The written word is a lie

Bucketful o' randomness:

- On our first wedding anniversary, J and I called into the Adventure Club, this radio show in Dallas that we listened to every Sunday, and requested that they play some Joy Division for us. Josh, the DJ, said about us, "Man, if these guys want to hear Joy Division on a happy occasion, what do they listen to when they're miserable?" I think I still have a recording of that on cassette* somewhere, lurking in that dark recess of the house with the other cassettes that are mostly being saved just for posterity and torturing the children with waves of nostalgia and proof that CDs haven't always been around. That gives us the ability to sound really old, which we can use to our advantage.

Sadly, when I was looking for that link, I discovered that apparently KDGE very recently got rid of Josh, who started as a DJ there the same year we moved to DFW. KDGE also appears to have turned into the hits-and-tits kind of testosterone-fueled radio station that I hate, too. Oh well, they say you can't go home again...

- Did you know that Suave deodorant actually has more of the active ingredient in it than Secret? Good ol' aluminum.** (Aluminium if you're British, though I've never understood that.) I thought everything Suave sucked based on my experiences with the shampoo and the deodorant many many years ago. Apparently they reformulated it and now the shit actually works. Color me shocked. I guess it's good to review my product snobbery periodically and see if it even makes sense anymore.

- Do you ever just bust out into an impromptu chorus of "Rise" by Public Image, Ltd.? Okay, that's just me then. I could be wrong, I could be right... That's one of the few songs where I actually get most of the lyrics right. I am the original Queen of Misheard Lyrics, you know.

- Why did so many of the people who used to be punk - who lived based on all these really hardcore, uncompromising principles and criticized the people like me who had to "sell out" to keep jobs or who didn't think appearance was everything - end up living in a manner so inconsistent with what they used to believe? I think it has something to do with the nature of uncompromising principles in general. I remember a few years ago, when my kids were barely verbal and still definitely almost completely within my control, I had some really hardcore uncompromising beliefs of my own - perhaps replacing the punk ethic I could never fully commit to, I could replace with equally strong parenting beliefs. I haven't exactly changed my views on most things; I'd go for the homebirth all over again, but I wouldn't have beaten myself up over it so much either; the breastfeeding advocacy was something that stuck with me; and now that my own babies are too big to carry in slings, slings that I sew have become my standard new-baby gift to people. So it's not that there was anything wrong with the beliefs; I just think that when you're that hardcore about anything, the only place there is to go is backward. Translation: my kids now eat Fruit by the Foot and yogurt with rainbow colors. I kept what really mattered to me and eased up on some of the rest. I wish that some of the former punks who judged me so harshly could have done the same, instead of doing a total 180 and now pretending that they never cared about abolishing racism, sexism or the government. Extremism seems to hurt just about any cause.

*Yes, we really were that lame, that we listened to the radio on our anniversary and sat there like dorks waiting with a cassette queued up so we could record the DJ talking about us on the radio. What's your point?

** I do, in fact, know that aluminum based antiperspirants are allegedly potentially linked with breast cancer. Unfortunately I hate being sweaty more than I fear breast cancer, pink ribbons be damned.