Last week I asked if you thought we had a “boy problem” in the United States, as reflected in lower educational scores, higher arrest rates, and a higher suicide rate, amongst other statistics. Thirty eight percent of you think that we definitely do, and I agree. As the mother of a young son in school, I think that the commenters who pointed out that our current education system is not set up particularly well to teach boys were absolutely right.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with all the steps that have been taken to advance girls as being necessary. But it is different when an institution in which kids spend twelve or thirteen years attending favors one sex. And at the moment, that sex happens to girls. A better balance needs to happen.

As for today’s question, I will include you in a debate I was having with a friend of mine. We both had been jocks in high school, making varsity and wearing our letterman’s jackets proudly. She was talking about her daughter, and lamenting that she didn’t think she was “sports” oriented, and that maybe she would like cheerleading, which she didn’t consider a sport.

What about you?

Last week’s poll asked which celebrity mom you’d rather hang out with (based on the small amount of knowledge you have about their real personalities) and the big winner was Jennifer Garner with forty percent of the vote. It was a crowded field, and forty percent is pretty impressive. The next highest vote-getter was Reese Witherspoon with nineteen percent.

Poor Katie Holmes and Sarah Jessica Parker! They got no votes at all, which makes me feel sorry for them. Which is ridiculous because they both are fabulously wealthy, have husbands that seem to love them, and beautiful children. If anything, they should be feeling sorry for me. And they probably do.

Today we’re venturing into more serious territory. There have been alarm bells sounded by some researchers regarding what they call “the boy problem.” They claim that because so much focus has been on girls, boys have been neglected in the past twenty years or so, and the cracks in that strategy are beginning to show. Examples of this being high drop-out rates in school, lower school performance, as well as higher arrest and suicide rates.

Yeah, right.

Because I was tired and bored last night, I somehow found myself watching “Cake Boss” on TLC, which is a misnomer, because I certainly don’t view it as a channel from which you learn anything, unless you have a burning desire to learn about large families, subsequent divorces, and the lives people who work on motorcycles. Interesting as those may indeed be, I’m not sure anyone truly learns anything from them.

Anyhoo, whilst watching said show about a Hoboken, NJ (a world I am tantalizingly unfamiliar with, and which I view as a place as strange and interesting as India) cake baker and his staff, I saw an advertisement for this show, called, rather uninspiringly, “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant.” To which I say, “Excrement from a male cow!”

Having now been pregnant twice, I don’t see how this is possible. There is no way your periods are as heavy as normal, if even you do experience bleeding. Bleeding during pregnancy can happen, but it is not the norm. And what about the kicking? Could anyone possibly delude themselves that a hard kick to the ribs is simply the result of exuberant intestinal activity from the burrito one ingested at dinnertime? What about when the baby “drops?” As my best friend who is also currently pregnant stated, “I feel like my vagina is going to fall out every time I stand up.” How could that ever be considered normal?

Which leads me to the crux of the matter. I think the vast majority of women who “don’t know” they are pregnant are indeed deluding themselves. They are having a serious disconnect with their bodies, and for whatever reason, are covincing themselves that all the very obvious signs are something else entirely. The mind is a powerful thing, and if the brain can have the ability to induce illnesses, then it’s nothing to pretend that isn’t a 5 pound baby inside you.

Because seriously, having a baby is scary. Oh yes, it’s wonderful and miraculous, but for many first time moms, it is as scary as hell. Myself included. Having to contemplate an unexpected pregnancy and the subsequent effect on the rest of your entire life is scary. And it’s much easier to hide your head in the sand than to deal with it. There may be a few legitimate exceptions to this, but there certainly aren’t as many as portrayed on this show. Well, I’m still skeptical about the legitmate exceptions, actually.

So, I won’t watch the show, because the mixture of disbelief mixed in with a small amount of sympathy will be too much for me to bear.

Huh: If this were in the Bible Belt, you’d think people would welcome it as good news!

Unfortunately, they are coming for your library privileges.

Seven year old Dominick Philip took part in a promotional photo session for the local newspaper, promoting the Nazareth Library, where he is known to be something of a regular. Sadly, it turns out that Dominick is an illegal alien intellect, hailing from nearby Tatamy, presumably home of wisdom-thieving Inkbacks who come over the county line in the dark of night, seeking to steal the 2 weeks of My Friend Flicka and The Hardy Boys which should rightfully belong only to those of Nazarene residency and status. When the heinous rights-theft was discovered, his library card was naturally revoked!

A library employee checked Dominick’s address after seeing his photo in the paper, then called and left a message on the family’s answering machine with the news, Melissa Philip says.

“As a parent, it just makes you upset,” she says, noting that it’s outrageous someone took time to research her son. “It’s a little over the top.”

What would Jesus borrow?

Last week I wanted to know how cautious you are about what you read on the internets. A full forty-five pecent said that they take everything they read with a grain of salt. I agree with the majority. Twenty-five percent said that it depends on who is doing the writing, and next came the twenty-one percent who considered themselves “very cautious.” But, I would like to assure that twenty-one percent that I am not a dude living in my mom’s basement. She let me move upstairs.

Anyhoo, when I found out I would be having a girl, I breathed a tiny sigh of relief. Not because I hadn’t wanted another boy, but because I didn’t want to have to wrestle with the decision of circumcision again.

Last week I asked if it was more difficult to name girls or boys, and fifty-three percent of you voted “both are equally hard!”

Well, having already named a boy and being faced with naming a girl, I’m going to disagree and say that girls are easier. There are just simply more girl names to choose from. There aren’t a whole lot of boy names, for some reaon, but there are pages and pages of girl ones.

As for today, the mommyblogosphere is scandalized by the acts of one Beccah Beushausen. She posed on the internet as the unmarried mother of an unborn baby with a terminal illness, and who was also promoting her anti-abortion views. She was getting upwards of 100,000 hits a week, and was showered with attention, gifts, and support.

The thing was, Beccah wasn’t pregnant with a terminally ill child. She wasn’t even pregnant at all. It turned out to be a big lie, even though she claims that the experience happened to her in 2005. How was she discovered? She used a picture of a re-born doll, saying that it was her daughter. Except, someone had that exact doll at home! D’oh!

So, that makes me curious…

Coulrophobia, for those of you who may not be familiar with the term, is the fear of clowns.

In this shocking video we see irrefutable proof that even the most fearsome and powerful of human beings is capable of being brought to his/her knees by the mere approach of one of these hideous, grinning homunculi.

Even John Gotti.

From Spy magazine’s doomed tv show, via Gawker

I’m sure we all have our own opinions about this:

Just, stay away from the capris if you want to make the grade. I’m just sayin’.