Morning ramblings & weighty issues

I have so much to do at work today that it's a bit daunting... so to get warmed up I thought I'd write a little somethin, somethin here.

First, as if Rob Thomas isn't adorable enough AND a great performing artist (my husband will probably cringe as he reads this), he has just moved up a couple of notches on my list of great petatarians. Why? you may ask. Well, an animal shelter here in Hudson Valley known for it's "no kill" policy has recently had a run of bad luck since its director became seriously ill and was omitted to the hospital. Well, I don't know if Mr. Thomas is from around here or not, but if he is, all the more reason to love Hudson Valley. The point is, he recently made a plee on his website for his fans to support this obscure little shelter in a town that barely registers on the map. My pride for Rockland County thus swells thereby making a potential move to NJ that much more heartbreaking.

Then while driving to work today I hear PLJ talking about some Tyra Banks scandal. Personally, I don't get into pop culture. Sometimes I watch the entertainment news shows because they humor me, but other than that, I just find most of pop culture overwhelmingly fake and superficial. Two traits I have little tolerance for. (On a deeper level, I think pop culture is detrimental to women's self image, but I won't bore you with all of that.) Case in point... Tyra was photographed in a swimsuit looking more than skin and bones. This was an outrage to many, so they have posted these photos on the web criticizing her for gaining some weight. Now, the medias’ reaction is schizophrenic as usual. They can never decide where they stand on an issue, particularly when it comes to women and their weight. As if this is a newsworthy story... any given actress seems to be TOO SKINNY or NOT SKINNY ENOUGH. So killers of self esteem, please tell us women who are dying to know... what is the acceptable weight?

Now back to Tyra... PLJ played a sound bite of her emotional response to the criticism and how she has something important to say to her critics... tomorrow on the Tyra Banks Show. Oh please... the hypocrisy is making me nauseous... this is the woman who also has the America’s Next Top Model show where if you watch reruns of the 2nd season you can witness her telling a hopeful top model, who used to be quite heavy, but lost all the weight to fulfill her dreams of becoming a supermodel, that she needs to "work on her body" cause she has a few extra pounds. On the same season I believe, she can be caught telling a model that if she's serious about being a top model she needs to start "working out and watching what she eats." Now both of these girls were a size 0. Size 2 tops. So I laugh when she takes the opportunity to grab the spotlight and run with this issue, as if she hasn't perpetuated the problem herself on national television. Oh yeah… her ANTP show originally had plus-size model hopefuls on it. These girls not only never won, or made it very far in the contest, but they are no longer even on the show at all. I remember one time for a photo shoot, the girls had to run to a rack of clothes and find something to wear and the plus-sized girl found nothing even remotely in her size. So not only was she not given a chance to win, but they ridiculed her by not even giving the girl something to wear in her size. So Trya, please, spare us the water works. I'm not buying it.