NOTED: BARBARA BROUSAL SIGHTING

Mom061204_198 Well, it's just an unflattering pencil drawing in this week's New York magazine Jukebox feature, but Dan Zanes' slinky sidewoman has issued her first public statements since she gave birth and went on hiatus from the band. Barbara was one of three hipster grownups asked to review new music releases for kids and, well, who cares what the other two thought? They're not slinky.

Barbara gave a 9 out of 10 to Paul Westerberg's "Open Season" soundtrack:

". . . this one immediately brought back memories of drinking beer in the dorm room. It still sounds like Paul Westerberg—just his lyrics have changed."

And she gave the import "Colours Are Brighter: Songs from Children" a perfect 10. According to Barbara, this compilation, assembled by Belle and Sebastian as a benefit project for Save the Children (they also make nice ties) is:

" 'indie' in all the best ways—interesting and offbeat, and not at all condescending. 'Go Go Ninja Dinosaur' reminded me of something that would have been on a Cibo Matto record, and Jonathan Richman’s 'Our Dog Is Getting Older Now' sounds just like a Jonathan Richman song. I would edit a couple of songs out and play this a lot for my baby and me."

Cibo Matto? Hey, whatever. She's back.

OUR ANALYST'S RECOMENDATION: BUY IT. BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT.

Tas_header_kail2Our estimable former colleague Tom Vinciguerra gets a free lifetime subscription to FD.com for calling our attention to the DVD release of "Star Trek: The Animated Series," the short-lived Filmation cartoon based on the original five-year mission, which featured scripts by the original writers and voiceovers by Shatner, Nimoy, & co.

As a young child, this series was the most sophisticated Saturday morning show we'd ever seen. It had a late Saturday morning air time and it was appointment viewing. Tom mentions in his Sunday Times piece that some "Trek" purists question whether the animated series "can be accepted as canon." ACCEPTED as canon?! It's essential!

We cannot think of a more super-cool way to introduce Fellow to the world of "Trek" than to sit down with him and enjoy these classic episodes--and, unless Loving Mother gets wind of it, that's the plan.

THIS SHOULD HELP YOU RESOLVE THAT INTERNAL DEBATE ABOUT WHETHER IT'S APPROPRIATE TO GIVE A HOLIDAY GIFT TO YOUR CHILD'S TEACHER

If he or she is anything like the average elementary-school teacher in the U.S., he or she spends about $539 of their own money per year purchasing supplies, prizes, and other materials for your kids, according to a new Scholastic survey.

DISCIPLINE TIPS YOU WON'T FIND IN NEXT MONTH'S PARENTS MAGAZINE #5

A South Carolina mom, frustrated by her 12-year-old's unrelenting mischief, had him arrested after he repeatedly broke into his great-grandmother's hiding place to play with the GameBoy which had been purchased for him as a surprise Christmas present. The mother said she hopes that police intervention will scare the boy straight before he gets charged with something more serious.

While many parents and parenting experts across the country have criticized the mother's actions, Fox News has offered her a nightly call-in talk show.

THERE ARE PLENTY WORSE THINGS YOU COULD DO - SAY, HAVING YOUR KID ARRESTED FOR SNEAKING INTO THE CLOSET TO PLAY WITH HIS CHRISTMAS PRESENTS. . .

Some parents are going beyond fingerprinting and getting their youngsters swabbed for DNA in case of a worst-case scenario. Interestingly, orthodontists are being seen as the go-to medical professionals to help establish a national database. FD asks, "Why not dentists? Or, for that matter, pediatricians?"

HEY, DON'T KNOCK IT: NO WAY WE'LL EVER PART WITH OUR TOM BURGMEIER AUTOGRAPHED BALL

We anticipate that Fellow's rapidly snowballing baseball-card obsession will become a major subplot here in the weeks ahead. And we'll be making a case for the social and educational benefits of the hobby as we delve deeper into it.

For now, enjoy this lovely item from Slate, in which writer Bryan Curtis receives an autographed baseball card from former Phillies left-hander Don Carman, 15 years after his younger self wrote away for it. Naturally surprised, Curtis contacted Carman, who told him:

"My wife told me it was time to clean the garage. . . So, I started digging through the stuff and found a box behind my tools. I opened it up and saw it was a bunch of fan mail, 200 to 250 letters."

December 7, 2006 | Permalink | Subscribe to RSS

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