Other Things on My Mind Right Now

I live in Minnesota, and I’ve been known to listen to a Madonna song from time to time.

And I have to say, as I’ve gotten older, I find myself (in spite of myself) becoming more and more detached from popular culture (with a special hello to my good friend at A Good Yarn who is a pop culture goddess).

A typical weekday for me goes a little something like this (hit it!):

6:00 Wake up
6:01 – 6:10 Eliminate waste
6:11 – 6:19 Stare into the nothingness or skim newspaper
6:20 – 6:45 Veg out to ESPN Sportscenter
6:45 – 6:50 Shave
6:50 – 7:00 Shower
7:01 – 7:09 Eat 1.5 bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios (Sportscenter)
7:10 – 7:29 Check email, draft blog post
7:30 - 8:45 Beg, plead, wrestle, coax, yell, bribe and reward TinyE to school
8:45 – 9:ish Arrive at work
9:ish – 6:ish Work (some time on the internet)
6:ish – 6:45or so Drive Home
6:45 – 7:30 Dinner, dishes, skim newspaper

7:00 – 8:00 Watch Wifeswap (Mondays only)

7:31 – 8:00 Homework with TinyE, or crafts, or some such diversion
8:01 – 9:00 Watch sports, if available
9:01 – sleep Read*

What you’ll note about this schedule is that I have very little time to connect with the lives of celebrities.

I’ve reach an age** where people who appear on the covers of magazines that are for the super-famous (like People or Vanity Fair or Us Weekly) are completely and totally unfamiliar to me. I literally have no clue who they are.

Unless it’s on NPR or Sunday morning political shows, I often have no idea what it is.

I have never seen “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost,” “Dharma and Greg” or any new show that started this season (“The Nine” is the only one that comes to mind). I have, however, seen 2 of the 3 Worlds Series games.

So, with that as background, I want to confess that for some reason, Madonna and Guy Ritchie adopting a child from Africa really doesn’t bother me that much. I feel like I should be outraged, but I can’t really muster up any regard for it at all. I don’t even care if she avoided the bureaucracy and red tape that we typically associated with international adoptions. In fact, I assume that the rich and famous often get advantages of this nature. I do think the child is in for some amazing culture shock. I do hope that adopting African babies does not become vogue (the 2006 version of the “Manny”). I do hope the child is not victimized by the media circus. I don’t necessarily think he will have a better life, but I know he will have a different life. I suppose the widower/father’s opinion matters overall, but it does not shape my response.

I don’t really care.

Is that wrong?



*I’m currently reading J.D. Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey.” Zooey is a boy. I did not know that until Tuesday of this week. Yes, I’m ignorant. I know almost nothing. My initial reaction to “Franny and Zooey” was that it was pretty darn good, but as the Franny “chapter” gives way to the Zooey “chapter,” Salinger goes from above-average to amazing. The letter from Buddy to Zooey was so good I read it twice.

**Age in this case really is a state of mind. People much older than I am are totally up on who’s who in popular culture. Also, where music is concerned, I try desperately to keep up with the college crowd***.

***I usually fail.