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Calvin was a very superior person, loved by everyone. This is a terrible event indeed. Yes, prayers up for his family and friends, please. A senseless loss.

There is absolutely no nutritional/physiological benefit to nursing past one or so. Everything is developed, functioning, the child is transitioning to a cup, etc. Pediatricians do not advocate mursing till 'at least two' in any literature I have ever seen. Hubby is a physician by the way. I nursed mine to 14 and 13 months.

When I lived in Western Mass I was surrounded by the Nursing Nazis. There were advocates of nursing till 5, 6, etc. It was lame. I always felt those women were so insecure in there mothering that they needed to really make sure the world knew that They were the Best Mothers. All of those children turned out badly. Yuk.

Nurse till they are walking and drnking out of a cup. Two is the ego of the mum.

I lived in a small town in western Massachusetts from 1986 to 1994. Our local preschool outlawed cupcakes, candy, everything but tofu, I swear. Eventually you couldnt do birthdays at all..since what about the kids whose birthdays were in the *summer* (gasp!!) We couldnt do Valentines Day (a Christian holiday, you know), Christmas, nothing. Not much we could do..it was the only game in town; the director was a socialist. It was a good lesson for my kids even when they were small that some people and rules are just lame.

I couldnt WAIT to move. The PC-ness was overpowering. And funny..most of them were trust funders, white, democrats, bigots, and snobs. My town voted for Jesse Jackson in the 88 primary. These same people locked their doors in horror and clustered in nervous groups when the Jamaican farm workers came in the fall to help with the apple harvest. I think there were four of us Republicans..we had a secret handshake and met in the dark of night >;-> Whew!

Tony Lake lived in the next town over and his wife was the biggest bigot I had ever known. She oozed noblesse oblige and was a classic limosuine liberal. Bleah!

We live in a well-to-do area in north coastal San Diego. We have three girls; two freshman and one junior. I cant believe the ways the girls dress at their school. The school has a dress code but clearly it is never enforced. I have mortified my girls by commenting to other mothers "How in Gods name can you let your daughter look like that?!"

Unfortunately, and sadly, many of the MOM'S look the same way. Women in their forties, clearly augmented, lipo'ed, in skin tight jeans and cleavage down to here. Gads!!

We get all of clothes at Gap, Eddie Bauer, and Lands End. Gap has jeans with the flare that arent cut to pubic hair level. They have a huge variety of jeans; they arent cheap but they all go on sale several times a year so we stock up.

Two of the girls are over 5'10 and very slim. They can get size 4xlong and they just look great. The t-shirts are cut long enough to cover those tummies.

Sexy librarian?! Gee, that sounds like *such* an improvement!

Micheal! My freeper daughter and I watched and cheered you. You were WAY poised and classy and came off very well indeed.

You were such a lovely contrast to Charles "Im an ignorant loser but Im louder than you!" Barron.

Good on you!

Hey, I have four teenage daughters and not one dresses like that. Im the MOM. Its my JOB to teach them class and self-respect. I tell them I am not their friend, I am their mom. They dont want to look like sluts, and they dont. They know I wont buy the clothes, they know if they buy them I wont let them out of the house, they know if they sneak it I will catch them and they'll have to change. Has it been easy? Nope! But now they accept it as a given. They have also noticed how respectfully they are treated by the boys.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Gorgeous campus, long history of strong arkkie program. A great value for the money, always highly rated in the yearly college rankings.

And yes, I went there >;->

I think the play, Twelve Angry Men, has been redone as, Twelve Angry Persons.

The Drama Club at my daughter's high school just finished a performance of "Twelve Angry People."

God Bless the Children.

We will pray for your daughter. You have wonderful faith.

Amen.

This was what I tried to post the first time: Imagine my surprise..an article by my own Belle. Thanks for all the nice comments. She is really beaming. She's a very kind and self possessed kid, and I am proud of her. She is neither strident n or overbearing, so wins people over by her common sense and friendly manner. And I am a writer/editor by trade, and my mother was a career public school teacher, so by Gosh her English and spelling had *better* be good >;-> Shes tall and blonde, very pretty, and hip, so the other kids really cant blackball her like they might. All her friends are little soccer mommettes and she just laughs at them gently and gives them things to read. She has been a lurker on FR for a while now. I am a lurker of many years. We are looking forward to a SoCal freepathon. Thanks again for all the kind words. Belles Mom

When she was little, we visited the mills in Lowell, and other MA mill towns. We have discussed the 'moral superiority' of the North, yet how brutal the mill life was, and how the mills virtually owned their workers. She has studied history from many perspectives. She heard the racist jokes in MA. Her best friend in NC was black, and they were two little peas in a pod. She is very self possessed, in such a gentle way. She wont fight, but she wont back down. If someone gets ugly, she walks away. She doesnt look for trouble, but sticks up for the underdog. Quite a good mix, and I think she'll make good decisions in her life. I am very grateful.

Update: I am writing an article for the school newspaper on LSOY. On the opinions page. I'll post a copy of it as soon as I am finished. It will be interesting to see the reactions of my fellow students in the next issue's "Letters to the Editor".......I might post some of those too, if any of them are interesting enough.

I agree. I have two children and am now remarried to a man who has two children. Their mother has made my husbands life hell for years; took every dime; still hounds him. Their children, my stepchildren, suffer. I have seen many men deeply harmed by a court system that is skewed and damaging. But interestingly, I paid financially in my divorce; had to pay my ex-husbands tax debt, etc etc I am still digging myself out of the financial hell my ex husband put me through and there wasnt one legal thing I could do about it. The courts can wreak havoc both ways.

Yes, actually, I did know her as a wife. I knew both her and the first husband, who was also a vet. And she had two marriages total, one to Dr. Willis, with whom she had the three that were now the teenagers, and this one, Hogan, with whom she had the young daughter. There was not a vindictive bone in this womans body. She was happy to make the sacrifices necessary to be a good mom and wife. A straight, decent, good woman, wife, mother. And apropos nothing, she was beautiful and lovely; a warm nature and just kind, kind, kind. Pillars, your anger at 'woman who wreck men', which is often justified and which I often share, is clouding you here. You have nothing to go on other than this article, and you are being very quick to assume that she must, somehow, have 'deserved' this. I know you cant mean it. Pray for the men who are harmed by shallow and manipulative women, but pray for Dr. McFadden. She needs it now as much as any human can.

Not every failed marriage makes a person a 'two time marriage loser'..she had a long marriage to another vet, Dr. Willis; they shared a practice in Merced. They had their three kids and the marriage failed but not for lack of effort on Dr. Christines part. She is mid 40's. The fact that she had these three great kids from one long first marriage, and a young child from this second one, certainly isnt enough for you to classify her as some serial marriage loser type. Your anger, perhaps often justified, is not in this case. This is just an awful, awful event. Redirect your spleen at the killer, and give this mom your pity.

I have certainly seen men abused by women emotionally and financially but not here. Dr. Chris had a long and successful vet practice; she wouldnt have been after his money, that would never have been the issue (if anything perhaps the factor went the other way) she would have had plenty of her own. Wouldnt be keeping him from the daughter, if that was the case, unless there was some deeply compelling reason. No, she is a wonderful woman and well loved by her patients and friends. This is tragic, beyond comprehension.

No, no, I knew Dr. McFadden, she was my friend and vet the four years I lived in Merced, many years ago. She was a wonderful friend, a devoted mother, and kind and empathic vet....my God. She certainly didnt drive this guy nuts...no..no..Pray for her, all of you. God, her suffering is unimaginable.

My husband and I just spent a week at a lovely, expensive resort in Boca Raton, Florida. Like many places in the south, smoking was permitted virtually everywhere at this resort; there's a special cigar bar, and ashtrays everywhere. We dont smoke but dont support the phony Anti-Smoking buttheads. Who did we see across the breakfast lounge but...Nostrildamus! Eeeewwwww!! The woman he was with was smoking >;-> And boy, not only is he ugly, man, he is *short*. What a little pinner!