For a variety of reasons, this has not been a great month so far. In no particular order:
- Someone I love just died and I miss her. I also feel some guilt about our relationship.
- I miss George. It was nine years ago that we picked him up from the breeder.
- I have an injury that's going to sideline my running and other cardio options for awhile and will take considerable effort to heal. Oh, and it hurts, too.
- Weight loss efforts are not going well, and my inability to work out won't help matters.
- There are upcoming personnel changes at work which will directly affect me and about which I am not happy.
- The dog is still chewing everything he can get his snout on.
- My car is coated with gray salt grime, and every time I wash it, it snows again.
While it's much more my style to moan about all these things in-depth, I (for once) don't have the energy. So, on to some interview commentary. Yes, it's a week late. Whatever.
The CBS 60 Minutes interview with the Flight 1549 crew: My favorite part: when Katie Couric asked Sully if he prayed as the plane was coming down, and he responded that he was too busy flying but assumed "someone in the back of the plane" was taking care of that. The part where the crew met the passengers, and the letters they read at the end, made me cry.
Another aspect, one I wish the show had explored further, was the weird dynamic between the two flight attendants at the front of the plane, where the landing was not that hard, and the one flight attendant in the back, where things were much worse. She almost seemed resentful that she was back there alone, panicking, engulfed in water and with a cut leg, while her colleagues were high and dry up front, and they seemed a little defensive in return. Clearly there is some awkwardness among the crew members, and while Sully deserves hero status for his flying skills, the other crew members did plenty to save lives too but aren't getting much media attention. Even the TV cameras at the Superbowl skipped right over the crew to zoom in on Sully. That's gotta hurt.
The Dateline interview with Nadya Suleman, the octuplet mom: I am so disturbed by this situation, on so many levels. There is so much that doesn't make sense. I can't say much that hasn't already been said, but I am deeply afraid for those kids and have a hard time not being judgmental, or even just skeptical, of their mother. I don't doubt that they are loved, but their mom seems to have a tenuous grip on reality, at best. Not to mention a blase attitude that random people from church or wherever are going to step up and take on caring for eight newborns and six older siblings while she lives off disability checks garnered by her three special-needs kids, collects food stamps (while claiming she gets no government assistance), sucks in money through her new self-promoting website, and somehow magically completes her grad program next year.
My questions:
1. If she was so badly injured on the job at the mental hospital that she was physically unable to work, what was she doing taking on not one but SIX high-risk pregnancies? Even one normal pregnancy is hard on your body, and highly likely to exacerbate any existing problems.
2. And even after getting through pregnancy and birth, how exactly did she expect to chase after her herd of kids if she is in too much chronic physical or mental pain to hold a job?
3. Now that she has 14 kids, at least three of whom are special-needs and eight more of whom are premature newborns likely to have health issues, how does she expect to complete her graduate degree on schedule? And if she can't afford to feed her family, who's paying for grad school anyway? Who paid for this last round of in-vitro?
4. She seems to assume that once she gets her degree, she can go back to work at a higher income level that will support all these kids. How can she suddenly go back to work at a higher level if she is too disabled to work now and hasn't worked in several years? And assuming she gets a decent job, who is going to babysit 14 kids? They'll need their own daycare facility.
5. The relationship between Ms. Suleman and her family is bizarre. Initially her mom trashed her to the media and claimed she was refusing to help further with this nonsense. However, mom has been an enabler by not forcing her to grow up and get her own market-rate housing. And now that PR people are involved, the mom is suddenly being portrayed as loving and supportive. And where is her dad?
6. Nowhere has anyone discussed the potential for Ms. Suleman to develop postpartum mental health issues. I don't doubt that she cherishes her kids, but let's face it, every parent needs a break from their kids sometimes. With no spouse figure or guaranteed support from her own parents, who's going to give her a break? Who's going to be there when she is severely sleep-deprived and dealing with eight screaming babies and six older kids with more complex needs?
7. I await more information on the doctor who enabled this lunacy. This situation is unfair to the kids, and unfair to society as well. Couldn't Dr. Fertility Miracle have told Ms. Suleman to leave those embryos in the freezer until her life became more stable?
8. How does this woman have such good health insurance? Is all of the octuplet care covered? Was this insurance part of the injury settlement?
Hmm. So much not adding up here.
The CBS 60 Minutes interview with the Flight 1549 crew: My favorite part: when Katie Couric asked Sully if he prayed as the plane was coming down, and he responded that he was too busy flying but assumed "someone in the back of the plane" was taking care of that. The part where the crew met the passengers, and the letters they read at the end, made me cry.
Another aspect, one I wish the show had explored further, was the weird dynamic between the two flight attendants at the front of the plane, where the landing was not that hard, and the one flight attendant in the back, where things were much worse. She almost seemed resentful that she was back there alone, panicking, engulfed in water and with a cut leg, while her colleagues were high and dry up front, and they seemed a little defensive in return. Clearly there is some awkwardness among the crew members, and while Sully deserves hero status for his flying skills, the other crew members did plenty to save lives too but aren't getting much media attention. Even the TV cameras at the Superbowl skipped right over the crew to zoom in on Sully. That's gotta hurt.
The Dateline interview with Nadya Suleman, the octuplet mom: I am so disturbed by this situation, on so many levels. There is so much that doesn't make sense. I can't say much that hasn't already been said, but I am deeply afraid for those kids and have a hard time not being judgmental, or even just skeptical, of their mother. I don't doubt that they are loved, but their mom seems to have a tenuous grip on reality, at best. Not to mention a blase attitude that random people from church or wherever are going to step up and take on caring for eight newborns and six older siblings while she lives off disability checks garnered by her three special-needs kids, collects food stamps (while claiming she gets no government assistance), sucks in money through her new self-promoting website, and somehow magically completes her grad program next year.
My questions:
1. If she was so badly injured on the job at the mental hospital that she was physically unable to work, what was she doing taking on not one but SIX high-risk pregnancies? Even one normal pregnancy is hard on your body, and highly likely to exacerbate any existing problems.
2. And even after getting through pregnancy and birth, how exactly did she expect to chase after her herd of kids if she is in too much chronic physical or mental pain to hold a job?
3. Now that she has 14 kids, at least three of whom are special-needs and eight more of whom are premature newborns likely to have health issues, how does she expect to complete her graduate degree on schedule? And if she can't afford to feed her family, who's paying for grad school anyway? Who paid for this last round of in-vitro?
4. She seems to assume that once she gets her degree, she can go back to work at a higher income level that will support all these kids. How can she suddenly go back to work at a higher level if she is too disabled to work now and hasn't worked in several years? And assuming she gets a decent job, who is going to babysit 14 kids? They'll need their own daycare facility.
5. The relationship between Ms. Suleman and her family is bizarre. Initially her mom trashed her to the media and claimed she was refusing to help further with this nonsense. However, mom has been an enabler by not forcing her to grow up and get her own market-rate housing. And now that PR people are involved, the mom is suddenly being portrayed as loving and supportive. And where is her dad?
6. Nowhere has anyone discussed the potential for Ms. Suleman to develop postpartum mental health issues. I don't doubt that she cherishes her kids, but let's face it, every parent needs a break from their kids sometimes. With no spouse figure or guaranteed support from her own parents, who's going to give her a break? Who's going to be there when she is severely sleep-deprived and dealing with eight screaming babies and six older kids with more complex needs?
7. I await more information on the doctor who enabled this lunacy. This situation is unfair to the kids, and unfair to society as well. Couldn't Dr. Fertility Miracle have told Ms. Suleman to leave those embryos in the freezer until her life became more stable?
8. How does this woman have such good health insurance? Is all of the octuplet care covered? Was this insurance part of the injury settlement?
Hmm. So much not adding up here.
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