From the monthly archives:

June 2010

Helpful Tip

by Marinka on June 29, 2010

If your 12 year old daughter has a friend over, and they’re making a home movie in which your daughter is the “mother” and she’s heading to work wearing what looks like a slip, resist the urge to ask if she’s working as a prostitute.  Because when you do, your daughter will shriek OH MY GOD! and her two-years-younger friend will ask what a prostitute is and while you’re busy being all flustered and saying  things like “I mean a postitute. You know, someone who posts a lot” your 12 year old will explain to her friend that a prostitute is someone whose job it is to have sex with people for money and the friend will make the OOOOO face and you can already imagine the phone call that you’ll be receiving from her parents, who probably wanted to break the news about prostitution to her themselves.

And then you’ll ask your daughter how she knows what a prostitute is and she’ll say “from school” and when you push further, she’ll say “because during the Renaissance that’s what people who didn’t have jobs did” and of course the younger friend is not asking what Renaissance is, which is just your luck. Because you’re sure that her parents would look at you with great admiration if you taught their daughter something about THAT.

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A Very Important Message

by Marinka on June 28, 2010

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while, and I wavered because this is a humor blog and this topic is decidedly not funny.

But it’s important and sometimes that trumps funny.

Last week, a 12 year old drowned in New York, in an outing with her class.  Obviously, this is a tragedy and it’s complicated by the blame being tossed around.  Not enough adults supervising the outing.  Kids going into the water when there were no lifeguards on duty.

A few days later, a three year old drowned with her nanny, when they slipped in the deep end of the pool.

Others will allocate blame.

I just want the drownings to stop.

I want swimming to be taught in schools, starting in nursery school. I want water safety to be treated seriously, as a life skill, because it is.

It is more important to know how to swim than it is how to ride a bike.

It is more important to know how to swim than to vacation at Disney.

All children should know how to swim.

There is a lot to learn about water safety here.

Drowning is the second cause of  unintentional death for children between ages 1 and 4 and 10 and 14.

Even if a child knows how to swim,  he can drown.  Olympic swimmers can drown.

We have to talk about it because we have to stop it.  Please look into water safety classes in your area and sign up for them.   Learn about water safety.   If you can’t find a reasonably priced swimming classes near where you live, email me at MarinkaNYC@gmail.com and I’ll help you find one.

Because I think it’s that important.

(If you came here to read something funny,  just hit refresh for 20 or so hours, and I’ll come up with something by then.  Promise.)

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Young Ladrinka is 9!

June 28, 2010

There’s a lot that I could tell you about my son, MY BABY! turning 9.  I could tell you how I had a hard time getting pregnant with him, how 9/11 was with a not-quite 3 month old, how being a mother the second time around changed me, or how my child turning 9 is […]

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Glamorous

June 25, 2010

Earlier this week, I had a tooth extracted.  Fortunately it was way in the back, so I’m not yet ready for a Jerry Springer appearance, but it was still very ouchy.  Husbandrinka asked how I was feeling and I bravely admitted that I was fine, although I predicted that I’d take a turn for the […]

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When in Paris

June 24, 2010

Remember my lovely friend Susan? Well, Susan is in Paris.  On a vacation that seems to be lasting a century. And although Susan is a running, tennis-playing, yoga om-ing healthnut, she appears to have gone native.

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Remedial Blog School: How To Lose Readers Without Even Trying

June 23, 2010

Do you have a blog? Does your blog have readers? Do you find it annoying that people rudely come to your blog and read what you write, privately, on the internet? Well, you’ve come to the right place!  Because once you follow these easy steps, readers will be abandoning your blog faster than rats fleeing […]

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America, Baby

June 22, 2010

When my parents and I were in the process of emigrating from the former Soviet Union, I got into a huge disagreement with a makeshift friend about whether we’d be going to the United States or America.  Shtatyi, the States in Russian, was a place that our parents talked about in hushed tones.  Good for […]

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World Cupper

June 21, 2010

Last Sunday I was watching the Australia-Germany play a soccer game with my stepson.  Australia and Germany, which by the way,  seem like the two countries that would produce the world’s most unappealing fusion cuisine.  But in the middle of the game I suddenly I realized that every single person on the field, including the […]

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