What's on my Mind: Roundup

Baby blogs go one further: parents buy domain names in their children's (or sometimes future children's) names. This sounds nuts; parents do tend to go overboard sometimes. However, I can almost understand how someone might want to use their real name as their domain name but not be able to buy the domain they want because it's already taken.

I forsee possible future bidding wars.

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You're sick of reading me rant about it, but I have to say it one more time: If CBS News hires Katie Couric to anchor the evening news broadcast, I will QUIT WATCHING!!!!!!! I have always watched the CBS News, my entire life, and thought it was one of the more solid news teams. I felt like those reporters knew what they were talking about (although less so in recent years). Katie Couric is nothing but an entertainment tart. There is nothing about her that says hard news. Why they don't give the job to John Roberts or Russ Mitchell, Vicky Mabry or Mika Brezinski is beyond me. (DH personally watches for Trish Regan and Lara Logan, but that's a whole 'nother story.) ;) C'mon CBS, get a clue!

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Although I haven't been following the story closely, I feel bad for Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor reporter kidnapped in Iraq. I feel bad for every hostage, but it's worse when it's a pretty white (American) woman. Or at least the media seems to think so, garnering almost wall-to-wall coverage. I do hope she is rescued or freed soon. Here's the text of her mother's statement.

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With all the hubbub over Oprah's book club selections lately, why can't fictional memoirs be recast as fiction based on fact? Why does everything have to fit into a genre? I've never thought of "Night," her latest book choice by Elie Wiesel, as "memoir." I have it categorized in my head as "based on a true story, with more truth than fiction." Even my most favorite book of all time, "The Diary of Anne Frank," is not EXACTLY how it really happened in the Secret Annex. I'm sure that Anne didn't report verbatim the conversations they had with one another. No one's memory is that good. Plus, she herself was in the midst of revising her diary when she was arrested.

Oprah needs to select some undiscovered gems in foreign literature. Unfortunately, those gems are probably not published yet in English.