Thursday, May 17, 2012
Apparently there is an "evil" clown that is hired to scare a child in the days leading up to his or her birthday. What?
A couple weeks ago, our Parents Talk discussion was on creepy kids toys. Many agreed that a clown, anything having to do with a clown or anything resembling a clown was straight up creepy. Well, an actor in the Swiss city of Lucerne has set himself up as the "evil" birthday clown. According to the Huffington Post and the Austrian Times, for a fee, parents can hire this psychotic clown—played by actor Dominic Deville—to leave menacing, booby-trapped letters for their children. He will also tease through text messages and phone calls. Deville warns the children they are being watched and that they will soon be the victim of an attack. At the end of the terror-filled week, the birthday boy or girl catches a cake in the face. According to the …
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Moms, here's your chance to think big.
The gifts range from breakfast in bed to nothing—with flowers, manicures and greeting cards in between. Moms, perhaps your families have been thinking about your big day for the past month or maybe Sunday will be the first they hear of it. Regardless of your family's style of celebration, Sunday is Mother's Day. And with more than $16.3 billion expected to be spent on the day this year, it is a highly consumer-driven holiday as well. Now's your chance to tell us what you really want. Would you like a clean house? Expensive jewelry? Maybe the day away from all of them? Or maybe, you'd like to buck the tradition and have a donation made in your name, from an organization like World Vision. For $75, your kids could buy a goat for a familiy in…
Thursday, May 3, 2012
The death of a friend's son has me asking what I can do for suicide awareness and prevention.
The son of one of my friends killed himself last week. My friend found him. When I heard that on Monday, I had a rush of emotions: disbelief, despair and anger. Five days earlier, I read a story about a woman whose son, Dustin, committed suicide in fall 2011. The story was by Mike Schoemer, St. Michael Patch local editor. At the time I read the St. Michael story, I felt a tremendous amount of empathy for Dustin's mother, Gretchen Harrington. But it wasn't until I heard about the death of my friend's son that I felt some of the anguish of a suicide survivor. I cried for my friend, who came home from work to find her son dead. I wanted to hug her and sob with her for as long as she needed me; long-distance prayers and Facebook posts seem so …
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Is there a toy you avoid buying because it’s too creepy or scary?
I swear it was possessed. Furby. That furry little menace always sat idly and quiet on my daughter’s shelf when she was younger. However, the minute I walked into her room or even just walked by, Furby would start talking and doing his creepy thing. It wouldn’t have been a toy I would have ever brought into our home willingly – just the gremlin-like look of it was disturbing enough. It was one of those gifts from a relative that you try to tolerate – for a while. Eventually Furby happened to find its way into the bottom of the box of toys during a move. To this day, I’m still fairly certain I removed Furby’s batteries before it went into the box. The minute we loaded the boxes in the van, we could still hear Furby trying to interact with …
Thursday, April 19, 2012
The Minnesota Vikings’ quest for a stadium may have shed light on a larger issue: Who and what controls our state government?
Editor's note: Mike Schoemer is the local editor of the St. Michael Patch. I was a cub reporter back in 1998 when I first met Rep. Morrie Lanning, who was then the mayor of Moorhead and the head of Concorida College, a private school in that same community. Lanning and I were first introduced as my publication did a special magazine on Moorhead, highlighting its progress and development following the horrors of the 1997 Flood of the Century. Fast forward a few years, and Lanning was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives. He stepped away from the campus, and headed down to St. Paul to tackle the issues. When I first saw him, he was excited to head to the Capitol. Now, as I watch on camera as the Republican from Moorhead try to …
Do 'temps' get more than an inkling of what it's like for real single parents?
Can parents in a two-parent family ever know what life is like for a single parent? When your partner in child-rearing isn't available to help out—whether for a day, a week, a month, or even an afternoon—does that offer a glimpse into single parents' struggles? At any given moment during those times when a spouse or partner is temporarily out of the picture, the challenges may be similar to what real single parent might face: A real single parent could probably come up with a better list, but those are the kinds of things that came to my mind—such as it is. My spouse is traveling a lot for work this month, and the things falling through the cracks are getting bigger by the day, as are the cracks. Actually, I've always thought it would …
Thursday, April 12, 2012
The act of premastication has been in the spotlight in recent weeks.
Actress and mom Alicia Silverstone has made some major waves in the past couple weeks with a home video of her pre-chewing her 10-month-old son's food and feeding him mouth-to-mouth. The video, shown above, quite obviously went viral and got doctors, moms and bloggers talking. Silverstone even went on the defensive this past weekend saying she wasn't doing anything new, but she also wasn't suggesting others do it. "People have been feeding their kids that way for thousands of years," she said at a screening for her new movie, Vamps. "I wasn't trying to be independent or cause such a ruckus. I'm very glad that I did it." According to an ABC News report, the practice—called premastication—is in fact a common practice in other countries, it's…
Monday, April 9, 2012
The Twins return home today to begin a stretch of 19 games in 21 days against some of the game’s best teams and most dominating aces.
The Baltimore Orioles are supposed to be among the worst teams in baseball this season—spending their summer jockeying with the Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres for the worst record in baseball. Well, Baltimore has won three straight to start 2012, sweeping the Minnesota Twins to take an early—albeit likely short-lived—lead in the loaded American League East. While few around baseball envision the Twins heading to the postseason, Minnesota showed little life against an Orioles squad that managed to win just 69 games a year ago (six more than the Twins) and this year features a lineup of scrap heap salvages. As the season enters its second week, things don’t get any easier for Minnesota. After departing Baltimore having…
Thursday, April 5, 2012
A spectrum of conclusions explain autism spectrum disorders. What are you doing to limit autism risks for your children?
Some scary new statistics on autism were released last week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now estimates that 1 in 88 children in the United States have been identified as having autism, according to a study that looked at data from 14 communities. Results have changed since 2009, when 11.3 per 1,000 8-year-old children had been identified as having autism. There has been a 23 percent increase since the last report. Some of this increase is due to the way children are identified, diagnosed and served in their communities, although exactly how much is due to these factors is unknown, according to the CDC. Although the cause of autism is not yet known, scientists have studied children on the spectrum and parents have …
Orono Superintendent says community's commitment to education lays a solid foundation.
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Thursday, April 5
By Dr. Karen Orcutt Orono Superintendent of Schools As early settlers populated remote areas of Minnesota, one of their first priorities was to build a school. That amenity—perhaps a luxury at that point in time —is what attracted many other settlers. The opportunity for their children to receive an education was more important than just about anything else. Today, a quality school system is still one of the most important features of a community that prospective residents seek before deciding where to live. This year marks the 60th year that Orono Schools has proudly provided the students of Independence, Long Lake, Maple Plain, Medina, Minnetonka Beach and Orono with an exemplary education. It’s natural to take pride in our national …
Michael Rose
9:01 am on Friday, May 18, 2012
This does seem a bit cruel and unusual. However, I might be inclined to hire someone to mess with my 18+ child (I don't have one...this is hypothetical). That actually could be kind of funny..."Punking" your college freshman son/daughter could be cool. For instance, maybe you could hire an impostor dorm roommate, who would be the biggest jerk of all time. Then, a few days in, you could reveal the… more ›