And, yes, I intend to finally-finally-get my thoughts about Iraq down in blue-and-white. Even if I hadn’t promised to yack Iraq before my guest-blogger stint was up (how much more fun it is to talk about wayward priests and binki trees!), the sight of Bush, Rumsfeld and Rice grinning like idjits without a care in the world on the cover of this morning’s NYT would have provoked me into saying something.
-posted by Dan.
BUT FIRST… let’s tie up a few loose ends.
Danish parents name/call their kids “Skat”?
Phonetically speaking, “skat” sounds the same as a word we use to describe the singing of gibberish and, uh, something that it’s way too early in the morning to even contemplate, in Danish “skat” means “sweetie,” “darling,” or “honey.” This means, of course, that all Danish mother’s call their kids “skat.”
I’m sure the liberals wouldn’t like us littering a park with a bunch of binkies. Those kids having trouble getting the binky monkey off their backs can send theirs to Binky Land. There’s a story about some new baby needing a pacifier. You put the binkies in the mail and send them to Binky Land.
I much prefer the Danish approach. While popping a binky in the mail may be easier for parents, there’s a communitarian aspect to the Denmark’s binky trees that we Americas should emulate. There’s a reason we don’t do baptisms by on the web, or get married in secret, or perform graduation ceremonies by mail. We perform these things in public. “This is very important,” the public nature of a baptism or a graduation implies. While giving up a binky isn’t the accomplishment that, say, getting that Ph.D. is, it’s still a major step for a toddler, and deserves an honored place in a public setting.
Here on the University of Minnesota campus there’s a tree festooned with old shoes. There’s been rumors that undergrads who lose their virginity head over to the Washington Avenue Bridge and toss their sneakers onto the Shoe Tree, I guess for posterity. Anyway, I’ve included the link to a Minnesota Daily article about the Shoe Tree from 2003. Fact is, no one knows the true origins, but Nerve.com went with the sex angle. (Hmm, I wonder why?) Maybe they should have a tree that dispenses condoms and lubes. You know, for those who decided lose their virginity regularly.
-posted by Dan.
The Dish 