...And Now for a Word from Our Sponsors!

Have you ever wondered how much of our every day life and speech is influenced by the latest commercials? Lately, I have noticed that you can tell which channels people watch by what kind of commercials they repeat. For instance, if it's not a commercial shown on a sports network, chances are good that my kids and I haven't seen it. If it's not a commercial shown on a political news network or a kids channel, then my sister Meredith has not watched it.

Some of my favorites lately...

My boys seems to be entertained primarily by fast food commercials. Marketing money clearly well spent, since I fathom that pre-teen boys were probably their target audience!

Super shared this little bit of logic the other night over dinner. He tried to become very serious and asked me, "If vegetarians don't eat meat because they love animals so much, then aren't 'meat-a-arians' the real tree huggers?" Then he looked at me and smiled his "Get it?" smile.

Without skipping a beat, his brother Tutone deadpans, "It's a personal choice."

I swear they practice these skits before they come to the table. And before you ask, yes, we have covered carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores in homeschool. That's the joke. They call it a "meat-a-tarian" in the commercial. ;)

...

Phil gives me the "hairy eyeball" every time the roll over minutes commercials with the whacked out mom comes on. Apparently it reminds him of somebody he knows. I have no idea who. ;)

In the latest one, the two sons are arguing because one son has the "new minutes" and the other son has all the "leftover minutes". During this argument the mom comes in to, you know, ascertain the problem. She leans over and mixes up all the minutes and asks them if they can tell now who has the "new" and who has the "leftover". When they respond, "No." She repeats, "No? No?" like she is about to lose it.

This actress portrays perfectly a Mom on the edge. Whenever she talks to her sons, she points at them and widens her eyes. Phil finds eerily familiar. The actress probably has sons herself.

My response? Moms wouldn't lose it if sons didn't fight over ridiculous things!

...

My friend Molly has had it rough with sick people in her family this year, poor thing! With no medical background, I am constantly dispensing unsolicited medical advice. But of course, I always caveat it with an oldie but a goody. "I'm not a doctor..." of course, I don't play one on T.V. so I have to change it.

My email usually goes, "I'm not a doctor, and I don't even play one on T.V." and then straight into my advice. To be fair, and Molly will back me up on this, my advice is usually that she needs to call the doctor right away.

But Molly hit me back with a good one today. And it's new! We will not get into specifics about what was wrong with her poor little guy this morning. It was pretty gross! But after I dispensed my advice, (and prayers!) she responded, "I know you aren't a doctor, but you did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, right??"

Awesome!