Oh celebrity mags, you so original

Is this story true?

[Aug 25, 2010] The story of a 72-year-old grandmother having a sexual affair (and surrogate baby) with her grandson has been all over the internet after appearing in New Zealand magazine New Idea. The question is: is any of it true. To put is bluntly, incest and weird surrogacy fits into some Kiwi stereotype of what might happen in crazy ol' America.  And this story fits neatly in the media categories or 'thing we love to hate' and 'thing we love to gossip about'.  It tidily combines: incest, age difference/older woman, old woman uses surrogate (or any other fertility service), 'he's with her?!' and many other memes of prurient interest and moral outrage. It is, to put is frankly, too outrageous to easily believe it is true. The fact that the story has now vanished from New Idea's website suggests that someone is not happy with mag's fact checkers right now.  Stay tuned for developments.

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NEW IDEA STORY

'I'm in love with my grandson and we're having a baby'

When 72-year-old Pearl met her grandson, little did she realise she'd soon be 'pregnant' with his child

Pearl Carter is positively glowing with joy. She has a handsome new boyfriend, is enjoying an active sex life after many years of celibacy and, amazingly, is preparing to become a mother again.

But the retired grandmother isn't carrying the baby herself. She and her young lover have spent a staggering $54,000 hiring a surrogate to help them with their dreams of having a child.

What makes Pearl's decision to become a mum again even more shocking is that her new boyfriend is her biological grandson, 26-year-old Phil Bailey.

Phil is the son of Pearl's daughter Lynette Bailey, and the pair is braving public horror and even prison by breaking one of the last taboos – incest.

However, the pair makes no apologies for their controversial plan to start their own family.

'I'm not interested in anyone else's opinion,' Pearl says. 'I am in love with Phil and he's in love with me. Soon I'll be holding my son or daughter in my arms and Phil will be the proud dad'.

Phil adds, 'I love Pearl with all my heart. I've always been attracted to older women and I think Pearl is gorgeous. Now I'm going to be a dad and I can't wait.

'Yes, we get laughed at and bullied when we go out and kiss in public but we don't care. You can't help who you fall for.'

More: http://nz.lifestyle.yahoo.com/new-idea/real-life/article/-/7124792/im-in-love-with-my-grandson-and-were-having-a-baby/

Glutes

So, there is a magazine devoted entirely to having a nice ass. ("Glutes" see below)

If this isn't a recognised sign of the end times, it should be.

Is that a clock in your pocket...?

Sometimes the Family Circle writer strike me as, well, rather naive. I mean, if you think the Happy Hot Dog is happy at 8:55, imagine him at 7:40.

And if you think that's an accident, remember this is a clock from "Naked Decor", maker of the terrorist teapot.

Edited to Add: Apparently I am not the only one to notice (see comments section).

Somerset Witch project

I picked up a copy of the craft magazine Somerset Studio. One of the Halloween projects shown is a silhouette of the black house with various vintage and antique pictures of women in the windows and an orange background. A small excerpt with one example is shown in the cover (right). The artist describes the house as "occupied by a coven of diabolic witches".

All of the pictures are middle-aged or older, without cosmetics or fancily styled hair, and most have serious expressions. This is, of course, standard for portrait photography from the turn of the last century--when most women were capable of crafts rather more demanding than can accomplished with a hot glue gun and a stencil set. But all they are, in the eyes of this artist, are witches.

Never mind that they are, or were, ordinary, real people. Never mind the historical role of witchcraft accusations as a way of vilifying and even murdering unacceptably independent, unconventional or inconvenient women. Smiling, young, blonde, beautiful, heavily styled women are good. Older, serious, brunette, average looking, plainly dressed women are witches.

Some things never change.

Kudos to Covergirl...

The Good:

Covergirl has broken the mold a little in using Ellen Degeneres as their latest "covergirl".

The Ungood

Amazon is removing Amazon rankings from books considered too "adult". Like Ellen Degeneres's biography.

Womans Day says: Let Them Eat Cake

These are hard times and all the magazines are full of advice about how to be frugal. But if you are really short of money, I would suggest saving the $2.79 you might otherwise spend in Womans Day. Here is an example of the wonderful frugality advice they have:

"As for the bread, I try to always have another loaf in the freezer, but if that's used up, well, they can substitute an English muffin until grocery day comes around."

This is what happens when you get your frugality advice from a two income family who can save $80 just by cutting out impulse buys in the grocery store aisles. Personally I find this writer's one month "experiment" of being recreationally frugal despite still having money to throw about blithely condescending.

And the editor really rubs it by suggesting that this kind of advice is so shocking they were "taken aback" because falling back on English muffins is "no ordinary cost cutting" and "serious rethinking how you spend."

If this is what they have to offer people struggling with spirally costs, layoffs and the immanent threat of slipping under the poverty line perhaps they should seriously rethink how they run their magazine instead.