Now for your GRRRs:
Brett S. writes: Mike … my response to today’s GRRR column is pretty simple … I thank God every day I have three boys.
Paul F. writes: Talk about a Grrr. Part two of Season Six of the Sopranos was released a few days ago on DVD. We're talking a lot of time and money here. This ending is BS. A cut to black? Don't get me started. Any merit that the cut-to-black ending could ever have had went straight out the window.
I'm speechless. Had I known that after all this time and investment I would be abruptly left being upset like this, I never would have watched any episodes in the first place. I want all my money back.
Julie H. writes:I want to Grrr about the $2 cost of sodas in restaurants. A Coke or soda does not cost $2 per glass. You can go to any store and get a 2 liter for $1.40 to $1.50 and you get about four or fives times the amount that you get at a restaurant. We are letting the restaurants get away with charging this price by paying the $2. When I go out to eat, I give the kids a choice of a Coke or cheese dip, because it is cheaper to buy cheese dip at a restaurant. They always pick the dip and chips. Everyone needs to ban together to stop this pricing. They are robbing us. Everywhere else people go they get angry about fees and say something. Why are we putting up with this?
Brian M. writes: This is to Ken from Texas, who was complaining about kids being on a cruise ship in October instead of being in school. It's called Fall Break, get a clue. Don't want to see kids on your vacation? Don't take a cruise! A cruise is a popular family vacation because it is relatively cheap and easier to do compared to lots of other vacations. Mike, while reading a lot of your reader GRRs, it is apparent that some people need to MELLOW OUT just a little bit. I'm in graduate school, and if I let every stupid thing that a big portion of undergraduate students do around campus get on my nerves, I would lose my sanity.
Bernadete C. writes: It's about time that we encouraged kids to be kids instead of miniature adults. When I was a kid, the whole point of Halloween was to make my own costumes at home from stuff we had around the house. There was no spending $45+ a pop for costumes made out of plastic that look as if they will melt if they come too close to a flashlight, much less the candle in my jack-o-lantern. My mom had rules on what we could wear -- it couldn't expose skin between shoulders and knees, it couldn't totally obstruct our vision, it couldn't drag on the ground in front to make us trip, and there had to be at least something on the back of it that was reflective so the drivers coming up behind us could see us. We had a blast, got creative with duct tape, old sheets, old clothes, excess fabric from Mom's sewing box, tacky glue, sequins and wire clothes hangers, and came home with lots of compliments as well as candy. This year, my own kids are digging in the back of my closet and in my trunk of fancy fabrics, and in the box of theatrical makeup to do their outfits this year ... and not one of them looks like they are trying to be older than they are or are covered in fake gore. Final result: Queen Esther from the Bible, a generic "super hero," a cowboy and a Jedi Knight.
Mike L. writes: Tight on with the costume piece -- good grief!! Now for my grrr!! Paris Hilton is going to Rwanda; what for? She’s uneducated, undisciplined, lives on a different planet -- but she’s going to “Africa” to demonstrate to 15- and 16-year-olds that “anyone can make a difference.” Give me a break!! How about if she spends a year in a convent to demonstrate that even spoiled little rich girls who make porn flicks for fun can turn their lives around? My daughters are grown, but I wouldn’t want any 15 or 16-year-old whom I know and love doing ANYTHING Paris Hilton does.
Melody W. writes: Unfortunately, the immodest dressing is not limited to little girls in Halloween costumes. At our high school parents night, I was appalled to see a mother in short shorts and a halter top (no bra and plenty to see). At a recent football game, a female student barely had her breasts covered by a narrow strip of cloth. It was like watching a train wreck because we all expected her to fall out at any moment. At a local Saks Fifth Avenue, when the young hip clerk with the pink hair at the MAC cosmetics counter turned around to wait on me, she all but fell out of her push-up bra (and yes, I complained about the inappropriateness of her attire to management). Finally, while recently checking up on my teenage son's Internet activity, I ran across a photo of a female student wearing fishnet hose under panties with her legs wrapped around the neck of a teenage boy. Her caption on the photo was along the lines of "Look! You can see part of my a--!" Classy! I think I saw her mother at parents' night!
Melissa writes: You wrote about your cruise with your wife, and the children aboard the ship. One of your comments was "What schools have a week break in October?" Well, my son's did. His father also got back from Iraq right before the school year started. We took a vacation during that break. If you have ever had anyone close to you deploy, you know that it is difficult to plan anything about the time they get home. So that was the time that we had to take a family vacation. I have a very well-behaved 12 year old and he does not disturb anyone; he was raised that way. If you look deeper, you will discover that the problem is not adults taking their children on vacation during their "Fall Break," but the lack of discipline parents give their children these days. Since you have children, you know that.
J. M. writes: I've said it before and I'll say it again ... ticket scalping should be made illegal, nationwide. These vultures are making a killing off nothing more than a computer phone call, while people who actually work for a living are penalized. The performers don't make the money; it's all going into the pockets of organized pickpockets. It is time to stop this; I'll be contacting my lawmakers.
Jason H. writes: Re: your comment about infomercials, did you know that if you're up past 2 a.m. watching TV, you can buy anything from exercise equipment to acne treatment to ballet barres to makeup that makes one look like they're not wearing makeup?
And adult toys! I was awake around 4 a.m. Saturday morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and turned on the TV. I was flipping past one infomercial after another when I had to turn back to the Oxygen channel because I couldn't believe what I had just seen. They were selling adult toys. For him and for her. Yuck!
Hannah writes: Thanks for being the only person in the media who is bringing this problem to light (until others jumped on your bandwagon). I, too, wanted to spend some mother/daughter time with my 10-year-old, Libby, and take her to see Hannah Montana. But the cheapest tickets I could find (in the nosebleed section, I might add) were $250 each.
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