Category: Independent

The Lydster, Part 59: Miss Independence


My great joy recently has been the fact that Lydia wants to dress herself lately. She’s had the means before but not the inclination, leaving it up to Daddy to put her clothes on. She HAS, for some time, picked out her clothing, and I must say that she generally does a pretty good job coordinating her outfit, a skill she must have learned from her mother, not me. In fact, the only times I’ve ever vetoed her selection is if it is going to be too warm or, more recently, not warm enough.

I’m also pleased that she hads deigned to pick the top pair of underwear in her drawer rather than rumaging around to find underpants that match her outer outfit. After all, people are not going to SEE her undergarments, are they?

This is not to say that she doesn’t need help with some things. When her clothes are washed inside out and remain that way when they go to the drawer, she needs assistance. And some buttons are still tricky.

But for the most part, it’s “Daddy, go away! I can dress myself!” And that’s fine with me; actually gives me a chance to check my e-0mail in the morning.
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She has had a tough week, though. On Monday, she fell on the ice in front of our own house. The snow had melted, and it tends to gravitate to the sidewalk. Then it got cold and the water turned to black ice. She didn’t cry, but she was sore.

Then last night, she did cry after falling off the stool she uses to brush her teeth. Coincidentally, I had to use ice to tend to her almost-immediately visible bruise.

Careful, Lydia.

ROG

ROG

Low Tidings, Indeed

Someone sent me a story called Why I Should Be Our Next President by Yo Mama Bin Barack, which you can find here, and if not, I can e-mail it to you. It’s racist and sexist swill – references to jive talk and especially b-slapping abound – which did not surprise me. What did confound me is that it wasn’t in some right-wing manifesto. It appeared in The Independent, a Pennysaver-type of adzine publication for the east end of Long Island, including the chichi Hamptons. This is the electronic version, of course, but there is a print version every Wednesday.

I was willing to suggest the piece was an aberration – I’d never seen the publication before – until I also found this thing by someone named Karen Fredericks:

In case you can’t read it, the explanatory balloon on the left talks about how some women felt betrayed by Oprah’s support for Barack Obama, rather than the woman, Hillary Clinton. The word balloon on the right reads:
Lord have mercy. I didn’t get this rich by being stupid. A female president might improve the lives of women. Then they might have something better to do than watch my dopey television program.
Oprah no dummy.
Besides that Obama gets my va-jay-jay all tingly.

Within 24 hours, the Barack story, written by publisher Rick Murphy, was replaced by this:
Apology
By Rick Murphy
Our Low Tidings “humor” column that appeared in last week’s issue of The Independent that was supposed to satirically address the increasing hostility between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was ill conceived and offensive. The Independent, a multicultural employer with a 13-year history of diversity, apologizes for this lapse of judgment. The column has been removed from our website and a complete apology will be printed in next week’s issue.

Except that the original link to the story was still working this morning. We all say things we oughtn’t but this apparent attempt at “humor” seemed egregiously wrong-headed, and not very good business, to boot.

Here’s the Newsday article. It cites Jerry Della Femina as publisher. Ad guru Della Femina also has a regular column, which is more in line with the usual liberal bashing (Alec Baldwin, et al.), but with at least a sense of propriety.

Meanwhile, Channel 7 news (WABC-TV in NYC) was scheduled to carry a segment about the offending article at 5pm yesterday.

Here’s the contact info for the publisher:
The Independent News, 74 Montauk Highway, Suite 19, East Hampton, NY 11937
Phone: 631-324-2500 Business Fax: 631-324-6496 Editorial Fax: 631-324-2351
Rick Murphy, Editor – rmurphy@indyeastend.com
James J. Mackin, Publisher – jim@indyeastend.com
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Meanwhile, also annoying me is that idiot church group stalking Heath Ledger’s funeral because he was in Brokeback Mountain. These people give Christianity a bad name. But WABC seems to be LOVING covering his death, which they’re running as a local story, which, I suppose, it is.

ROG

ROG
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