Disturbing Trends: Juvenile Public Urination

Cultural differences are always hard to understand. That's what makes them interesting. That's also sort of what makes this blog interesting. But I feel like there is a universal expectation of parents that they are instilling positive habits in their children. Toothbrushing. Vegetable consumption. Respect for the law and basic public hygiene. But sometimes that just doesn't seem to be the case. No fewer than four times now I have seen mothers helping their young children pee against walls. None of the children were more than six years old. Everyone can understand that bladder control is newer and more difficult at that age. But urinating against the wall of a business hardly seems like a responsible solution. I witnessed these events not in tucked-away alleys or side-streets, but in plazas, pedestrian malls and major thoroughfares. Just today I saw the most recent example at 2:30 in the afternoon in the middle of the financial district of the city. No one expects these children to have perfect control of their bladders, but really? Public urination is illegal is not just because of puritanical expectations of modesty. It just isn't hygienic to have human waste on the sidewalks. I am hoping I have just noticed a large number of aberrations. That this isn't a commonly accepted phenomenon. Though if it is perhaps it explains the drunk man who continued to cat-call at me while urinating on the building next door to mine last week.

"At this point, male readers may want to go outside and toss a ball around for a while. No matter how sympathetic, how curious or how deeply interested in life’s little yuck factors* you are, this collection is unlikely to hold more than the mildest intellectual appeal for you. But it is hard to imagine any woman, from the most straitlaced and body-denying to the most uninhibited and body-embracing, who will not read right through it with pure enjoyment, small flashes of recognition and the urge to buy it for every female preteen in sight."

-some lame NYT book review.

Seriously, it's about fucking time everyone- man, women, kids on the playground (well they're ok, I guess)- to just stop being so damn squeamish about menstruation. It's part of everyone's life in one way or another. And there is no better reason than naive fear that no one will admit that it's sort of fascinating. That it is a biological mechanism that essentially allows women three-quarters of the time of their fertile lives having sex for pleasure. We are fascinating beings!

*That's a female reviewer referring to the subject of menstruation as a "yuck factor." In my opinion, rotting feces left un-flushed in a toilet for days is a "yuck factor." Menstruation is something that is CONSTANTLY HAPPENING EVERYWHERE.

Why So Hateful, Internet?

Do you remember how I used to make those ridiculous videos when I was in Amsterdam? Well the only way I could make them appear on the internet was to upload them to a video site to host them. So those videos, mostly forgotten by myself and the people I intended them for (that's you, dear readers), have been collecting dust on YouTube for over a year now.

Recently I received a notification that someone had commented on one of my videos. Actually I received two notifications of two comments in the same day. Confusing, really since I hadn't looked at my YouTube account in over six months. The comments were from some dude in Michigan telling my I suck. Twice. In one day. Today I got another comment on a different video from a charmer in San Diego calling me gay.

Let's be real now people. If you are looking through YouTube and came across a video that looked like one of mine, why would you even watch it, let alone take the time to comment on it? I'm not trying to whine about people being mean on the Internet because it's a tiresome topic, but it seems a person must be blinded by malice to take the time to tear apart such poorly made, ridiculous stuff. I mean, maybe my friend from Michigan is a big fan of the often forgotten musical Mame and feels personally offended by my treatment of one of its beloved songs? I mean I doubt it, but maybe.