Another talking entry

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Babs Visits DC" has two wondering why Ryan O'Neal looks like his Love Story and What's Up Doc? self while Barbra looks old?

On Ryan, I don't know that most people would recognize him if Isaiah drew him as he looks today.

Barbra?  Have you bought groceries anytime lately?

I haven't asked Isaiah but when I saw the comic, my thought immediately was, "Oh, his inspiration was, in part at least, the super market tabloids."  For two weeks now, they've had unflattering photos of her on the cover.  I'm only surprised he didn't mock her wig.

But, yes, she's over 70.  And one of those women over 70 who's determined to act like they're 40 or younger.  I find that laughable myself.  And I find it laughable when they try to present themselves as hot-to-trot beings: "Oh, we can't get out of bed!"

Really?

Hip problems?


Because nobody in their right mind believes you and your 70-year-old-plus husband (or boyfriend, to note another example) are having marathon sex every day.

The face lifts, the wigs, the lies about hot and heavy sex?

These women are begging to be made fun of.  It's as pathetic as a male movie star or 'star' (he was the father of a friend so I have to be nice here) who claimed old age sex over and over.  He lied.  I know he lied because I was one of the women he claimed to have slept with.  In his prime, I wouldn't have slept with him.


I'm not a huge Katharine Hepburn fan -- she's a joke by the late 60s and playing camp counselor in one film after another.  But at least when the 74-year-old filmed On Golden Pond, she wasn't wearing a wig, plunging neckline (with no bra) and babbling on about the orgasms her boyfriend supposedly gave her.


Life does not end at 60 or 70 or 80.  That's well and good.


But I do object to the idea that what we have to look forward to in old age is being surgically altered into Barbie Dolls.

And I have nothing against Barbies as toys.  I just don't want to picture my final years as one. Nor do I want to be in a ridiculous race that leads people to laugh at me.

Sally Field, who just had a birthday, is an example of someone who has not gone overboard.  She is aging and she's aging beautifully.  She has great bone structure -- which helps -- but she's also got a confidence about her that is so much more beautiful than a sweaty determination to pretend you're still 40.   Shirley MacLaine, of course, is a wonderful example of someone who's not forever attempting to erase wisdom -- from her face, body or mind -- in a desperate attempt to convince the world that sex kittens continue to purr and frolic into their seventies.




Another e-mail to the public account about the lack of Veterans Day posts here?

Seriously?

We dealt with that yesterday.

I'm not part of a pack.  I never join in the dog pile attacks for that reason.  I'm also never interested in doing what everyone else is doing.  For those reasons alone, this site would not have spent Veterans Day (or Memorial Day or July 4th) with those pieces I see elsewhere that strike me as fake and an attempt to do what everyone else does.  Sorry.


For those who may not know, something goes up here every day and has since 2004.  In addition, I participate in the writing of The Third Estate Sunday Review every Sunday.  Along with the group writing there (involving all of us), Ava and I cover TV.  That's been since 2005.  Trust me, when the chance comes to do very little here, I will gladly grab it.  Gladly and repeatedly.


In terms of veterans coverage here?  This month, I've attended two Congressional Veterans Affairs Committee hearings and reported on them in three snapshots. In terms of Veterans Day?  We covered it the Friday snapshot as well as in entries last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  I'm sure many sites posting Monday -- with real or feigned concern -- are unable to make the same claim.

We cover veterans issues every month.

It was a holiday and, for most people, that didn't mean spend hours online.  Some participated in observances of veterans day, some used the holiday to catch up on things they normally aren't able to, some got rest, some spent time with family.  There were many ways people spent Monday.

I went to the parade in my city on Sunday -- Veterans Day events weren't just on Monday.  On Monday, I drove to a seaside cabin and spent the day and most of the next day there.  I wanted some silence (from city sounds) and to hear the ocean.

And I really didn't want to be online.

You can tell by the fact that I'm waiting so late to start the 'morning' entries.

There were two e-mails that objected to Francis A. Boyle's piece going up -- "and on Veterans Day," one tsk-tsked.

Boyle's piece is a valid statement.  There are Americans who have lost loved ones in wars that will agree with him, there are veterans who have served that will agree with him.

He rails against those who should have learned about war but instead sent other generations into war.

It's a valid statement.  It's not even controversial.

If you think it is, I really question how many veterans or veterans families you've ever spoken to?

(Both e-mails were to the public account -- they were not from community visitors.)




The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


iraq