Yup. Photoshopped. Absolutely...

...but I dare you to prove it ain't, truthfully, an improvement on the original...

RNDP 14: Back to the Future

In Single Parent Rantings on Making Lemonade (the single parents' network), dating coach Jodi Seidler writes about a "new dating paradigm". Unfortunately, it is not a revolutionary new paradigm, it is a dating paradigm that the newly single get "lost in":

...especially ... ex-husbands and men who have been out of the dating market for a while. Sometimes you guys are the most romantic daters - old fashioned and sweet...just looking for a recipient who can appreciate and acknowledge your uniqueness. But alas, in a perfect world that would be so and I wish we could get back to the times when daters courted more frequently. Please don't ever tell me that is a lost or forsaken art form that our children will one day read about in history books.

Ms Seidler gives us no more explanation on either the new or the old dating paradigms, saying she'll leave the topic of how to be romantic to another time. Instead, she advocates that the newly single move slowly and cautiously. She has a rule that she won't "date anyone just out of a relationship or out of a marriage for under a year" and she recommends writing lists of what you're looking for in another person and identifying the lessons you've learned from your failed relationships.

4D Analysis: It appears that Ms Seidler prefers the "courting" model of dating with lots of dates and men acting sweetly.

Given that it has been 3 years since she said she would leave writing about how to be creative in romanticsim to another time, I suspect she broke her rule about only dating someone who'd been single for at least a year and fell into a relationship that gives her reasons to write about something else.

Emergency Meeting Minutes: 2008-09-07

Venue: The Usual Spot

Present: 4th Dwarf, Conch Shell, Chair, Coyote, Independent Observer, Woodsy
Guests: Harmony, Painted Stick

Breezed in with no excuse: Agatha, Shaggy Waiter

1. Woodsy Reports on the Blogger's Brunch
Woodsy has kind words for all of the bloggers she met. "A bit anti-climactic" someone suggests. [Perhaps it would have been more exciting if we had sent the Dwarf.]

2. How can we support Coyote in his efforts to keep the blog alive?
It is mentioned that since the agenda went out, both the Chair and the IO have posted. [Expressions of surprise from those who can't keep up.]

IO: I think we should go back to the schedule where everyone has a day on which they post.

4D: I'm on board with that.

IO: But only post per day.

4D: But I've got a lot of RNDP postings to go through and this would mean only one per week.

IO: You could do two a week.

4D: But there are 7 ESIs and 7 days in a week.

IO: Oh.... right.

After some discussion, it is agreed that a blogger may post as many items as they like on their day and breaking news may be posted as it is breaking, so that the Chair is not restricted from updating his insightful election coverage.

People begin choosing days as Aggie arrives. We stop to update Aggie on the new plan. Aggie has a momentary seizure but collects herself in time to prevent collapsing to the floor. [Note for a future emergency meeting agenda: How can we better accommodate of Aggie's ODD issues with rigid plans?]

Posts are expected by 9am

Sun: The Chair
Mon: 4th Dwarf
Tue: Aggie
Wed: Independent Observer
Thu: Woodsy
Fri: Coyote
Sat: Conch Shell

[p.s. A shout out to Megan from the ESIs and the IO especially, who says he did see you around the time of the Bluesfest, but didn't realize it until you'd passed each other and you were with someone and he thought it would be awkward at that point.]

Avoiding the elephant in the womb

On a recent visit to one of my ancestral homelands, I met up with an old friend who is with child. She was waiting for me on the sidewalk outside the little bakery and, being one day past her due date, I had no trouble spotting her from quite a distance. I'm sure several people using Google Earth also saw her.

But I'm glad I knew in advance that she was expecting. I still remember chatting with a colleague about her children at a Christmas party, motioning to her belly and asking, "And when's the next one due?"

I might as well have said, "I hear you have AIDS! How's that going?" or "What's it really like being a neo-Nazi?"

Her terse reply: "I'm not sure we will have another child."

Things have become even more complicated now that men are starting to give birth.

Last spring I was mildly chastised by an acquaintance in Vancouver who asked why I hadn't mentioned anything about her pregnancy when I saw her the previous day at a conference. To be honest, I just didn't notice. But even if I had, what's a guy to say? Over a drink, she and two other women agreed that none of them would blurt out, "So, you're having a baby!" if they weren't really sure.

As my Grade 12 chemistry teacher probably still says, "When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me."

Image: http://www.theflorentine.net/, Issue no. 85

Call her first, she may be in curlers...

From the Chair's inbox:

Public events for September 7, 2008

5 September 2008

Ottawa, Ontario

Public event for Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Sunday, September 7th is:

Ottawa

8:05 a.m. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will leave 24 Sussex en route to Rideau Hall to meet with Governor General Michaëlle Jean to ask her to dissolve the 39th Parliament for an election call October 14th, 2008.

24 Sussex
Ottawa, Ontario

* Open to Media *

Coming soon: The Chair's Guide to the Federal Election