sometimes, but I am pretty damned clearheaded in a crisis. I like that about me, but it's something I've learned.

That said, WTR to a situation like the Penn case, my crisis response, had I been the witness, would not have been calm at all, I'm afraid; it would have been quite visceral. Perhaps in more ways than one.

Individuals are supposed to do a lot better.

Yes, but I don't see any evidence those guys were acting like individuals, even when they were alone in the room.