You Be The Judge

Here's a good subject for the reality show, What Would You Do?. 

Imagine you and your spouse are eating at a restaurant.  A few tables over a family with two small girls sits down.  Everything is going well when you notice the family's two year old slip off her chair, unhook her overalls, pull down her panties and sit on a training potty the mother pulls out.

This is a true story I heard on one of the many court shows now airing on morning TV.  Now you're thinking either the parents are suing the restaurant for throwing them out or another couple is suing the parents for bringing a toilet into the dining area.  Wrong.  Here's a twist as curvy as corkscrew pasta: The parents were suing another patron for taking pictures of their daughter doing her "business" and posting them on the Internet via her blog.  They claimed the woman not only showed their child's face, she included her name and the family's address, prompting scores of harassing e-mails, phone calls and rude remarks in public.  The father feared that they would be forced to move to end the harassment.

The patron was counter-suing saying it was her right to free speech, that the picture was taken in a public place.

If you were the judge, who would you side with.  The parents who claimed they brought the potty to avoid an accident on the way to the restroom or the woman who took the child's picture and plastered it all over the Internet.

Here's what the wise judge said , in this day and age of high tech gadgets and loose values, the parents should not have put their child in that vulnerable position.  The patron who took the picture was with-in her right to take the picture being it was out in a public place.  Now here's the corkscrew the judge threw in, the judge sided with the parents because the woman not only used poor judgement in not blurring the child's face, but added her name and address.  It was also revealed that this woman got many additional hits on her blog after posting the picture earning her more money.  It was because the woman made money from exploiting a child, and posting a picture of a child without the parents permission that the judge sided with them.  I think if the patron with the smart phone had not made money off the picture  or had protected the child's identity, the judge would have sided against the parents for exposing their child in this very public way. 

The one issue that was skimmed over was the health risk.  Bathrooms are placed away from the dining area and kitchens in most restaurants with double doors to prevent the spread of germs.  These parents not only put their young child in a compromising position, they placed themselves and all the diners at risk also.  Now that I think about it, I don't remember any mention of how the child wiped herself or on what.  And what do you do with toilet paper at table side.

So, who did you side with? 

Until next time, always be on your best behavior, you never know when a smart phone aimed by a smart _ss is going to take your picture.

Fork Lift

There's a new fork in town.  For years we have all heard how eating slower is healthier. The longer we chew, the smaller the food becomes and the more saliva gets mixed in to help in digestion.  Chewing and eating slowly gives your stomach time to catch up to your eyes and if dining at a posh restaurant you won't be put on the "Don't let him in list, he gulps his food".

The new fork is programed to tell you when you are eating too fast.  It signals you to slow down.  Weight Watcher's has told its' members for years to eat slowly  because it takes twenty minutes for your stomach to tell your brain it's full.  Instead of a fork telling you to stop eating perhaps we need to implant IM from our brains to our stomachs.  We could then stop short of filling up on meat and veggies and save room for dessert without over-stuffing ourselves.  By the way, this fork is dishwasher safe as long as you remember to remove the mechanical part.  Until next time, always eat dessert first so you will never run out of room.

Garlic for the Masses

Garlic is a well known staple in many cultures.  You can't be Italian unless you love garlic almost to the point of dousing one self in its' juices.  The one cuisine I don't connect garlic to is Chinese.

I had no idea that China is one of the largest exporters of Garlic in the world until I read about two Brits wanted for garlic smuggling.  They smuggled millions of dollars in garlic bulbs from China, through the Netherlands and beyond.  Looks like the mere odor would have given them away.  Garlic smuggling out of China is popular because it is a cheap source of the fragrant bulb.  Garlic is economical enough through more expensive sources I can't imagine how many bulbs and cloves a million plus dollars of Chinese garlic would be.   Imagine the gallons upon gallons of spaghetti sauce, pesto or scampi you could make.  You could also make hundreds maybe even thousands of garlands to ward off all the vampires springing up in movies and on TV.  Until next time go by the garlic display at your local produce stand and breath in the aroma, it can take you all the way to China and beyond.