larger view

Desert Blood by Alicia Gaspar de Alba is "An incisive mystery that delves into the violent deaths of young women plaguing the US / Mexico border"

One of my favorite excerpts:

"It was the way he walked off into the dark tunnel separating the bedroom from the kitchen that broke Ivon's resistance. he was not afraid of the dark. He was not afraid of the grandmother who hit him. She heard his bare feet slosh through a puddle of water and realized the floor of the passageway was wet. It was no place to bring up a child. Brigit would've said something about the conditions he was living in, but it wasn't Elsa's fault, or the grandmother's either. They were donig what they could to survive their poverty and Elsa's illness. That's what Jorgito was, already at three years old, a survivor."

How many of us agree that no matter how bad we had it as kids, our parents just did the best they knew how?

This book really freaked me out because I remember as  a kid hearing stories about women being beaten, raped and murdered while trying to cross "la frontera" but I thought it was just my mom being paranoid. Just like when she wouldn't let me go camping because that's where serial killers chopped up and murdered little kids while they were sleeping.

*Here I am enjoying the book. Yes, I'm really that short!

-
--
Amy is the most talented hairdresser EVER! She was able to cut, color and highlight my hair while reading Desert Blood! Amy ROCKS!

And she says:

"When she visited elsa and little jorgito i wanted to jump in the pages, burst in the house, scoop him up, and take him home!!"

-

-
Daydreamer was HOOKED from the beginning. She couldn't put the book down. And she says(speaking of one of the characters in the book):

"I hate Raquel! I really wanted her to be involved with the murders in some way so that I could justify my hatred towards her. I don't know why I felt this way about her. I think because she seems shallow, selfish, manipulative, and needy."

-
-
Lisslo agrees! And she adds:

"Ariel. Wow. I don't even know what to say about her. How horrible is she? She actively participated in holding women and girls captive. She fed them the coins. She "bathed" them in bleach water. And what did she gain from it? She was living in what basically amounted to a shithole. Clearly she wasn't getting rich from it. Not only that, she blatantly lied to Ivon's face. I think that she is one of the most disgusting characters in this book, hands down. She was so evil.

The conditions in the Maquiladora factories sickened me. When they described the way Jorgito's mother got pregnant with him, I felt outrage."

 -

---

---

Happy Feet was also hooked from the beginning, and like me, is now searching for more information about the Juarez murders. she says:

"The worst thing is that we know this is based on true events. I still don't get why the authorities in Mexico are trying to hide the exact number, when they know everyone knows what's going on. I wonder if they'll ever find the missing girls' bodies or if some are being held captive in slave rings. It's just so sad and heartbreaking. :( "

-

-

Woofs just got the book and can't wait till she catches up with the rest of the Tuckermans.

In the meantime, the other two Tuckermans by association think this book is way too long, has too many big words, no pictures, and doesn't rhyme.

They think this book stinks like big ugly poopy pants and it's more confusing than a rubix cube. Also, they have NO idea what a rubix cube is.

And that's all she wrote, folks. I think six satisfied readers out of eight isn't too bad, right?

Stay tuned for the next The Tuckermans book review.

larger view

There's this blogsite I read every Sunday called postsecrets.com

This week is all Father's Day related "secrets" and this one cracked me up!

-

-

Here are a few responses to that specific postcard. I thought it'd be fun if you guys shared some here too!

My dad used to say that inside of the car's air-bags was uncooked popcorn. When you wrecked the popcorn would pop and you would have a snack until help came.
---

My dad told me the worst swear word you could possibly say was "Bostonian". It meant "someone who has no private parts." My brother and I used the word until we were teenagers and my father giggled every time we said it, right before he sent us to our rooms.
--

I bet PETA would just love this one!

when i was little my dad told me that polyester was a small animal in australia & they would kill it to make clothes. that night i sat in my room reading the labels on my clothes for hours & threw all of the polyester ones away.

So anyways, it left me wondering what neat, magical little white lies your parents shared with you. I can't remember anything specific off the top of my head about what my parents might have "lied" about, BUT my sister The Raven used to tell my kids all sorts of neat stuff. For example, she used to tell them if you fell asleep with your shoes on, your feet would turn to horse hooves

-

-

She had a million of them. Too many to share. Right now I'd love to hear your stories! Please share them here!

And to see the rest of this weeks postcards, Click here to go to the Postsecrets.blogspot.com !

-

 -

 "It's not right!" shouted the weeping Hilton. "Mom!" she called out to her mother in the audience.

Hilton, who was brought to court in handcuffs in a sheriff's car, came into the courtroom disheveled and weeping. Her hair was askew and she wore a gray fuzzy sweatshirt over slacks. She wore no makeup and she cried throughout the hearing.

Her body also shook constantly as she dabbed at her eyes. Several times she turned to her parents, seated behind her in the courtroom, and mouthed, "I love you."

She had been brought to court in sheriff's custody today for a court hearing on her early release from jail after back-and-forth decisions on whether she could participate by telephone from her home.What transpired here is outrageous," county Supervisor Don Knabe told The Associated Press, adding he received more than 400 angry e-mails and hundreds more phone calls from around the country.

Hilton's return home "gives the impression of ... celebrity justice being handed out," he said.

 ----

Click here to read the rest of the article on Yahoo News

--

I can't help but think the opposite. That because she is a celebrity, she's being made an example out of. I mean, come on seriously... I'm sure some of us know of people who have committed worse crimes and got off with a warning, or sent home with the monitor, etc.

---

But I'm curious to know, what do YOU think? Do you think she should serve her full sentence? Or do you think she should be sent home? And why?

Is anybody going to the concerts at the Marketplace tonight?

Mento Buru is performing at 7:00pm.

They put on such a great show and the kids LOVE THEM.

I went last year with my friend Goocher. This year it might be just me and my Baby Twinkies. I'm not sure who's going with me yet.

Take your lawchairs and join me!

If you see me, make sure you say hi!

Would YOU pass this T.W.I.N.K.I.E. test?

Test Description:

This test was designed to test whether Twinkies are intelligent. We decided to do this test last, because we "killed" a lot of Twinkies during these experiments, and didn't want to know before the other tests were over if they were sentient.

This test was a slightly modified version of the Turing test, designed to check computers for artificial intellegence (AI). The theory is that if you ask questions by typing on a computer keyboard and cannot distinguish whether the responses come from a human on the other end, or a computer program, then the program is artificially intelligent.

Observation:

Before Test:
Before the test, the Twinkie was relatively quiet, and the Lovett sophomore was confused by the whole thing. One typical statement was, "Wait, you're testing to see if a Twinkie is intelligent?"

Immediate Results:


We feel obligated to mention that the test was conducted twice. The first time, our subject was a Lovett freshman, but after two questions we discovered that he had eaten his subject counterpart, so the test was aborted and new subjects (human and Twinkie) were chosen.

The human and Twinkie subjects were placed together behind a sheet (see Fig. 1). The sentient nature of the human subject was at this point brought into question. When asked to assign himself and the Twinkie the designations A & B without telling us which was which, the human promptly replied "I'll be A." However, we decided to continue the test.

Part I:
The following four questions were asked, and each subject was allowed to answer. The order of answers alternated to balance out the "thinking" time.

Part II:
Next, some free association was done on each of the subjects.

Long Term Results:
After the test was over, our human subject was allowed to eat the Twinkie subject. After he departed, we analyzed the data. After careful study of all responses, we determined that subject A was the Twinkie, and B was the human.

Since we were able to distinguish between the two subjects, the Twinkie fails the Turing test.

Conclusions:

Twinkies are not sentient in any way we can understand.

Click here for more information on the T.W.I.N.K.I.E Project.

larger view

***Do you remember that whole relationship advice blog about honesty etc..... I wrote the other day? This first random thought is for those of you who responded (and thank you for that!)

1. My husband said to me yesterday as we're walking onto the ballpark for our son's game, "Are you EVER gonna wash those pants? You've worn them for I don't know how many days straight and they're starting to look dirty!"

*Gotta love his honesty, right? (And he was right. They were dirty. I'd worn them three times this week. I just LOVE those pants)

---

2.After coming back from her son's kindergarden graduation the other day, my friend Crystal emailed me, "(the kids) ...were in a line outside the door and she would call their name to come in and get their "diploma". When they came in, she asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. A couple girls said butterflies, too cute. I knew what (my son) would say, he wants to be a racecar driver. lol He's so much like his daddy!"

*I think that is so cool that little boys always want to grow up to be whatever their daddies are, and us girls always want to grow up to be ballerinas, princesses, or butterflies.  

If I could choose my life (strictly in theory of course) I would choose to be a butterfly even now! That's what's cool about being young and sweet and innocent. You believe anything is possible. Even the impossible, the incredible, and ESPECIALLY the magical!

So my question to you is, if anything was possible, what would you want to be when you "grew up." Be creative. I mean to say, if you would like to be a ninja, then list ninja. This is your make believe world. Choose carefully! Or not! :)