Depends on whom you ask. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/10/eveningnews/main6286934.shtml Completely anecdotal, but I became a believer in the HFCS is evil theory after noting, over and over again, that my oldest child is completely unbearable after eating pancakes with fake syrup. Real maple syrup does not have the same effect. My friend who teaches preschool confirms my observation. I don't freak out about a tiny bit of HFCS getting into our diets, but, well, I certainly spring for the real maple syrup these days.

Ours came today, too. The kids had pulled it out and set the whole thing up by the time I put the groceries away, so I guess it must have been pretty easy! they watched Bolt on it this afternoon.

I just pulled out my handy Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (I found it at Goodwill the other week!) and opened to a random page: So unless all those Greek tragedians were using dochomiacs in passages expressing intense emotion purely by coincidence, it would seem that, yes, poets have been thinking about these things since long before the 1700's.

Apparently, it's because right now the government offers a tax-exempt subsidy for retiree drug benefits, and under the bill the subsidy will lose its tax-exempt status. ETA: according to the WSJ's Marketwatch

Hmm...my google hand may have been a little too quick: http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/323212/john_deere_health_care_sold/index.html United Health bought John Deere Health Care, a wholly owned subsidiary of John Deere, in 2005. Apparently, John Deere used to include an insurance company and decided to sell that division to United Health in 2005. I apologize; I should have read more carefully. The John Deere press release on the issue is incredibly vague, though: Huh? So WHY are they saying their costs will go up? Where are the projections coming from? There are no details at all about that, just disclaimers that they might be wrong about everything. Mostly I just think it's important to remember that everyone has a dog in this fight, and where the information is coming from matters. Wal-mart endorsed health care reform, after all (back in July; I don't think they've released a statement since the bill passed). What's different about John Deere and Wal-mart? I'm not suggesting that John Deere is making stuff up, but I'd certainly be interested in seeing more details about where the increased costs are projected to come from. It's also worth noting that the cost to employers of providing health care has already been rising dramatically for years.

I just googled the John Deere thing, and found out that John Deere is owned by the insurance company United Health. Fascinating.

Well, the first poll taken AFTER the bill passed (USAtoday/Gallup) showed a plurality (49 to 40 percent) approving of the bill having passed. And if you look at the breakdowns of the polls before, a significant minority who opposed it opposed it from the LEFT--i.e. they opposed the bill because they felt it didn't go far enough. If you put together people who supported the bill with people who didn't support it because they felt it was too conservative, they constituted a majority. And that was a big issue with getting democratic support in congress. Democrats are not a homogeneous group anymore than Republicans are; some people didn't want to support a bill without a public option, for example. Also, polling on individual components in the bill (no bans on pre-existing conditions, subsidies to pay for insurance, etc, not to mention a public option) always showed them to be quite popular. It seems to me that by and large people took issue with the politics of the bill rather than the policies.

You can take the commuter rail from North Station to Salem. My DH used to work at the Museum of Science when we lived in Boston. It's HUGE, and pretty cool. The USS Constitution is fun; you can tour the ship and then there's a (free, suggested donation) museum next door. You can also tour a WWII ship there.

The President sends the budget to Congress; Congress has to approve it. So it means he wants them, but doesn't know for sure what he'll get yet, is my understanding of it. The 2011 budget hasn't been approved yet.

Okay, first link that comes up if you search 2011 budget child tax credit is from the Tax Policy Center; "expand refundability of child tax credit" is listed as a proposal in the 2011 budget. Then it lists permanent expansion of 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and in that section specifies aspects of those tax cuts, including the child tax credit, that the President is proposing making permanent.

Politifact lists "Will extend aspects of the Bush tax cuts such as child credit expansions and changes to marriage bonuses and penalties." as Barack Obama Campaign Promise #4 and cites interviews with the Tax Policy Center as its source. Oh crud...hang on...the CNN article is talking about child CARE tax credits. Although it also says the 2011 budget will keep all tax cuts for incomes under $200,000 which would seem to suggest the child-tax credit will stay the same. So last specific reference I've seen is from the 2010 budget (on politifact). More googling....

I'm never sure what I'm allowed to link to....I googled "2011 budget child tax credit" and there's an article on there from CNN's financial site...the 2011 budget actually proposes expanding the child tax credit. The Bush tax cuts are set to expire (because they were passed through reconciliation, is my understanding of it; they expire unless Congress votes to extend), but President Obama only campaigned on letting the cuts for people making over $200,000 expire. He always said he intended to keep the child tax credit. ETA: I should have said "2011 budget" originally, not 2010

I'm wondering what this means for the sideways world, where the island is at the bottom of the ocean. That world doesn't seem to have an extra helping of evil. The opposite, if anything, since Ben, Jack, Sawyer, et. al. seem to be a good bit more emotionally stable and capable of redeeming themselves than in Sideways world.

Extension of the child tax credit is in Obama's 2010 budget and isn't expected to meet with much resistance in Congress.

My first grader is doing WWE. We were doing FLL, but I was having trouble fitting everything in in (not for him, but for him AND his two brothers), so we've dropped in favor of making sure to give reading and math plenty of time. I'm focusing a bit more on the grammar in WWE now, though. Other than that, he's just started IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization with his older brother (although I'm not sure how that will go once the poems get longer; I may sub in shorter ones for him), we read fun books about grammar from the library sometimes, and we all do a poem of the day and a word of the day in the mornings.

I haven't used Rod and Staff, so I can't compare to that. My son used FLL for 3 1/2 years before we switched to MCT, and I can say that he's retained more from the few months we've been using MCT than he did from those 3 1/2 years of FLL. I'm not saying that would be the case for every child, but my son became very good at memorizing the definitions in FLL without really processing them and at figuring out how to correctly fill in the blanks without truly understanding the material. Those kind of shortcuts aren't available in MCT; he's forced to really think about what he's doing. But the creative and thoughtful presentation means he's also enjoying it. For writing, he's doing both WWE and Sentence Island, and my plan is that he'll continue to do both as they teach different skills. I can say that I very much approve of the incremental approach both programs take. Having taught scores college freshman who couldn't write a decent sentence, much less an entire essay, I'm a huge fan of starting at the sentence level and working up from there.

Susanna/h was our girl name this last go round (I think my list of unused girl names might be the main reason I wish I could have a girl someday!). LOVE it. We were going to use Sukie as a nickname if it fit her. Anyway, I say use the middle name you love. So few people will even know her middle name as she gets older, that I think that's the name to do what YOU want to with and not worry about what anyone else thinks. For various reasons, I really wanted my second DS's middle name to be Benedict. It had a lot of meaning to me, and I just really wanted to use it. I let people talk me out of it, and I've always regretted it.

oop, 39 dollars, that is!

We ordered DH's current glasses from 38dollarglasses, and they've been completely fine. They look pretty good, too. He got an exam at Costco, then took the prescription and ordered the glasses.

My son got Do Not Open for Christmas awhile back. He loves it; he's constantly quoting stuff from it to all of us. I guess that means I need this, too ;)

You can make dining reservations 180 days in advance (all the time, whether there's free dining or not). So I was just saying that as soon as free dining IS announced (assuming it is) it will probably get harder to make reservations. So if you're pretty sure of your dates, you might want to go ahead and make reservations now, particularly if you have some popular restaurants that you want to make sure you eat at.

September is more crowded than it used to be (because of free dining) but it's still one of the least crowded times of year. They offer the big discounts in September BECAUSE it's a slow time. We go regularly in September...the crowds are there, but they're manageable. In general, you can walk on to most of the less popular rides, but you have to do some planning (use fastpasses, get there early, have a basic touring plan, etc) for the big rides. We almost never wait more than 10 minutes in line. Traffic and parking are not a problem at all. The main drawback of September is that it's still VERY hot and humid. I just skimmed the thread, so don't know if this has been mentioned...but if they do offer the quick service plan for the values, you can upgrade to the regular dining if you want by paying the difference (I think it's about $10/day for adults and $3/day for kids). Also, if you're going in early September, you're already inside your 180 day window for dining reservations. You might want to go ahead and book so you can make reservations before the free dining rush hits (you can change or cancel anything without penalty up to 45 days before your trip). Then you can call and add on free dining if/when it's announced.

We attended a UCC church for years, so I know it's not the same as the church of Christ. Honest--I'm not just getting them mixed up; the DOC and the UCC really are in cahoots! :001_smile: Oh, I've considered pretty much every denomination that's out there at some point or another, milovany :) ...there's a lot about the Orthodox church that interests me and appeals to me on some level, but there are also some reasons why I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be a good fit for me. Thank you, though!

This is the partnership I was talking about (I remembered the pastor saying something about it at our old UCC church, which might have been the first time I'd ever heard of the Disciples of Christ) http://www.ucc.org/ecumenical/ucc-disciples-ecumenical.html thanks--church shopping IS hard. Maybe we'll be finished soon, though! We didn't make it today...with the time change and everything I was feeling too overwhelmed to do another brand new church. But definitely next week.

Thanks everyone. Re: communion--I guess I was mostly just wondering whether they pass it or have everyone come up front. Just out of curiosity, really...it doesn't matter much to me either way. I'm pretty sure (from knowing the pastor and reading through the website) that the church we're going to visit is actually not conservative...I get the impression that maybe there's something of an urban/rural dichotomy going on wrt to that sort of thing. I know the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ have some kind of relationship with each other where they work together in certain areas. I've always thought this was interesting since it seems like, in general, the UCC is much more liberal than the DOC. Although I guess they have a lot in common as far as being non-creedal and ecumenically minded and the congregational government.... So it sounds like the services are fairly programmed/liturgical? That's what I'm hoping for. We've just spent a few weeks at a church with very informal services, and I hadn't realized until then how important a somewhat more ritualized service and a focus on liturgy has become to me. And a pipe organ :)