Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

Apparently it just recently was banned for London's public transportation system, so until very recently was perfectly legal!

First of all, obviously once people are already drunk they're enough of a problem and you can't really keep drunk people off the T but imagine how much worse it could potentially be if they were allowed to continue drinking.

Yikes, London. What have you been dealing with all these years I wonder?

Now I guess this article doesn't give enough info really about the individual families they use for examples, but their little snippets about their lives are not enough to convince me that they're trying hard enough to really live cheaply.

In one of the families only the husband works. Now that may have been a decision they made a long time ago and I'm not trying to make some kind of stink about whether moms should stay home with their kids or anything like that. But the fact is, if you're struggling to pay your bills and your youngest kid is 12 maybe it's time for Mom to get a job! Sorry, but it seems really lazy to me to pretend otherwise. If you're scrimping your pennies to buy eggs (a quote from the mom in this family) maybe working at Starbucks part-time won't kill you, lady.

The other people they mention are a young couple in their 20's, both working and living outside Seattle. They have apparently cut out "most of their entertaining" and trips to visit her family and friends 30 miles away. OK, well I don't know what they're spending on entertaining but I guarantee they can cut back more. And maybe her friends and family can share the burden of visiting. And maybe they can visit less and talk on the phone more. And really, if you're a couple with no kids and both working and you're living in a suburb of Seattle (which is much cheaper than living in Boston, where we live) then you really should be able to get by. I'm sorry.

The guy alludes to their grocery bill "doubling". Well, food prices haven't doubled, so if youre grocery bill did then maybe you need to plan a little better and pay attention to what you're spending.

Listen folks, we spend $200 at the grocery store in a month, to feed two adult human beings, and we spend very little aside from that on other food or drink. It's certainly less than ideal, and in fact a lot of the time it totally sucks ass, but you don't have to act like the sky is falling when you haven't even made a decent effort yet.

I'm just saying.

Sorry if this makes me sound bitchy but it's just that I know feeling poor as dirt and these people aren't there yet.

As goes Massachusetts, so go other states with liberal residents and conservative governors... ha ha.

Way to go California!

I don't really understand how this happens. I'm not exactly saying it's the school's idea to police every student constantly, after all, most students are adults, and if they live off campus how much can you really keep an eye on them?

But I guess this is what I don't understand: If I got that email I would be very concerned about poor Daniel Kim and even if it wasn't "protocol" I would be all over people about following up etc. Where was the actual human being who read that message? I don't get the complete apathy.

US: China, we think it would be nice if you would start treating that little country, Tibet, a little nicer. Could you please consider doing that?

China: US, we think it would be nice if you would go fuck yourself.

US: Oh, OK. Thank you very much. You'll still buy stuff from our companies, right?

The end.

Update: Um, China, everyone kind of hates you. And by you I mean your government, not the guy working for 8 cents an hour at Chinese WalMart.

OK, my snarky comment is this: how about teenage girls just stop being such skanks?

Secondly, seriously, what is wrong with this country? Is it that people really don't know about STDs which is obviously both an educational and societal issue (i.e. your parents should tell you this, if they don't, it's a problem there - if they fail to, the schools certainly should - if they don't, it's a problem with education)?

Or, even worse, is it that everybody knows and they just have unprotected sex anyway, which just further confirms my suspicion that the general public in this country is monumentally stupid?

Depressing, that's for sure. Come on girls, try keeping your legs together every now and then. Seriously.

Of course, this all reminds me of the girl with the stolen cell phone.

I don't know that I can even think of much else to say about this at the moment other than I think there are so many things that are hilarious about it.

Sorry but it sounds kind of crazy to ban marine recruiters from a town. And then everyone says all kinds of nonsense that has no bearing on reality. Everyone always cries about how peace activists aren't "supporting our troops in this time of war" - meanwhile the activists they're complaining about are standing right in front of them with giant signs that say "bring our troops home now". Why do you think they want them home, stupid? So they can spit on them?

Supporting the troops doesn't = loving or trusting the military or supporting all wars.

Oops, I guess my true colors are showing. I'm just saying, don't be an idiot.

But also, I don't think it's necessary to ban military recruiters from your town. If you think your residents are so stupid that they will enlist in the military without realizing that they may then be sent to war, then I don't think that shows much confidence in your average citizen.

I'm not a big fan of the military in general and wouldn't recommend joining it to anyone I care about, but if you seriously don't get it and are so stupid that you don't know what you're doing when you enlist, then I don't know what else I can do for you, kiddo. And I don't see how that's the military's fault.

Apparently some folks got upset about a bed for little girls being sold with the name "Lolita".

Seriously? No one at Woolworths heard of Lolita?

Come on guys. It's even in pop songs.

It's no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabakov

New Jersey gets a bad rap. There actually are some nice places there. I've seen them with my own eyes. But I have to admit it's low on the list of places I'd like to live.

However, they did vote to abolish the death penalty so I have to give them some credit there. Just don't bring it up with my dad. It will only start a fight that nobody can win. Brian, you know what I'm talking about.

Good job New Jersey. You just jumped a couple places up on my list. You're now above Florida AND Ohio!

Dear Sudan:

You are fucking crazy.

love, Jenn