The first day of summer + Father’s Day = a heck of a lot of barbecuing, even more than usual for a sunny Sunday. Which means it must also be an unofficial, parallel holiday for former boxer George Foreman, the seller of many, many grills, and father of a dozen kids. Let’s grill the headlines however you like them (low and slow or high and fast):
“?‘Freedom’ fries: Texas repeals ban on deep fryers in schools”: Thank goodness! Let freedom ring. But just for the record: The person seeking the change, new Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who also wants to return soda to school vending machines, ran for office on the platform of fighting the scourge of “federal overreach.” But the deep fryer ban he seeks to repeal is a decade old, making the “federal overreach” in question is a product of the Bush administration, not the Obama one.
“Hazmat scare at Wash. college found to involve pudding”: That skin that develops on top really can be disconcerting.
“The ‘Brady Bunch’ musical in the works” “Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!” must be one song. A lot of people grew up with show, and reruns of the show, but a musical? (“Oh, My Nose!”) The article states that The Brady Bunch creator Sherwood Schwartz is working on a musical adaptation of his hit family sitcom for the stage. However, Mr. Schwartz died in 2011 at age 94, and it turns out that Schwartz’s children Lloyd J. Schwartz and Hope Juber, wrote the book, while Juber’s husband, Wings guitarist Laurence Juber, composed the music.
Come on, kids. Mr. and Mrs. Brady, and even your own father would likely encourage you to try something … original. Find your own personality, as Peter Brady was taught. Setting one of your dad’s sitcoms to music doesn’t count. (They are also working on a “Cheers” musical. (“Norm!”)
“Kangaroos are lefties, science says”: This is about predominant-paw occurrence, not politics. Maybe the Mariners can sign a few of them, pitchers and hitters.
“Bare legs now OK for women working at Mayo Clinic”: (In addition to Minnesota, Mayo has clinics in Florida and Arizona.) No doubt a deserved win for employees, but like so many things, it may come with an unintended consequence: A sudden deluge of requests to please turn down the gosh darn air conditioning.
“Twitter wants you to shop on its new dedicated ‘product pages’”: Of course it does. Capitalism/consumerism sure takes the fun out of the parts of the Internet that weren’t initially designed to sell you something.
“Utah school creates ‘texting lane’ for phone-focused walkers”: OK, sure. As long as they are reminded from time to time that the rest of the world won’t be quite so accommodating when they leave their pampered campus.
(History note: On July 19, 1910, the governor of Washington, Marion E. Hay, proclaimed the nation’s first “Father’s Day.” However, it was not until 1972, 58 years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official, that the day became a nationwide holiday in the United States, after President Nixon signed it into law.)
Carol MacPherson: 425-339-3472; cmacpherson@heraldnet.com
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