Happy Holidays from BMC!

My friend sent this around and I thought it was very clever and cute. I'm not sure who to attribute it to, so cheers to whoever crafted it!

'Twas the night before Christmas and Santa's a wreck...
How to live in a world that's politically correct?

His workers no longer would answer to "Elves",
"vertically challenged" they were calling themselves.

And labor conditions at the North Pole
Were alleged by the union to stifle the soul.

Four reindeer had vanished, without much propriety,
Released to the wilds by the Humane Society.

And equal employment had made it quite clear
That Santa had better not use just reindeer.

So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid,
Were replaced with four pigs, and you know that looked stupid!

The runners had been removed from his sleigh;
The ruts were termed dangerous by the E.P.A.

And people had started to call for the cops
When they heard sled noises on their roof-tops.

Second-hand smoke from his pipe had his workers quite frightened.
His fur trimmed red suit was called "unenlightened."

And to show you the strangeness of life's ebbs and flows:
Rudolph was suing over unauthorized use of his nose
And had gone on Geraldo, in front of the nation,
Demanding millions in over-due compensation.

So, half of the reindeer were gone; and his wife,
Who suddenly said she'd enough of this life,
Joined a self-help group, packed, and left in a whiz,
Demanding from now on her title was Ms.

And as for the gifts, why, he'd ne'er had a notion
That making a choice could cause so much commotion.

Nothing of leather, nothing of fur,
Which meant nothing for him. And nothing for her.

Nothing that might be construed to pollute.
Nothing to aim. Nothing to shoot.
Nothing that clamored or made lots of noise.
Nothing for just girls. Or just for the boys.
Nothing that claimed to be gender specific.
Nothing that's warlike or non-pacific.
No candy or sweets...they were bad for the tooth.
Nothing that seemed to embellish a truth.

And fairy tales, while not yet forbidden,
Were like Ken and Barbie, better off hidden.

For they raised the hackles of those psychological
Who claimed the only good gift was one ecological.

No baseball, no football...someone could get hurt;
Besides, playing sports exposed kids to dirt.

Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passe;
And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away.

So Santa just stood there, disheveled, perplexed;
He just could not figure out what to do next.

His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground;
Nothing fully acceptable was to be found.

Something special was needed, a gift that he might
Give to all without angering the left or the right.

A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision,
Each group of people, every religion;
Every ethnicity, every hue,
Everyone, everywhere...even you.

So here is that gift, it's price beyond worth...

"May you and your loved ones enjoy peace on earth."

The Soda Ad That Didn't Make It

Will Recession Undermine Gain for Kids?

The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health (LPFCH) released the very first Index measuring the health and well-being of California children today. This Index – similar to the Dow Jones or Consumer Price Index – offers valuable information about children’s overall health and well-being over the past decade and gives us a benchmark to measure future change.

In general the Index shows a decade of improvement in children’s health throughout the entire state with one glaring exception – family economics. In light of the present recession, Index authors caution that all those gains may be erased.

It’s an impressive study that shows substantial facts about how our children fare. In addition, I recommend you check out kidsdata.org. This newly expanded Web site is your go-to source when it comes to children’s health. It covers all counties in California and many cities and school districts. You’ll find information on 250 indicators ranging from health care to unemployment.

Less Sugar in Kids' Cereal

Good news . . . General Mills is lowering the sugar content in several of the cereals they market to kids. Though they’re not cutting the sugar in all of the cereals popular with kids, it’s a good start. Maybe at some future date they’ll see fit to reduce the sugar in all their cereals to a more acceptable level. More good news is that General Mills has also stated that they will not use artificial sweeteners in place of the sugar. Our children don’t need to ingest any more harmful chemicals.

Some “experts” don’t think this is a “big deal,” but if the breakfast food industry continues to take these small steps, over time their actions will result in major changes in the contents of breakfast cereals and how they are marketed to children. Kids might even come to prefer cereals that are less sweet. And in time, this slow and steady progress will bring a healthier product to the breakfast table.

Additionally, the Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity says that kids who eat cereals high in sugar consume twice as much as those who eat low-sugar products. Portion size is another positive step in helping to curb the obesity epidemic we’re experiencing in this country. All in all, General Mills is taking a step in the right direction. We just need to see more of these steps in the future.

Sharron

Sugar Shock

The holiday season is in full swing and many of us are tempted by the sweet treats lying around the office, at home or in the shops. While the smell of baked goodies, chocolates, candy and holiday drinks is deliciously enticing, it’s a somber reminder that almost 8 percent of Americans have diabetes. That’s nearly 24 million people, ages 20 or older, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Shockingly, double that number, 57 million people, have prediabetes where blood sugar levels are high. While it’s nearly impossible to stay away from sugary treats during the holiday season, making small changes can balance things out. Find a parking space a little further out, grab an apple on your way out the door, sip on water to keep hydrated. Need more tips on ways to prevent and manage diabetes? click here.

~ Muriel

One Stop Researching

One of my greatest hurdles with the Internet is that there is too much information floating around and no organization to it. I constantly get lost whenever I'm searching for a topic or doing research and spend more time bookmarking websites than gathering facts.

The Lucile Packard Foundation has made access to important information much easier as it expanded its website kidsdata.org statewide. The comprehensive website shares data on the health and well being of children in California, offering data for all counties, cities and school districts -- nearly 1,600 regions.

Some great facts about kidsdata.org:

Kidsdata.org offers more than 300 continuously updated measures of child well being. Data from more than 35 reliable public sources, such as the U.S. Census, the California Department of Education and the California Department of Public Health, are available at your fingertips.

User-friendly, customizable displays on kidsdata.org - maps, and tables, and bar, pie and trend graphs -- make it easy to document how kids are faring in news and feature stories.

New features on kidsdata.org allow you to share data by creating PDFs, downloading data into Excel, and adding charts and graphs to Word documents or PowerPoint slides.

-Tasha

What’s a Bigger Threat - a Terrorist or a Bug?

While al-Qa'ida and the Taliban are grabbing all the headlines, there is a bigger threat to all of us, and it’s costing us billions of dollars, polluting our environment with more pesticides and even costing lives. It’s invasive pests, insects and diseases imported here from other parts of the world - West Nile fever, Asian tiger mosquito, gypsy moth, Japanese dodder, light brown apple moth and the list goes on and on.

In California alone it is expected that 10 new pests will be introduced each year from 2010 to 2020. And each one will have the potential to devastate crops and spread diseases. This means that the cost to produce all the food you buy at the supermarket will go up. Your neighbors who have gardens will be spraying more pesticides to protect their plants. You might also have to start spraying pesticides to protect your yard and keep it looking nice. (Or you could just let the bugs eat it all.)

Unfortunately, most of the pests come in because we bring them in. People who try to sneak some fruits or plants in or bypass border and customs inspections when they travel can bring the pests in. Even traveling within the U.S. can move natural pests from an area where it belongs to somewhere it doesn’t and wreak havoc in the process.

And what happens when these pests arrive and are discovered in someone's backyard? Government officials move into action and set up eradication efforts. However, some well-meaning yet short-sighted people have stopped eradication efforts for some of the pests. This has resulted in devastated crops, higher prices and increased use of pesticides. Imagine if there was a sign in the produce section of the store that said, “Sorry, we had to raise the price on all items because of damage caused by the light brown apple moth.” The price increase is there - they just don't post the sign.

What can people do? For more information, visit the Invasive Species Web site.

Ken