In Which I Reveal My Tomboy Fixation

I informed Tony that he was tagging me for this meme because I really need the distraction. I must stop being so dour. I have to find my funny and snap out of this. A mindless meme might be just the ticket.Hell, I might just do them for the rest of the month. A Month Long Meme of Memes. Hmmm.

Feel free to play along in the comments (or tag yourself).

My Top Ten Fave TV Characters (in no particular order)

Miles Drentell from Thirtysomething - While I truly loved all the characters on TS, ad exec Miles Drentell was one of the most compelling characters I’ve ever encountered on a TV drama. Complicated and hard to understand, he manipulated and mindf*cked Michael and Elliot relentlessly and yet, you missed him when he was gone.

Buddy from Family - Man…I fricken loved that show. I had a total girl crush on tomboy Kristy McNichol who played “Buddy”. I seriously thought she was the coolest thing on TV during that era. And when Leif Garrett was on as her boyfriend…hoooo boy!

Rayanne Graff from My So-Called Life - Rayanne was the wild, crazy, irresponsible girl that the rest of us wished we could be for a day…or night. Her character was fairly complex for a teen TV drama and despite her being a major screw-up, you had to love her.

Bill from Freaks and Geeks - Unfortunately, this awesome but short-lived show was critically acclaimed, which seems to be the kiss of death on American television and thus it was only on for one season. All the characters were great but I loved Bill, an awkward, gangly, geeky high school freshmen in the late 70’s.

Ned from Ned & Stacey - Ned (Thomas Haden Church), pretty much a major asshat, was also one of the funniest fricken characters on TV. EVER.

Jo Polniaczek from Facts of Life - Another tomboy type that I admired, Jo was really pretty and she didn’t take any sh!t. ’nuff said.

Dr. Perry Cox from Scrubs - Funny, funny, funny…I love Dr. Cox!

Alan Shore of Boston Legal - I don’t watch this show regularly anymore but I still maintain that Alan Shore is one of the best written characters on television. Complex, enigmatic, irreverent, brilliant and funny; even when he’s bad he’s good.

Charlies Angels - Oh man…I could never choose. I was always torn between classy Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) foxy Jill (Farrah Fawcett) and brainy Sabrina (Kate Jackson). So perfect in my nine year old eyes; they drove bad ass cars and wore kick ass clothes and they ALWAYS got the bad guys *sigh*

Jordan Catalano of My So-Called Life - Jared Leto as brooding bad boy that doesn’t talk much. And those eyelashes… Hello? Do I really need to explain this one?

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And if I may toot my own horn ever so briefly….

The Numbers Don’t Lie

The following piece was written by myself the Blog Exchange Debate wherein participants take opposing views on controversial parenting topics and debate them. We decided to swap our posts back to our own blogs after one day. Our topic is organic food.

The Numbers Don’t Lie: The Case for Organic Foods by Izzy

I am a huge proponent of organic foods and farming. If I could, I would buy organic food exclusively. There are dozens of reasons why, however, to delve into each of them would render this little blog exchange post as lengthy as a term paper. Thus, I am only going to focus on the primary reasons that I prefer to buy and consume organic foods — which would be my children.

When you stop to consider that asthma, autism, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders (ADD and ADHD), childhood brain cancer and acute lymphocytic leukemia have all increased over the past 30 years and babies are born with industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides in their cord blood, it’s not a stretch to wonder if the pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals used in all aspects of food production are at least partially to blame.

Regarding the health risks of pesticides residues in food, remember that the EPA approved many pesticides and fertilizers long before research linked these chemicals to cancer and other diseases. Today, however, the EPA considers 90% of all fungicides, 60% of all herbicides, and 30% of all insecticides as potentially cancer- causing.

Furthermore, determining the safety of a common pesticide used in conventional farming may take thirty years or more. For example, we now know that some of the early pesticides, such as DDT, caused serious health problems in children that didn’t become evident until thirty years after the substance was banned for environmental reasons. We may not see the full effects of the newer pesticides we’re putting on crops for a long, long time and I’m not willing to let my kids be guinea pigs for Monsanto, Dow, Ortho and DuPont.

And in case you were wondering how organic and conventional produce stack up against each other, the Organic Center reports that conventional produce is eight times more likely to contain pesticide residues than organic.

I find the aforementioned statistics to be chilling and of course, I would never spoon feed these chemicals to my children so why would I feed them food that is loaded with them when safer organic options exist?Some people that are not convinced of the benefits of organics but the numbers don’t lie…

A 2003 study conducted by the University of Washington tracked a group of preschool children to determine if their diets affected their pesticide exposure. The study was based on18 children with organic diets and 21 with conventional diets. Researchers analyzed their urine for evidence of exposure to five different kinds of toxic pesticides.

They found that the average total was six to almost nine times higher for children with conventional diets than for children with organic diets. The researchers concluded that consuming organic fruits and vegetables is a relatively simple way for parents to reduce their children’s pesticide exposure.

Young children are developing brain function and internal organs intended to last a lifetime and they are more vulnerable to developmental damage from pesticide residues on foods. This is partly because of their fast growth and speedy metabolisms and partly because of their smaller size, which means they eat more fruits and vegetables in relation to their body weight than adults do.

In 1993, a congressionally-mandated study by the National Academy of Sciences expressed concern that existing methods of risk evaluation for pesticide exposure were not suited to children. More recently, the Consumers Union and the Environmental Working Group released studies confirming that children are over-exposed even if their exposure is within legal limits.

Bearing all those facts in mind, I firmly believe that re-assessing our priorities and making room in our tight budget for organic foods is one of the most important things I can do for my children’s long-term health and I strongly urge others to do the same.

Babies consume about 60 times more fruits and vegetables than adults. This fact combined with undeveloped digestive and immune systems, put young children at the greatest health risk for pesticide residues. To minimize the effects, you might buy organic for those foods that your children eat regularly.

If you have to limit what organic foods you buy because of the cost, it is recommended that you buy organic animal products first, like milk, eggs and meat.

In produce, pesticides levels vary. Here are some common fruits and vegetables that are high in pesticide residues. Because of the high levels, you might consider buying organic for these foods:

Apples
Bell peppers
Celery
Cherries
Grapes (imported)
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Red Raspberries
Spinach
Strawberries

Conversely, these fruits and vegetables are commonly found to have the lowest levels of pesticide residues so it’s not critical to choose organics when buying the following:

Asparagus
Avocados
Bananas
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Corn (sweet)
Kiwi
Mangos
Onions
Papayas
Pineapples
Peas (sweet)

(Source - The Environmental Workers Union)

You don’t have to dive in and go organic all at once but every little bit helps, especially when it comes to your children.

You can read my exchange partner Emma’s piece arguing against organics here.