From this week’s News of the Weird Digest:

On January 31, several hundred Japanese husbands recognized the second annual “Beloved Wives Day” to upgrade Japanese men’s notorious, deeply-ingrained indifference to their spouses. Among the husbands’ vows:  be home from work by the unusually-early hour of 8 p.m.; actually look into the missus’s eyes and say “thank you”; and try to remember to call her by her name (instead of, as many apparently do in substitution, grunting at her). (Divorce in Japan remains relatively rare, but marital estrangement has been rapidly increasing in recent years.) [Taipei Times-AP, 2-1-07]

Ending the tradition of the PostCard of the Week, courtesy of PostSecret:

Proceed at your own risk »

You’ll be clapping at the end…if you know what’s good for you.

Hard to believe but it was seven years ago today that INS agents raided a Miami home to retrieve young Cuban immigrant Elián González from his American relatives. Politicians, pundits, critics, and all sorts of people weighed in on the core issue, that being the rights of the parent versus the rights of the government.

I believe now what I believed then: unless children are in some mortal danger, physical and/or mental, the government should not intervene or interfere with parents’ right to do what they think is best for their children. It was a tough call, but the Feds got it right.

This is my favorite quote from the whole affair, courtesy of Wikipedia:

“On April 9, 2000, Richard Cohen of The Washington Post wrote: ‘Elián and Juan Miguel Gonzalez, son and father. The former is an innocent child, the latter a man whose boy was taken from him. Elián has behaved like a typical 6-year-old, Juan Miguel like a typical father. And most of the politicians like typical fools.’”

Continuing the tradition of the PostCard of the Week, courtesy of PostSecret:

Proceed at your own risk »

If you get a chance, check out page 190 of the current issue of Redbook where you will find my roommate-for-life talking about mommy-related issues.  And she’ll be talking to the Reno Gazette-Journal tomorrow and appearing on KOLO-TV this Tuesday morning.  Pretty exciting stuff.

We Remember
Ross Abdallah Alameddine
Christopher James Bishop
Brian Roy Bluhm
Ryan Christopher Clark
Austin Michelle Cloyd
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Kevin P. Granata
Matthew Gregory Gwaltney
Caitlin Millar Hammaren
Jeremy Michael Herbstritt
Rachel Hill
Emily Jane Hilscher
Jarrett Lee Lane
Matthew Joseph La Porte
Henry J. Lee
Liviu Librescu
G.V. Loganathan
Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan
Lauren Ashley McCain
Daniel Patrick O’Neil
J. Ortiz-Ortiz
Minal Hiralal Panchal
Daniel Alejandro Perez
Erin Nicole Peterson
Michael Steven Pohle, Jr.
Julia Kathleen Pryde
Mary Karen Read
Reema Joseph Samaha
Waleed Mohamed Shaalan
Leslie Geraldine Sherman
Maxine Shelly Turner
Nicole White

May they and their loved ones find peace.

After the jump…

How real men use post-its:

Proceed at your own risk »

Here’s a quick little tool from WedMD. Through this, I discovered I either have a cold or one of my ovaries is missing. Probably the first.

Jack wakes up with a huge hangover after attending his company’s Christmas Party. Jack is not normally a drinker, but the drinks didn’t taste like alcohol at all. He didn’t even remember how he got home from the party. As bad as he was feeling, he wondered if he did something wrong.

Jack had to force himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins next to a glass of water on the side table. And, next to them, a single red rose! Jack sits up and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. He looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotlessly clean. So is the rest of the house.

Proceed at your own risk »