Free Republic

Reading 29-year-old actress Nicola Peltz Beckham’s comment about the recent death of Quincy Jones... I was somewhat nonplussed. Just think who we’re talking about here. The legendary music producer lived until the age of 91. And when I say ‘lived’, I mean lived. Jones escaped a life of extreme poverty and crime – from being attacked with an ice pick and having his hand pinned to a fence with a switchblade to seeing his schizophrenic mother taken away in a straitjacket when he was just seven. At 11, when he was breaking into a store, he saw a piano up...

Competitive Parenting 1-A http://fetchingjen.blogspot.com/2007/05/competitive-parenting-1.html http://tinyurl.com/2q3zwh By KATY GRIMES, Sacramento Union Columnist Thursday, May 24, 2007 (online) Friday, May 18, 2007 (paper edition) (Sacramento Union) When did parenting become America's most competitive adult sport? Outrageous stories from parents all around Sacramento abound, from parents behaving badly at kids competitive sports events to academic competitiveness. Competitive parenting is out-of-control. Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there was a world where children could play at being children. …playing fields for games of soccer, baseball and capture-the-flag; and tight-knit neighborhoods where kids played hide-and-go-seek and red-rover until it was dark…...