This morning I was a guest WSIL News-3 This Morning talking about my favorite gift ideas for the 2014 Holiday Season! This year I focused on non-tech items because - honestly - don't we all have enough chargers in our lives? Instead, I found unique products that will make your recipient feel special in one way or another!
Preparing for Winter with Ryobi Outdoors
I received a free Ryobi 40V Blower from Ryobi and a trip to Ryobi headquarters in exchange for writing a review.
Well, PREPARING for winter implies winter has not arrived yet but then again...
Maybe we should just say dealing with a winter that showed up early and unexpectedly in NOVEMBER!
Either way, the temperatures have fallen and it's time to bring out the warm blankets and roaring fires. We've had a stack of free wood sitting outside our house for over a year... because who turns down free wood!?! The only problem was most of the logs were WAY too big to use in a fire.
When Ryobi sent us the 40V Brushless Chainsaw, Nicholas suggested we use it to cut down some of the bigger logs into manageable slices. It worked like a charm without the hassle of gas and oil and had the power of the 40V battery we've gotten used to with the 40V Jet Blower and 40V String Trimmer.
Both Nicholas and I were so impressed with the results and we had our roaring fire that evening to celebrate!
Gingerbread House Party
Inspired to shake it up this holiday season, I decided to host a small gingerbread house party for Griffin and his friends after school. I am now an expert on all the gingerbread tips and tricks so if you want to know what works best to glue the houses or if you want to just see some cute kids and their creations, click on over to Salt & Nectar to see all the details!
Bill Cosby: Can creator and creation be separate?
Like so many Americans, I grew up loving Bill Cosby and The Cosby Show. I listened to an old record of his stand-up on my stepfather's record player and watched the Huxtables and all their spinoffs religiously. Rudy. Theo. Denise. Dwayne. Whitley. I loved them all.
I remember first reading about the rape accusations against Bill Cosby many years ago - long after The Cosby Show had gone off the air. My memory is murky but I recall reading there were around seven women who told very similar stories of drugging and sexual assault. The stories stuck with me.
This was around the same time as Cosby's support of respectability politics gained increasing attention. Obviously, I have no firsthand experience with being black in America, but Cosby's scolding of black Americans from a position of privilege always sat very, very wrong with me.
As a result, I began opting out of any Cosby worship. Oprah featured him many times over my years of viewing and I never watched. It's one of the few areas I consciously parted ways with Oprah. He just seemed OFF to me.
Now, after decades of being ignored by the public and silenced by Cosby's legal and public relations team, the internet has successfully revived the stories of those who accuse Cosby of sexual assault.
And there are a lot of them.
My Memories of December 1st, 1997
I was 16-years-old, a junior at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky. Born and raised in the small Western Kentucky town, I was the fourth generation of my family to attend Heath. My great-grandparents had skipped out on a basketball game to ride the ferry across the river and get married in Illinois. My great-aunt had been the home economics teacher for years. My mother had been the prom queen.
It was a cold, gray December day, the first after Thanksgiving break in 1997. Not owning a license yet, I rode to school with my friend Beth and her dad. I remember I was wearing my brand new blue fleece from the Gap that my stepdad had given me as a reward for getting all A's that semester.
We were running late, but as we circled the parking lot, I noticed a large group of students standing outside the gym -- mostly upperclassmen, including a boy I had a crush on. One of our classmates ran up to Beth's car and pounded on the window.
"Some guy just started shooting people!" he yelled.
TEN Advent Calendars in 15 minutes or less
The OFFICIAL countdown to Christmas begins in only a few days! December 1st is a perfect time to begin building anticipation for Christmas Day, but what if you're busy doing the other 1,572 (approximately) things that need to get done before the big day.
Not all of us have the time to hand knit a 25 mitten garland for the mantle or even order the more pricey varieties from Pottery Barn in time for a December 1st arrival.
Never fear! I've rounded up 10 Advent Calendar ideas that you can complete in 15 minutes or less. And guess what? Kids. Don't. Care. They love any kind of countdown, ESPECIALLY if it involves candy. So, pull out that Halloween candy you stashed away and build a little holiday anticipation.
Holiday Wishes from Idina Menzel
Despite my early holiday decorating, I attempt to save holiday music until after Thanksgiving. I say attempt because every year I try and every year an artist comes out with a new holiday album and I have to reevaluate my stance.
This year I was doing good until I saw this:
Further Thoughts on #Ferguson
Credit David Broome, UPI
When Michael Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson on August 9, two stories emerged. The first - complicated in its own right - is what happened between these two people. Some things we know for sure. Michael Brown was black, 18 years old, and unarmed. After being shot, he laid in the street for four hours. Darren Wilson was white, a police officer, and armed.
Like any other violent altercation, the evidence is anything but conclusive. Memory is flawed. Witnesses conflict each other. We all interrupt events through the prism of our own perception. However, a grand jury found that there was not probable cause to charge Darren Wilson with illegal use of lethal force.
That would seemingly be the end - at least legally - to the first story.
However, the second story is much bigger than the events that took place between those two people on August 9th. The second story is what the death of Michael Brown illustrates about black communities and white police forces, the militarization of our police forces, the legal responsiblity of police officers who use deadly force, and much much more.
What bothers me is there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about what the conclusion of one story means to the other. When Michael Brown was first killed, the was a narrative that he was gunned down with his back turned and arms up. As the physical evidence suggested otherwise, all of a sudden all the valid criciticisms of our criminal justice systems and its treatment of the black community seemed to fall on deaf - mainly white - ears.
So, let me just say, I don't really care if Michael Brown stole those cigarellos. I don't care if he was disrespectful to a police officer. And while whether or not he charged at Darren Wilson is absolutely relevant, it doesn't change the fact that the interaction between these two people is still important to bigger issues in our society.
First, statistically, you cannot argue with the fact black Americans receive disproportionately violent responses from the police. They are stopped and frisked at higher rates. They are arrested at higher rates. They receive harsher sentences. They are incarcerated at higher rates.
Now, what I hear in private conversations, is a lot about "personal responsibility" and "culture" and "poverty." Personally, that seems to be a round about way of saying "They deserve it."
And if that's how you feel, then you let's just put it out there and address it directly. If you think based on the color of a person's skin, that person is more likely to be violent or criminal then just say so. But let's not pretend that because we have a black President, people - including police officers - have stopped making those assumptions.
Because, they. have. not.
And that's why people are so PISSED. Think back to a time when you were accused of something you did not do (if you're black, this should have be easy!) and think about how you would feel if this happened ALL THE TIME. Think about how you would feel if from preschool on you were treated as if you were bad and think about the how that would affect your pschye.
Then, think about if you were not only treated unfairly on a day-to-day basis but also if you knew you and your family were fundamentally excluded from systems meant to provide others with opportunity - historical systems like home ownership as a path to the middle class, political representation as a path to political power, or education as a path to economic independence.
These systems were big and impactful and to think that each generation starts with a clean slate with which to "pull themselves up by their boot straps" is naive at best and deliberately ignorant at worse.
To be honest, I don't know the role personal responsibliity plays in each of our lives. I struggle with this issue a lot - even within my own family.
All I do know is that it's not simple and that it's different for every person. I also know that no amount of personal responsiblity can erase the racism that still exist in our society.
So, the decision of the grand jury doesn't change anything for me. The second story remains unchanged. Black americans are treated unfairly by the police and under the law. Our police forces are over-militarized. Police officers do a very difficult job but they are still human beings that should be held responsible for their use of deadly force - something that does not currently happen in Ferguson or elsewhere.
