Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Here are a few cute, Winter-themed Hilda pin-ups for you!

DOTW

It is my distinct pleasure to bestow the very first DOTW honor to Pennsylvania attorney, Karl Rominger. 

Rominger is representing Jerry Sandusky.  In a recent interview, Rominger explained Sandusky's presence in the showers with young men as follows:

“Teaching a person to shower at the age of 12 or 14 sounds strange to some people, but people who work with troubled youth will tell you there are a lot of juvenile delinquents and people who are dependent who have to be taught basic life skills like how to put soap on their body.”

Here is video of the interview at The Blaze:  Rominger Interview.

Perhaps these troubled youth were also struggling to understand the definitions of  "pedophilia," "fellatio," and "sodomy" as well.  One could argue that Sandusky was merely helping them to broaden their sadly lacking vocabularies by showing them what the words meant. 

Congrats, Karl!  I sure hope the money is worth it.

If you make it, I will buy

I was just Christmas shopping for my kids and trying to find Legos that would interest my daughter.  She's not into Harry Potter, Star Wars, Ninjago or reptiles.  All of the themed sets are definitively "male."  Yeah, I can give her a regular set (which I have already done), but it's not as cool as the Harry Potter set her brother is getting.  Starting in 2012, Lego is going to release a line of blocks geared specifically toward girls.   They are going to be called Friends.   Not the most exciting title ever, but I'll take it.  Here are a few pictures of the products.

It looks like they got some feminists working up in there! 

Big Announcement

I make two commitments to you, gentle reader. My first commitment is to complain incessantly.   The second is to uphold the highest standards of class and taste.  It is with these core principles in mind that I bring you a new Contrary Godmother tradition.  Every Friday, I'll highlight one individual who particularly offends my delicate female sensibilities.  This lucky person will be granted the honorary title of:

Pretty snazzy graphic, eh?   So who do you think should be our inaugural DOTW?

T and A PSA

I'm not sure if I can play along with this one.  Check out these "public service announcements"  <<nudge-nudge, wink-wink>> brought to you by Mozambique.

Apparently the text (as if anyone is going to read it) says: "When we talk about breast cancer, there's no women or superwomen. Everybody has to do the self-examination monthly. Fight with us against the enemy and, when in doubt, talk with your doctor."

I can't.  I refuse to even pretend to believe that these ads might have made for the benefit of women.    It would have been more honest if these were ads for testicular self-examination.

Vintage Ad: Girl, please! How you gonna sit on my couch knitting in them raggedy-ass stockings?

Honey, I think that we have bigger problems here.  If your husband is the sort of fancy, fancy man who worries his metrosexual little head about the perfection of your stockings, there are other problems in the relationship.  Is he pissy because they won't be nice when he wants to wear them or is he just a dick?  Either way, girl, Lux ain't fixin' the problem.

In "Turning-Into-My-Mother" News

I can admit that I am not stylish, and I don't always "get" fashion, but holy shit, I could not put together an uglier outfit if I tried.  Who, exactly, is going to click on that and buy high-waisted baby-diarrhea green spandex pants and a cardigan that looks like something a morbidly obese elementary school librarian was wearing in 1984? WTF?  How about some deep conditioner and a comb, while you are at it? 

The Voice of The Mother in me is screaming: "You're such a pretty girl!  If you'd just brush your hair and not dress like that... "

It's Hard Out There for a Sorcerer

On Monday, Saudi Arabia beheaded Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar.  She was found guilty of practicing sorcery.  Yes, sorcery.  In Saudi Arabia they like to party like it's 1692.  She was arrested by the religious police after claiming to be able to heal the sick.  She was apparently charging people $800 to do so.  So at worst this woman was a scam artist.  Maybe she really thought she could heal people, who knows?

What I do know is that Saudi Arabia is a tough place to be a woman.  In 2006, the Saudi Labor Minister, Ghazi Al-Qusaibi, said the following:

"...therefore no woman will be employed without the explicit consent of her guardian. We will also make sure that the [woman's] job will not interfere with her work at home with her family, or with her eternal duty of raising her children..."

 So, let's say you are a woman and you need money for some reason.  There's a 30% chance you are illiterate, you may have been married off as early as age nine, you have only limited property rights, you aren't allowed to drive, and you are basically at the mercy of your closest male relative.  Yeah, think about that.  You could be completely under the control of your dickhole brother.  Sweet!  So, anyway, you need some money.  What are your freaking options?  Running a little hustle is kind of understandable under these circumstances. 

It certainly makes me grateful to live where and when I do.

You can read the full story on the Telegraph here.