New poll!

The Roach Family Blog is proud to present a new poll for the regulars. Guess the baby's birth day. Bravenet won't allow more than 10 responses with their free service, so I had to lump days together. So, do you think Cathy will be early, later, right on Sept. 13th or will she go into labor on Labor Day? The poll is on the side bar to the right.

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And if you're curious, the results of the last poll was 15 votes for boy and 22 for girl. We'll find out who was right soon enough!

Which one is the W Chord?

New Orleans lies in ruin, gas prices near $3.00 a gallon, 1,800+ troops dead in Iraq and the president takes a break from his 5 week long vacation to learn how to play guitar.

Read "How I spent my summer vacation, by George Bush."

Any day now!

This baby could be here any day. The baby is head down and Cathy is 2/3rd effaced. Wish us luck!

Love you Forever: Creepy or Sweet?

My family and I have an ongoing debate about the book "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. This book has been extremely successful, with more than 15 million copies sold. I remember first hearing of this book when we discussed it in my "Sociology of the Family" class at DePauw. I started thinking about this book again while shopping for books for Baby Roach

People either love it or hate it. I happen to fall into the "hate it" category. I personally believe this book is creepy and twisted. It's a bizarre tale of a mother that apparently can only tell her son that she loves him when she sneaks into his room when he's asleep and sings him this sappy little song. The story gets twisted when she continues this after he leave home and starts his own family. She breaks into his house, crawls into his room and rocks her grown son and sings the same sappy song. The table is turned when mom gets sick and the son breaks into her nursing home and rocks the mom and sings the same sappy song. The story ends with the mother dying and the son rocking his child and singing the same sappy song.

Now, I've been told that this book will mean a lot more when I have kids (In about 2 weeks!) but I doubt it. In this book we never see the mother expressing her love to her son when he's awake. We never see the son's father. We never see the mother acting as a grandmother.

People who like this book say it's about unconditional love. To me, this is a story of a kind of unhealthy co-dependence continuing through generations. And it end with a death. What kind of kid's book is that? Apparently this is a common debate. Just read some of the 316 reviews at epinions.com of the 511 reviews at amazon.com. Some of the posts do recommend alternative books about unconditional love that look much less creepy, includingGuess How Much I Love You and Owl Babies.

And the debate continues.

City Councilman Unearths Magical Zoning Amulet

Oh, if only the Magical Zoning Amulet were real. I could have total control and unlimited power over zoning! Read this hilarious spoof from the Onion. "With this sigil, the power of zoning comes. Through me, the power of zoning flows!" city councilmember Mike LaMere stated as he "held the glowing amulet aloft and transmuted a neighborhood of low-income apartments into a semi-wooded, single-family, residential district with an adjoining riverside park." Hilarious. Well, maybe not for you, but I was ROTFLMAO!

The migration of the U-Hauls

Like the sparrows returning to Capistrano, the IU students are returning to Bloomington. The streets are full of U-Hauls, broken down sofas and out of state cars driving the wrong way down one way streets. The students returning increases the pace of life in Bloomington. More cars, more parties, more noise, but also new faces, new money, new excitement. I somewhat miss counting life by semesters and academic years. Each fall is a new start where everything can begin again. Just watch out on those one-way streets.

Thou shalt not kill (Except for political assassinations)

Pat Robertson apparently forgot about the 6th Commandment on Monday when he suggested on his television show, the 700 Club, that the US assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Roberts stated, "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." He continued with "We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with." Roberts also stated "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

So much for the religious right's "culture of life."

The Time Has Come to Celebrate Man

My friend Adam Yoder keyed me in to the upcoming Testostorama Men's Expo. This three day event will be at the Indiana State Fair Grounds from November 11-13. As the web site says, "Dream no more my friends. This magical place - home to both the steelworker and the CEO - exists. And it's called Testostorama." It's all the brain child of Ray Compton, former Indiana Pacers, Indianapolis Ice, and Indianapolis Colts promotions director. He's the genius that creating the Dancing Elvi for the Ice. He's marketing this as an event where you can "eat, drink beer and shop for power tools in one convenient location." This appears to be the epicenter of "retailtainment" or shopping as entertainment. An attempt by brick and mortarter retailers to get us off of the internet and into their stores. Some of the products that Testostorama thinks men are interested in includes Home Theater, Barbecues, Computers, Video game systems, Sports memorabilia, Sports equipment, Golf, Fitness equipment, Beer, Billiards, Bikes, Cars, Clothes, Cigars, Lawn mowers and Power tools. I can't necessarily argue with that!

Who's in control?

Ben Folds autographed piano key

Ben Folds has donated an autographed piano key for a fund raiser auction for WYEP 91.3FM public radio in Pittsburgh. Very cool. Not sure what I would do with it, but it's very cool. Check it out here.