One Hundred Things My Mother Taught Me A Million Times – Chapter 88

This is a recent photo of one of our many adorable grandchildren, Colt and Heather's little Ember Elizabeth. Please forgive me, but I just had to share.

#88 – “Never mash pimples.  You'll make scars.”

It is such a dirty trick that nature plays, causing teens to have pimples at a point in their lives when they so desperately need to feel good about themselves. What is that, a test, a measure of character, a character builder? Whatever, it is just wrong.

I was one of the fortunate teens with relatively few pimples, but I do recall fixating over, and “pinching” the ones I had, leaving telltale fingernail dents and red dots. I also remember feeling diseased and ugly, yet very fortunate that my pimples, zits, whatever you want to call them, were minor compared to some of my friends’.

My generation possessed a comparative dearth of information about just about everything, including pimples. All we knew was what our parents told us, which was “wash your face and don’t pinch.” Then television entered our lives about the time my friends and I were entering puberty, assuring us that Clearasil and Noxzema would make our pimples magically disappear, which was a lie. Then when my kids were teens, Accutane came along, with all the dire warnings that it would cause birth defects, and pimples became a scourge of the past, if you had the money to buy the Accutane that is.

When I Googled “acne” to see what I could learn, I got 128,000,000 results, which is mind-boggling. I found out that the most common type of acne is “acne vulgaris” which seems crudely named. What I didn’t realize is that vulgaris, which I associate with the word vulgar, is actually the Greek word for “common.” The information online is vast, interesting and helpful, but the photos are heartbreaking. Click On Read More Below...

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

At the risk of someone saying, "You didn't like 1Q84 because you are intellectually inferior," I'll say that 1Q84 is one of those books that people say they like, just to appear intellectually superior. Written by iconic Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami, who is probably most famous for Kafka On The Shore, 1Q84 was on several "best books of 2011" lists, and the book cover was pretty cool, so I decided to give it a chance. And for 925 pages I gave and gave.

The story, set in Tokyo, begins with main character, Aomame, on her way to a work assignment. When her taxi gets stuck in traffic, she decides to get out and walk, at which point she enters a parallel universe of sorts, representing one of two predominate perspectives that make up 1Q84 (first quarter of 1984). The other perspective is that of Tengo, an elementary school classmate of Aomame's she hasn't seen in 20 years, but with whom she unknowingly shares an unrequited love.

Outwardly, Aomame is a fitness instructor and yoga therapist, but she also has a secret occupation performing "jobs" for a wealthy dowager who maintains a safe house for battered women. Tengo is an aspiring writer who anonymously and illicitly re-writes a book, Air Chrysalis, that becomes a literary sensation.

1Q84 is about how Aomame and Tengo reunite through a series of events so surreal and disconnected that I felt I had to read on just to make sense of the story. The book includes plenty of elements that serve more to keep you awake than anything else, including a religious cult, a supernatural group of “little people” who come out of the mouth of a dead goat, double moons in the night sky, a fictitious place called “cat town,” several murders, and a good bit of sex. Click on Read More Below...