Fleas on Steroids!

Flea



Happy Halloween!  What scares you?  The tone of this political season certainly scares me, but some of nature's pests can be pretty creepy when they get out of control.  My house could hardly be considered dirty or even cluttered, so I ask: Are these pests developing a resistance to traditional extermination methods?   While I miss my dearly departed cat, I suspect she had a part in bringing fleas into my house after those short periods she would get outside.  The little bloodsuckers seemed to have no trouble moving on to my dog Oreo.  I had thought his constant scratching was just a seasonal itch.  A stroke of a flea comb uncovered the tiny parasites.  I had stocked up on Frontline flea treatment and  had already put it on Oreo, yet the fleas had refused to die.  It had always worked before.  The vet put him on a Capstar pill which was supposed to kill the fleas in 40 minutes - it didn't happen.  Three flea baths didn't provide lasting relief either.  Three pesticide-filled flea bombs later, the dog was still managing to pick up the tiny bugs from someplace in the house.  The carpets got shampooed while every floor got vacuumed every day.  Oreo got vacuumed with a special pet attachment.  A flea collar - for fleas and their eggs - followed.   Nothing stopped them!   Another trip to Oreo's vet yielded some K-9 Advantix; you know, the product in the "there ain't no bugs on me" commercial.  That seemed to slow them down.  I still found a couple of stragglers alive in his blanket, but I hope we're nearing the end of this very stressful chapter as his flea comb yielded nothing.  I think I'll set off another flea bomb, just for good measure! 

News Analyst or Political Commentator?

It's hard to feel too sorry for former National Public Radio news analyst Juan Williams.  He also appeared regularly on Fox News, which is where he made comments that displeased his NPR bosses.  He was abruptly fired last week by NPR for expressing his fear of fellow plane passengers wearing Muslim garb.  NPR felt his role as a news analyst had been compromised by his statements.  Fox News had no problem at all, offering Williams a two million dollar deal to stay with them.   In this overheated political season, it's no surprise that some politicians on the right wanted to use this incident as a reason to abolish the two per cent of its funding that NPR receives from the federal government.  Some liberals also expressed their displeasure with NPR.  Did NPR have a right to let him go if they were so uncomfortable with his dual media roles?  Yes.  Did it appear to be handled too severely and open NPR to criticism from conservatives who contend the network is too far left?  Absolutely.   Even many guests on NPR took issue with the move.  Were these honest comments of his on Fox that far over the top?  I don't think so, but that's just my view and I wasn't paying him to be my news analyst.  Since leaving commercial radio back in March, I've become a big fan of the service NPR provides.   Its very intellectual presentation does give NPR a very elite, even snobbish image.  After hours and hours of listening, I have to say NPR is much more objective than their detractors give them credit for, providing less heat and more light than most commercial networks.  At the same time, they became the story themselves and a lightning rod for free speech advocates and conservative critics.   The Williams incident could have been handled more diplomatically, but he'll be just fine.  It would be a shame if NPR's reputation suffered just because of this.   

The Little Lady

They say that people learn to deal with loss better with age.  I'm not sure I see it that way after having to say goodbye to my cat, Cookie.   I really wasn't ready to let this important member of the family go after almost 12 years, but I didn't see much choice.  Cookie was adopted from the Connecticut Humane Society in Quaker Hill when she was a little over a year old.   She was a docile, perky and affectionate cat who never complained about much.   The enclosed porch was her peaceful sanctuary where she never seemed to have a care in the world.   One week in the summer of 2009, I had to leave her alone at home and she only got a visit once a day to be fed by others.  When I returned, she planted herself on my lap for an hour as if to say she'd never take me for granted again.   Those big eyes won me over every time.  I wish pets could live longer.  She brought so much into my life during the time she was here.

New Highs and New Lows

The rescue of the 33 Chilean miners was certainly the high point of the week.  Viewers all over the world witnessed what can happen when people work together for the common good.   As MSNBC's Chris Matthews pointed out last night, this story contrasts so sharply with the tone of the political season here in the U.S.   From Alaska to right here in Connecticut, the landscape is littered with ads that shoot first as too few people ask questions later.  Bob Schieffer of CBS once suggested we abolish primaries. They have certainly allowed the venom surrounding the Connecticut gubernatorial campaign to continue much longer than it should have.  I have never wanted to vote "none of the above" as much as I do now.  The senatorial campaign here started off on a higher note, but that has deteriorated to out-of-context sound bites that leave any reasonable adult totally disgusted.    

Spelling It Out

VP Dan Quayle tells student to add an "e" to potato in 1992

For the second time in a row, a segment on CBS Sunday Morning inspired me to chime in. This time they ran a story on two guys who go around correcting spelling and punctuation mistakes on signs. I remember a restaurant in Jewett City called "Classic's" that actually made the extra effort to add the unnecessary apostrophe. I assume it wasn't owned by someone named "Classic." A misplaced apostrophe drives me especially crazy. In this fast-paced world of texting and Facebook status updates because people have less patience to talk to one another, I see bad spelling and punctuation everywhere. "Its" vs. "it's" and "your" vs. "you're" and "there" vs. "they're" are my big pet peeves. I have to qualify my indignation by saying I'm not bragging about being a superior speller or punctuator, since there are plenty of things in life in which I will never excel. There have always been people who couldn't spell well, and there are legitimate reasons like dyslexia. I just wonder if our fast pace, failure to check our work or overdependence on the spell check feature mean our attention span has gotten impossibly short. Call me picky, but you have no idea how much I checked before hitting "publish" on this article!