The mother of a friend of mine is starting to lose her memory and couldn’t remember visits.  Sort of like your mom’s calendar, they put one up in her house and whoever visits signs in the square for the day.  Not only does it help her mom remember that she’s being visited and then recall the visit, but it reminds the rest of the family to visit when they see too many days pass without a signature.  Visual cues usually work better than nagging.  

As for letter #1, at least he’s nice to her in private.  I don’t think that behavior has to do with cultures from certain parts of the world.  I dated a Brit whose masculine esteem was wrapped up in knowing everything and being right.  Most of the time I just let him because I’m a pretty secure person, but his insecurities would pop up over the stupidest things!  He needed to buy a new hard drive for his computer and we were looking at a selection that had some on sale, some with rebates, slightly different capacities.  The sales guy wasn’t a lot of help, and so The Brit was trying to figure out which would be the best deal.  I suggested figuring out the final price and dividing by the capacity and go by the price per GB.  He shot me such a look!  In the car he started in on how I made him look like a fool, that I should wait until we’re alone before I help him with something like that, I shouldn’t always try to show him up, and on and on.  I wasn’t trying to show that I was smarter, I just thought of a logical approach and said it out loud.  Was I supposed to whisper it in his ear and let him claim brilliance or something?

I don’t think you can get guys like this to go to third party because they are adamant in gender roles, being the brains AND the brawn, and don’t think there’s a single thing wrong with it.

Ooo!  I don’t.  Wilson has yet to apologize to the American people who elected the president.  He’s *our* president and he owes *us* an apology.  What happened to the drumbeating the Republicans were doing at the beginning of the last administration?  "You have to respect the office if not the man."  It was the most disrespectful, arrogant, self-serving, and meritless thing he could do.  He should never STOP apologizing for it.  It’s one thing to have the spontaneous collective boos and cheers occur during president speeches.  You hear it all the time, but one person calling out and calling someone a liar?  No way will I give him a pass just because he quietly apologized to the president, and likely insincerely at that.  What is it with South Carolina politicians anyway?

As for Kanye West, there has never been a more irrelevant human being in "entertainment."  He’s never been taught sportsmanship, propriety, grace, humility… none of it.  His treatment of others ranks almost up there with Chris Brown, his future roommate.  And, he does NOT get a pass for being drunk.  Drunk people may not possess impulse control, but they know what they’re doing and there’s no sidestepping that he felt exactly they way he demonstrated it.  And you KNOW if the same had been done to him, he’d be whining and crying to anyone who would listen about how no one wants to give a black man cred.  They always trying to beat down the black man.  Ad nauseum.  

I think people took this column far too seriously, or have taken the opportunity to pretend themselves elevated from the masses.  Everyone has on their Sunday Best and is much to good to verbalize in the dark fantasies they likely have every single day.

I’ve never been too good for fantasy.  It keeps me sane.  So rather than issuing the vague and unnamed "somebody," I’ll tag a few individuals: Kanye West, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Moore.