I lost my firewire cable and had to get another one before I could post this from Christmas morning. Check out The Boy’s reaction to the arrival of a Wii.
[tags]nintendo, wii, christmas, kids, reaction, joy[/tags]
Dec 282007
Dec 212007
Two things cropped up today and I think they tie together nicely. I’ve got plenty of immediate concerns to worry about, but these are two “big picture” items.
First, Sean, linked I Am Not Afraid from Downsize DC this morning. I completely agree that the Bush administration and the GOP in particular have used fear of another terrorist attack as the reasoning for doing all sorts of ill-advised, bone-headed and criminal things over the past 6 years. However, I don’t want to blindly endorse another push to downsize the government. There’s no doubt that bureaucracies are bloated with waste, but we can’t use the method employed by the current administration to kill it off, namely incompetence and privatization. I’m still baffled as to how I’m drawn into left and right, us and them arguments with friends and co-workers whose viewpoints I have a lot more in common with than somebody like George W. Bush. We’re arguing with the wrong people and about the wrong things.
The second, somewhat related, news item is the death of Nataline Sarkisyan. Jason Calacanis is all over this with posts to his own blog and Mahalo. Speaking of bloated bureaucracies, if it turns out that hers was a legitimate case for a transplant, one was available and she died because of wrangling from Cigna, then this case will be a rallying cry for everyone who’s ever had to deal with the crap that health insurance companies can dish out. This is exactly the sort of thing that illustrates how all of the free market whackjobs need to STFU. Some things can’t be evaluated on their profit potential and if that’s the sole criterion, then you end up with a dead 17-year-old who could and should have been saved. How does fear play into this? I fear that one day; I might have to face a similar situation with my own children.
[tags]fear, terrorism, healthcare, natalinesarkisyan, bureaucracy, policy, failed[/tags]
Dec 162007
I marked another year today. I spent the morning running the Jingle Bell 5k with some co-workers and The Boy. Not surprisingly, he beat me by several minutes. I was glad just to finish it without having to walk. We hit Trudy’s South for brunch (they’re moving from Brodie Oaks to Stassney and I-35 in front of the Metropolitan b/c of rising rent). I got a couple of books and a t-shirt from the family. We trimmed the tree and watched Santa Claus Is Coming To Town this afternoon.
Dec 062007
Keith Olbermann goes off on GW. I know it’s for theatrics and that Olbermann has carved a niche for himself as the anti-O’Reilly, but this quote is too good not to repeat:
A bright man, or an honest man, would have realized no later than the McConnell briefing that the only true danger about Iran was the damage that could be done by an unhinged, irrational Chicken Little of a president, shooting his mouth off, backed up by only his own hysteria and his own delusions of omniscience.
I’d laugh harder if it didn’t scare me so much.
Dec 032007
The subject pretty much sums it up. At the recommendation of the dental hygienists at our pediatric dental office, we bought Crest Pro Health Rinse for our kids, especially the older one, who got a poor score on the last visit. True to form, The Boy hasn’t been very good about using it, but The La has been very conscientious, using it every night for the past month or so. This past week, we noticed brown staining near the gums on several of her teeth. It looks terrible and since I’m the one who typically brushes her teeth, I felt really bad and started to worry about what was going wrong.
Well, The Wife googled about teeth staining and, lo and behold, there’s tons of comments on several sites about Crest Pro Health staining people’s teeth brown and causing some to lose their sense of taste, including an Amazon product page. I also found this snarky, but spot on editorial and this article.
I e-mailed Proctor and Gamble this morning and they responded within an hour or two with this message:
Thanks for contacting us, Tim.
I’m sorry about your daughter’s recent experience while using Crest Pro Health Rinse. Some people who use an antimicrobial product such as Crest Pro Health, may experience some tooth discoloration. This is true especially among those people who experience a lot of tartar. Unlike stains due to smoking or beverages which can discolor the entire tooth, antimicrobial tooth discoloration can occur in hard to brush areas like between the teeth and at the gumline. This type of staining is only temporary and on the surface of the tooth. This temporary tooth staining can be reduced or eliminated by using a power brush and a tartar control or whitening toothpaste. I’m sending you some free coupons for other Crest products. Watch for my postal reply to arrive within 2-3 weeks.
Meanwhile, to help us understand your daughter’s experience, we would like to request some additional information. We will share your information with our Health and Safety Team who will follow-up with you regarding your dental expenses.
For answers to medical questions, we recommend you speak with your dentist who will be able to give you the best advice.
Thanks again for getting in touch.
Amy
Crest Team
I love how the main thrust of their response is to buy more of their products and that they readily acknowledge that Crest Pro Health will stain your teeth brown. Of course, if they did The Right Thingâ„¢ and warned you about it on the bottle, they’d lose sales, so there’s no chance of them doing that. I contacted our dentist’s office and the person that I spoke with on the phone hadn’t heard of the brown staining problem. We’ve already got an appointment for a regular cleaning next Wednesday, so I’ll report back with what they say. I’m also going to add photos to this post tonight.
Dec 012007
I don’t know what’s causing the formatting problems with the delicious auto posting, so I killed it. I’m going to try to resume proper blog posting. If you liked following the links, you can find add the RSS feed or just check the page. It should be linked over on the right as well.