Sunday Random, or “Sometimes, The World Is Just A Bit Odd”

Awhile back we ran across a really disturbing study out of Edinburgh’s Napier University. According to the BBC some eighty-nine Glaswegian children from five different primary schools were interviewed to talk about their views on male/female gender and behavior. The kids were eleven and twelve years old.

The question they were asked was if it was justified for a man to strike his wife or girlfriend if she’d cheated on him. Nearly all of the children polled said, “Yes.” 80% of the children felt it was okay for him to slap her if dinner wasn’t on the table on time.

The rest of the study is just as harrowing, and deals with diminished future expectations for the girls and accepted discrimination, but because T’s sister (aka Mother of Sons) has in the recent past had the addition of two gorgeous Wee Men join she and Big Man, what stuck with us is what the researcher said about her subjects, and how it reflects on boys:

“The children didn’t agree with violence, but gave reasons to try to justify it if the woman had done something ‘wrong’.

“The old saying of ‘If he pulls your pigtails it means he likes you’, translates into violence in adulthood which girls accept as normal.”

Boy, that old saw again. Sometimes, there are just no words for the lies some people tell kids, are there? T. remembers lecturing her seventeen fifth grade boys on this very topic (she somehow had only two girls in that class), and concluding with a Wrath of Teacher voice, “– and if I see any of you pulling hair, or kicking muddy water on Amanda and Sara or any of the girls, you will be RUNNING laps around the field for every recess for a solid month, so help me.” (Is it any wonder that the boys took to leaving her long worms and millipedes and not the girls on the playground?) She sometimes wonders if she scarred any of her students for life, but remembers all too well the charming boy in her sixth grade class who left fist-sized bruises all over her back — because he allegedly liked her. She wishes she had the right hook then that she does now.

Dear Mother of Sons: we sometimes worry for the Wee Men. What a world they’re coming into.

Sometimes, this town seems very wrong, and not in a quirky, funny way, either. Apparently Amnesty International has spoken out against Scotland for years for its continued violence against women. This study bodes ill for this city down the road, and here’s hoping that educators and parents are taking what they’ve reflected to their children seriously – and figuring out something to do about it all.

---

That made us both very sad — so, let’s talk about some nicer Scottish news: taxidermy!

Okay, “nicer” is a state of opinion here… but we were recently torn between horror and amusement to find that Scotland – Aberdeenshire, to be specific – is once again pushing the envelope of good brewing and …good taste. The company, BrewDog, had already been roundly criticized for brewing extra strong ales and beers… now they’ve come up with a new line called End of History – 55% alcohol by volume – and the bottles are slipped into the bodies of taxidermied roadkill. Yes. Dead animals.

We won’t bother including a picture, but if you need one – you can visit here. Of course, it was a limited line – sold for between £500 – 750 a bottle — and it’s already sold out. Because if you don’t have your ridiculously strong ale poured out of a dead animal at your next party, really, how cool are you?

Did we mention that sometimes this country is just a bit off?

Meanwhile, on the homefront, the long light continues. Though it’s not exactly sunny — we’ve had maybe five days in July so far where there has been no rain — it is still very light out until well into the evening, and early morning, and it is bringing on some intriguing sleeptalking episodes. One goes to bed and is awakened by one’s spouse, crooning to them, patting the blankets around them. “What are you doing?” one asks ones spouse in a carefully, psychiatric-approved Calm Voice, knowing the danger of abruptly awakening both the sleep-talking and the probably insane. “I’m encrypting you,” is the response, as eyes remain closed. “Music is closely associated with math, which is why I have to sing.”

Spouse simply rolls eyes and sighs as the patting and crooning continues.

Yep. Some days are just odd.

Meanwhile, T. has sold another book – woot! – and is working on three at a time, and jittering from drinking too much tea. D. is spending days — between being his company’s Good Luck Developer Charm — wrestling statistics into comprehensible form, and falling asleep over piles of books. And possibly encrypting things.

And now for something completely different.

We’re grateful that NPR is something you can listen to no matter where you are – and this little animation narrated by Robert Krulwich makes us quite happy just now.