children

It started with Hop on Pop. The copy I have is the one I read as a child. Sometimes Henry gets into it and wants to read it over and over, although he often ignores it. He's actually memorized some sections. Anyway, one evening as I read it to him, I noticed the character Mr. Brown introduced with his wife. We then follow Mr. Brown through various events but wife never returns -- he doesn't even bother to invite her to his snack soiree with the hirsute Mr. Black! Must have been a business lunch.

And then there's the generic family of Mother, Father, Sister, Brother and Other Brother featured at the end of the book. Sister praises the reading prowess of her brothers and her father but never mentions her own or her mother's ability to read. Eh?

I have been mulling over the last issue of Bust for a month or so now. Specifically, I think about one particular article – the one about choosing not to have kids. Now, I love my son more than I ever thought possible. But I know and will wholeheartedly agree that not everyone should have kids. It does not define being human and certainly is not the end goal of womanhood. Unfortunately, the Bust article seems based on the idea that folks with kids cannot wait to proselytize parenthood and think it their goal to make sure those who choose to not have a child feel devastated and guilty about their choice.

I just received an e-mail from my friend Kim Coletta, who many of you know as the bassist of Jawbox, others know as the owner of DeSoto records, and still others may know as just being an amazing, inspiring woman. She is all three, and much more.

She is also a good friend to her one-time bandmate J Robbins, who's young son Callum was born with a disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. There is no cure for the disease, and treatments for it, both conventional and alternative are incredibly expensive. Since J is a indie recording engineer, you can imagine that they don't have the best health insurance and the bills are stacking up.