Slow News Day?

Within the last couple of days I saw and heard no fewer than 17 bazillion, gazillion television news clips, newspaper articles and radio commentaries about the incident where a grandmother placed her baby grandchild on the xray conveyor belt at an airport. The articles all spoke of this incident as if child care giving skills were being eroded to such an extent that the next thing you know western civilization will have relapsed to the days when female babies were placed on ice bergs and sent to sea. I believe these sort of child care mishaps occur with much more frequency than congressman take bribes. Maybe even more often than George Bush f#$&*^s something up. By which I mean "a lot." I think this is especially true with grandparents although the parents are pretty goofy too, at times. But that doesn't warrant headlines.

And that's my point. I know of numerous episodes which, had they happened today, what with mass media, reality shows and Nancy Grace's big mouth, might have caused a global stir. For example, a friend of mine who I'll call Mrs. Stone, although her real name is Rose, knows firsthand the kind of errors and lapses when the senile are left to care for children. Martha, Rose's mother, who is the sweetest, kindest most caring lady you would ever want to meet was, and I'm sure Mike will back me up on this, dumb as a hoe handle when it came to childcare in her later years. On one occaision, Martha, God bless her, was sitting for Brad and Brett when the little rascals, toddlers at the time, complained of being thirsty. Kind hearted Martha proceeded to the fridge and found a couple of two litre bottles of fruit drink, which she gave to the grateful children who downed them in a flash. The rest, as they say, is history. The fruit drink, was of course, NOT fruit drink at all, but those wine coolers they used to put in big bottles. Can't you just hear Nancy Grace and Geraldo now?
CHARDON, OHIO: DASTARDLY, CHILD ABUSING GRANDMOTHER, FEEDS TODDLERS WINE COOLERS SO SHE CAN PURSUE HER OWN WILD, CAREFREE NIGHT ON THE TOWN! BLAMES AL QAEDA. Film at 11:00.