It was a commercial from the Svenska Spel, the Swedish state run gambling and betting company, and the message was that you’re not allowed to gamble until you’re 18…

The song was just so cute, and I simply HAD to look it up!

“When I grow up”, from the movie “Curly Top” in 1935.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I get a terr’ble awful ache
Specially when it rains
At first I was a fraidy cat
but now I know its growing pains
Gosh oh gee, can’t you see
I’ll soon be grown up tall
So Ive got to think what I will be
When I’m no longer small

——

Chorus:

When I grow up
In a year or two or three
I’ll be happy as can be
Like a birdie in the tree

When I grow up
There’s a lot I want to do
I will have real dollies too
Like the woman in the shoe

I want to be a teacher
So the children can say
Teacher dear the gang’s all here
With apples today

When I grow up
I will have a big surprise
For I’ll bake the kind of pies
That will make you roll your eyes

And if you see
That you need some company
You can call me up and I’ll come down
When I grow up

——
When I am sweet sixteen
I’m going to a ball
Of all the ladies there
I’d like to be the best of all
I’ll wear a dress of silver lace
They’ll call me Princess Curly
I’ll be like Cinderella
‘Cept I won’t get home so early

I want to meet a handsome prince
With a uniform of gold
But I won’t lose my slippers
‘Cos my tootsies might get cold
I’ll talk of queens and dance with kings
Like a little princess would
But if I could only do these things I promise I’ll be good

——
When I’m twentyone
I wish that I could look
Like a picture that I saw
In a pretty story book

A lady all dressed up in white
With flowers in her hand
And such a veil I never saw
The biggest in the land

Four little girls were standing there
Much tinier than me
And they all carried baskets
They looked happy as can be

Everyone was smiling
And having lots of fun
I wish that I could be like that
When I am twentyone

——
When I get very very old
I’ll stay at home all day
But I haven’t quite made up my mind
Its much too far away

I think that I would like to be
Like the lady on the wall
She looks so nice and comfy
In her rocking chair and all

That little cap upon her head
She looks real pretty too
I like her long and funny dress
I like her hair don’t you

It must be oh so quiet
You can hear the tick of the clock
But it must be fun to have nothing to do
But rock and rock and rock

Since I am the kind of person who likes to look things up, I then began looking for other things with Shirley Temple, and to my surprise I came across a little movie that I remembered from my childhood, watching old black-and-white matinée movies on TV during the weekends… I remember laughing a lot while watching this one.

Shirley Temple’s very FIRST dialogue role (as “Charmaine”), in the movie “War Babies” from 1932.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A bit of trivia: Shirley Temple’s parents, George and Gertrude Temple, took their daughter to see this movie at a local theater. Gertrude later recalled, “The picture lasted ten minutes. Shirley merely flitted across the screen a few times and said only two lines. But my head swam and the goose flesh popped out on my arms. I think I cried a little. George squeezed my hand. We were proud. It was our little girl doing something wonderful, like saying her first words, and we were happy.”

Here are Shirley’s lines – most of it is in French, a language Shirley didn’t understand at all:

Captain Flagg: Howd’ya like my baby? C’mere, nice gal, I got a present for ya!
Charmaine: Oui, mon cher?

---

Soldier: I seen Sergeant Quirt, and he said he took her away from Flagg.
Captain Flagg: Oh, yeah? Well, you tell that slug the man ain’t made that can take my gal! Ain’t that right, baby?
Charmaine: Absolutely, mon capitaine.

---

Captain Flagg: Listen, baby, I gots to go now. You be good till I get back. And stay away from that slug Sergeant Quirt! He’s a snake in the grass!
Charmaine: Mais oui, mon cher capitaine.
Captain Flagg: Okay, baby.

Now, how about that Shirley Temple that I ordered?!?

A ShirleyTemple is a sweet, non-alcoholic drink named after the child actress Shirley Temple. The drink was invented for Shirley by a bartender in Beverly Hills, CA. The bartender worked at Chasen’s restaurant, a place Shirley Temple often frequented as a child. Since she clearly could not drink alcohol, Chasen’s sought a drink that would appeal to Shirley’s young palate, and the Shirley Temple was born.

It’s very unusual to see a traditional Shirley Temple today. The original recipe called for two parts ginger ale, one part orange juice and about a teaspoon to tablespoon of grenadine. It was usually garnished with a cherry and possibly an orange slice. While the cherry remains, and is many children’s favorite part about the Shirley Temple, most modern versions of the drink don’t include orange juice.

The ginger ale in the modern Shirley Temple is usually substituted with lemon-lime soda. These include sodas like Sprite or 7-Up, but usually not Mountain Dew since it is high in caffeine. Sometimes the Shirley Temple is made with Squirt, which has notes of grapefruit flavor in it.

The goal of the Shirley Temple is to contrast the sparkle and acid of the soda base with the sweet grenadine. Too much grenadine makes the drink painfully sweet, so a minimal amount should be added. Grenadine really functions as color, as opposed to flavor. A related drink is the Roy Rogers cocktail, made from cola and grenadine — essentially a cherry coke.

Due to the popularity of Shirley Temple the actress, the drink created for her caught on, and children dining out with their parents were apt to order a Shirley Temple. Today children may order one without understanding the reference. A few companies attempted to bottle the Shirley Temple, leading to the first soft drink that actually contained a cherry. These bottled attempts gradually lost popularity, but you can still find cherry 7-Up, representing the modern Shirley Temple.

Unlike many mixed drinks that are created for adults and modified for children, the Shirley Temple underwent a reverse process. People wanted to make the drink alcoholic, and tried by adding various alcohols to the drink. A Shirley Temple Black mixes 7-up, Kahlua and grenadine. A Dirty Shirley, also called a Shirley Vomit, is a combination of lemon-lime soda, vodka and grenadine.

(Drinking isn’t allowed in Sweden until you’re 18 as well, same age as for gambling…)

Well – computer games aren’t ALL bad – there ARE games out there that actually makes kids LEARN while they play!

I’ve been going over a bunch of websites, and come up with a few free online games that are both fun AND educational – because let’s face it, sometimes we as grownups really don’t have the time or the energy to entertain our kids, and then it can be a good idea to let them play on the computer for a while…

An educational game then helps us feel less guilty for using the computer as a temporary “baby sitter”.

Most of these games are in English, but since I am SWEDISH I have also picked out a few Swedish games – I DO after all have a daughter, a niece and a nephew who might benefit from these games…

I’m sure you can find free online games in YOUR language as well, but in the meantime why not try some of these?

* * *

Funschool – a whole website PACKED with games, quizzes and other activities for kids, preschool ages and up.

For preschool kids there are easy games that will help them learn the alphabet and count numbers, and a lot of printable coloring pages. The older the child is, the more advanced the games get – and there’s fun stuff for grownups there too!

You really have to go to the page to see what’s to offer – there are educational games, quizzes, printable stuff and also a lot of more traditional arcade style games.

* * *

Dinosaur Playground – just as the name hints, this is all about DINOSAURS!

Walking with beasts – thisis the more ADULT place to go for facts about dinosaurs, you’ll find a link to the dinosaur games on the left side of that page.

* * *

KidsPlaypark – has a lot of fun and games to offer, including recipes, jokes crafts and songs. The games are all very nice, some more educational than others.

* * *

Kulkul - Swedish site. The name of this site translates as “Funfun”, and here kids can learn the Swedish alphabet (A-Z + the letters Ã…, Ä and Ö), how to count numbers and add them together, learn about the map of Europe (country names in Swedish) and play a few other games as well, “just for fun”.

* * *

FlashArcade – has all sorts of games, both free online and downloadable ones. More suitable for teenagers and adults, but there are a few games that are fun for smaller children as well.

* * *

I could continue to list sites and games all day long here, but we don’t want to risk having the little kids permanently stuck in front of the computer, now, do we? Educational computer games can be just as addictive as regular ones!

The games found here are really just meant to be used when our lovely children want something to do, but WE don’t really have the time to be with them! The first few times that they play these games, it’s best to sit with them, though – kids should be monitored whenever they are going online. Once you know that they’re only doing what you allow them to do, then it’s safe to leave them alone for a short while…

“I have nothing to dooooooooo…”, they’ll whine, and we KNOW that they then expect US, the grown ups, to come up with something that will entertain them.

Well – sometimes it’s not that EASY to come up with an idea, and a lot of times the ideas we DO come up with are met by rolling eyes, deep sighs and a “You call that FUN?!?”

So…, what DO you do when the weather is so bad that the kids can’t go outside, or when none of their usual playmates are home? What CAN you come up with that won’t require spending any money (or at least not a FORTUNE), and that might actually be fun for the WHOLE FAMILY, and not just the kids?

Oh – and most importantly – what can you come up with that will keep them away from the TV, video game or computer?!?

Here’s a few ideas, maybe they will inspire you to come up with even MORE things to do when everything is “B-O-R-I-N-G”.

First, there’s of course the obvious ones:

1. Read a book.

Either you read it FOR them, or they read it THEMSELVES.

If all the books you have in the house are “boooooooring” for some reason, perhaps a family trip to the library might be a good idea. A family outing like this also kills some of the boredom, especially if there’s a chance of maybe getting an ice cream or something on the way home!

2. Draw/paint a picture.

This one can get REALLY interesting, especially if you decide what they are going to draw a picture OF.

You can pick out an object, like a bowl of fruit, an old sneaker, a flower from the garden, have them study it (sometimes a magnifying glass might come in handy if it’s a very tiny object, like a rock or a stamp) and then draw what they see.

You can make up something really silly, like a purple horse dancing ballet or a red car with feet instead of wheels – the sillier the better!

The young artist(s) might even want to have their own art exhibit, invite parents, siblings, grandparents and/or friends to view it. Usually when REAL artists have these events, there is something for the guests to munch on while they mingle and look at the art…, if you’re up to it, go down to number 4 in this list, maybe the link provided there can be of use.

3. Play a board game or cards.

If all the games you have at home are “boooooooooring”, how about making your own, TOGETHER? Just a simple thing with different colored squares, and home-made “activity cards” for when you land on a certain color.

You will of course have to have at least one dice, but if you don’t, you can always draw up six boxes on a piece of paper, with the numbers 1-6 written in the boxes, and the person who’s turn it is to “roll the dice” puts his or her finger on the paper (eyes closed), and the number the finger lands on or is closest to is how many steps forward he or she gets to move.

If you don’t have any other board game pieces for each player to move around, you can always use different colored buttons or beads or something.

The activity cards can say things like “Crow like a rooster”, “Jump like a frog” or “Tickle the person to your left”, or if the child can’t read you can cut out pictures from old newspapers and magazines and glue them onto the cards, and then when someone draws a card they have to do a charade of what’s on the picture.

The charade cards can even become a game all on their own – use something edible as “points”, like raisins or peanuts or something, and take turns in drawing a card and making the charade. The ones not making the charade get to guess, just shout out the answer as fast as you can!

Every time someone is able to guess a charade, they get a “point”. The hard part is to keep from EATING the “points” before the game is over…

Then there’s the somewhat risky one – it can easily turn into a REAL mess – and we all know who usually ends up doing the cleaning. Anyway, it will keep the kids busy for a while, so here it goes:

4. Bake or cook something.

If the child is much too young to read and understand measurements, you have to do it with them. The same goes for things that needs cutting or a hot stove or oven. The best thing about cooking or baking something yourself is that you can be SURE that you get to EAT IT – and for some strange reason, things you’ve made yourself always seem to taste so GOOD!

There are fairly easy recipes that kids ought to be able to handle, I just found THIS LINK that seemed really nice.

The last thing on my little list for today is something that I am particularly fond of MYSELF:

5. Paper crafting.

Remember playing with paper dolls? At MakingFriends.com they have paper dolls that you put together yourself.

You just print them out, preferably on paper that is a bit thicker and steadier than the regular kind. Sometimes a bit of coloring is necessary, and then all you do is cut them out and glue on hair, clothes and other accessories. Why not make a doll that look just like YOU, and maybe one for your best friend, one for Grandma, one of Dad…

They also have other crafts ideas for you, in case your child thinks “paper dolls are for BABIES”!

Another cool site that I really like, with more advanced paper crafts, is the Yamaha.com Paper Crafts. They have all kinds of animals, motor cycles and seasonal crafts for you to print out and assemble.

(The Yamaha paper crafts might require you to REALLY help the child, as some of the things are REALLY complicated to put together!)

THERE – I hope I have given you some good inspiration, and helped you become just a bit more prepared the next time you hear those dreaded words:

“I’m so boooooooooooooooooooooooored, there’s nothing to doooooooooooooooooooooo?!?”

Ps: Just so you don’t feel guilty about not immediately trying to activate a bored kid…, it is GOOD to be bored sometimes, when you are bored and try to figure out what to do, you use your imagination. Sometimes doing nothing really is doing SOMETHING – because you’re THINKING!!!

Whenever there’s a new “Monk” episode on TV – I am GLUED to the screen!

Today it was the 5th episode of season 2 that we watched – MR. MONK AND THE VERY, VERY OLD MAN, that one is from 2003, so we have a LONG time to go here in Sweden before we catch up with the season that’s about to start in USA!

There is just something about that man – he’s got that certain “I don’t know what” ( “Je ne sais quoi” in French, for those who prefer that…) – and I just feel so sad and sorry for him, sometimes I get frustrated and feel a bit embarrassed too, and he’s both cute and pathetic, and at the same time he amazes me with what he really IS able to do, and I can see something of myself in him too – oh, I know he’s just a TV character, but his role is just so excellently played!

He’s said to have severe OCD and numerous phobias (he’s afraid of germs, heights, snakes… you name it!) and he has strange tics and so on as well, but I wonder sometimes if that’s really ALL there is… He’s got that “Rain Man” kind of way about him – don’t get me wrong, a “Rain Man” character is a GOOD THING – Dustin Hoffman really nailed that part! I would say that Monk displays some autistic traits…

If you haven’t seen “Monk” yet – have a look below, check out the plot, and then keep an eye out for the next episode!

Oooh – and you HAVE TO check out the official website (link is down at the bottom of this post!), there is a whole bunch of fun stuff there – how about a game of “Monk Shui”, for example? Can you clean up Monk’s house and organize his things the Monk way?!? (I have failed several times myself, but now I’ve gone through the details in my head, and I THINK I know what to do next time I try it… It’s all about alignment, and keeping those germs and bacteria at a distance! If I could only get a hold of a rag or a sponge… Maybe out in the kitchen? Things have to really SPARKLE before you can move on…)

Anyway – here you go: MONK!

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s a jungle out there – Randy Newman

It’s a jungle out there
Disorder and confusion everywhere
No one seems to care
Well I do
Hey, who’s in charge here?
It’s a jungle out there
Poison in the very air we breathe
Do you know what’s in the water that you drink?
Well I do, and it’s amazing
People think I’m crazy, ’cause I worry all the time
If you paid attention, you’d be worried too
You better pay attention
Or this world we love so much might just kill you
I could be wrong now, but I don’t think so
It’s a jungle out there

Here’s a clip (more like a compressed version of the episode) from when they had a garbage strike:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“People are going a little nuts out there…”, yup, he said it, alright!

A garbage strike, I guess that would make someone like Monk, with a germ phobia, go a little loopy…

But wait a minute… What was that about Alice Cooper? “That’s the guy!” How – why?!? We need to look at the ENTIRE garbage truck scene:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“One bag at a time, one bag at a time… One truck at a time, one bag at a time…”

And OF COURSE Alice Cooper is the guilty one!!! Hmm… that garbage strike really DID make him go loopy!

“First off, I don’t think Alice Cooper is his real name…” “It’s true, Alice Cooper is a hippie, but he’s the BAD kind of hippie…” Hehehehe – oh boy, I just LOVE MONK!!!

Don’t forget to go all the way down to get to the link, now!

Plot:
Adrian Monk grew up with obsessive-compulsive disorder, including a variety of quirks and tics. He has a full brother, Ambrose, and a half-brother, Jack, Jr. (named after Adrian’s father and referred to in “Mr. Monk Meets His Dad”). In the 2004 episode “Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan”, his age was given as 45.

Monk was a brilliant homicide detective working for the San Francisco Police Department until his wife Trudy died in a car bomb attack in 1997 while picking up cough medicine for Ambrose. Monk suffered a nervous breakdown and became a shut-in, refusing to leave his house for three years. With the help of practical nurse Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram), he was finally able to leave the house. He began to perform consulting work for the police on particularly difficult cases.

Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) and Lieutenant Randall “Randy” Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford), call on Monk when they can’t crack a case. Stottlemeyer is often infuriated by Monk’s disorder, but respects his friend and former partner’s amazing observational abilities, as does Disher. Monk’s obsessive attention to detail allows him to spot tiny discrepancies, find patterns, and make connections that everyone else in an investigation misses. Monk continues to search for information about his wife’s death, the one case he has been unable to solve.

In the third season, Sharona decides to re-marry her ex-husband and moves to New Jersey. Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), a single mother with a daughter about twelve years old, is soon hired as Monk’s new assistant.

Monk is almost never described as having OCD. Sometimes the characters go out of their way not to mention it, even to avoid an inconvenient misunderstanding. For example, in one episode, Monk shakes the hand of two white women, then a black man, then wipes his hands. Monk and Sharona allow this to be taken as evidence of racism rather than explain his disorder. Natalie has referred to him as “particular” and “persnickety” rather than explaining the true extent of his problems.

Theme music debate:
During the first season of Monk, the series used a jazzy instrumental intro to the show by songwriter Jeff Beal, performed by guitarist Grant Geissman. The theme won the 2003 Emmy Award for Best Main Title Music. When the second season began, the series had new theme music, a song entitled “It’s a Jungle Out There,” by Randy Newman. Many fans and critics were upset that the music had been changed. In the review of the second season of Monk in the New York Daily News, the critic praised the show and Shalhoub’s performance but wished that the producers would revert to the original recording. Others, however, enjoyed the new theme. Tony Shalhoub was quoted in USA Today as saying, “There’s a certain thing Randy Newman has, it’s the dark and mournful sound, and there’s this tongue-in-cheek, darkly humorous side. It completely fits the tone of the show.” Newman was awarded the 2004 Emmy for Best Main Title Music for “It’s a Jungle Out There.” This debate was acknowledged in the episode Mr. Monk and the TV Star, which features an actor who plays a detective in a TV show, and several characters mention an in-story controversy over the change of that show’s theme music, including obsessed fan Marci Maven, played by Sarah Silverman. In the epilogue of the story, she implores Monk to promise her that he will never change the theme music if he ever gets his own show. When Monk agrees to the promise (only so he can go back to bed), the original music is heard as the scene fades to credits. Both recordings can be downloaded from the official Monk site, and the lyrics to the current theme song are also published there.

Wait Having Children

A new report from the Statistics Bureau of Sweden shows that the women in the greater Stockholm area wait longer and longer before starting a family and giving birth.

According to the statistics, the number of women who give birth to their first child when they are over 40 years old has jumped 39% in the past five years.

The suburbs Danderyd and Lidingö (both very fancy areas in Stockholm, not just ANY old suburbs) have the highest number of senior moms, 12.5% first time moms in Danderyd and 11% in Lidingö are over 40 years of age.

The Statistics Bureau of Sweden explains these numbers with the fact that “more women today want to focus on their careers before starting a family”.

I guess they are right in this assumption, or at least half right…

Before starting bringing children into the world, it DOES help if you are able to provide for them, am I right? Sometimes you can’t exactly PLAN a pregnancy, but it certainly helps if you have a career going, you know where you stand on the job market, you have the money, and now maybe you have the TIME that it takes to be a parent…

Today it isn’t seen as strange if someone waits before starting to have children – or to get married, for that matter.

In the past, it was courting, engagement (and the date for the wedding was almost set already when they got engaged), marriage, be a good little house wife (any hopes and dreams for themselves that the women might have had, they just gave them all up) and then start popping out the heirs…, preferably all this should happen before the age of 25, after that age, what man could possibly want you?!?

The way people look at relationships might also have something to do with it. Today in Sweden, many couples live together without being engaged or married, and the amount of “dating services” popping up all over the place might indicate that this whole relationship thing isn’t too easy to figure out anymore… You have to be a VERY strong woman in order to make the decision to have a child all on your own – but no matter how you look at it, a man HAS to be involved SOMEWHERE in the process!

Some women want to wait having children until they know they are in a relationship that will LAST, and how do you know when you have that relationship, really? You just have to wait and see – right?

“Any man can become a father, but not every man is cut out to be a Dad…”

The same goes for women, really. Maybe these women choose to wait until they feel emotionally ready to become mothers – it IS a big responsibility, so why not wait until you have lived your life, done everything you wanted, when you’re ready to settle down.

Maybe these women over 40 have made such a good career for themselves that they don’t have TIME to think about having children… until their biological clock starts ticking…

Maybe these highly educated and probably high positioned women make men feel intimidated in a way, who knows… The reasons why people don’t get involved in relationships and start reproducing are just so very many, you really have to look at the individual to understand the statistics…

This report focuses on the Stockholm area, but I think that all major cities (which is where the big business is) in Sweden see the same thing – women wait longer and longer before having children, maybe not all of them wait until they are well over 40, but at least until they have made a career.

And with modern science and technology it isn’t really “too late” for women of a certain age to have babies anymore… Hormone treatments and what ever else means that the biological clock can be tweaked – we’ve all read about women having children at VERY high ages!

However, there are still risks involved with waiting to have children until you are over that magic fertile age, the risk of something being wrong with the child increases the older the mother is. I’m not trying to scare you into having babies before you’re ready, it’s just the way things are…

As long as you are healthy and strong enough to keep up with things, as long as you can be a good parent to your child, well then – if you want to wait, it’s up to you, really!

Oh – and a 40 something Mom, to me that sounds a LOT more fair to the child than a 60 something Dad – men don’t really have the same biological clock ticking!

We read in the gossip magazines about how, in show business and so on, these older men meet VERY much younger women and have children with them, and just how much is a 60+ dad (sometimes a LOT of pluses!) going to participate?!?

“Daddy, play ball!” – Daddy can’t even walk properly without a cane, much less play ball or crawl around on the floor!

A woman in her forties can still MOVE AROUND, at least…

Swenglish Rantings Radio – 070524

http://swenglishrantings.com/swenglishrantings/SRR/mp3/SwenglishRantingsRadio20070524.mp3

There are stories like this all the time. This article is specifically about how Swedish women are feeling good about themselves at all ages. Women at 50 feel good and are not at all going crazy like the newspapers would have you believe. Sure there is the makeup and the hair color but all in all it seems like women at least here in Sweden are comfortable in their own skin. The Monkey Princess will get her Monkey BUTT and Now even older Skin(Monkey Princess had a Bday on Wednesday hehehe)  and translate this wonderful article below.

Paul

POSITIV Susie Orbach presenterade undersökningen om 50+kvinnorna.

Foto: GUSTAV MÃ…RTENSSON

Nu skäms ingen för att vara 50 +

Svenska kvinnor mår bättre än någonsin

För unga för att bli gamla.

Se upp! Nu är de nya självsäkra och aktiva 50+kvinnorna här.

De som helst inte vill visa sig i baddräkt längre – men som inte skäms för sin ålder.

Den nya generationen kvinnor som passerat 50-strecket vill inte längre gömmas undan – de vill synas och ta plats.

Den klassiska nidbilden av oss ”klimakteriekärringar” – ja, snart är jag också en – som inte längre är produktiva, inte tycker om sex, inte bryr oss om vårt utseende och inte har ett fullödigt socialt liv är förlegad.

Stor undersökning

Vi har vetat det länge – nu är det dags för alla andra att inse det också.

Det visar en ny stor undersökning bland 502 svenska kvinnor i åldern 45 till 64 år, som genomförts av undersökningsföretaget Straylight på uppdrag av Unilever, inför lanseringen av en ny skönhetsserie för – och inte emot – åldrande riktad mot just denna målgrupp.

En motsvarande global undersökning har gjorts i nio andra länder, bl a i USA, Storbritannien och Tyskland.

Dianas psykoterapeut

Resultatet av undersökningen presenterades i går i Stockholm av Susie Orbach, 60, en gång prinsessan Dianas psykoterapeut.

Och hör och häpna, hon anser att Sverige är det bästa landet i världen att åldras i.

– Definitivt. Sverige är ett föregångsland, ni har jobbat med könsfrågor så länge, säger Susie Orbach.

– Svenska kvinnor känner sig sedda på ett annat sätt än kvinnorna i de andra länderna. Ni har till och med speciella tidskrifter för oss över 50 – det har jag aldrig sett förut.

Ändra sin syn

Trots det anser 97 procent av de svenska kvinnorna att samhället måste ändra sin syn på kvinnor och åldrande.

– Dagens 50+kvinnor har större självförtroende, bättre ekonomi, är friskare och vågar säga ifrån och njuta av sex på ett helt annat sätt än tidigare, säger Susie Orbach.

Att vara kvinna och 50+ är inte något att skämmas för, har aldrig varit och får aldrig bli – även om det inte är lika kul att sätta på sig baddräkten.

Men hellre det än en bikini, eller?

Emma flyttar från helvetet

BEFRIAD Emma Brand fick tiden i högstadiet förstörd av mobbning. Även familjen upplevde att de frystes ut hemma i Funäsdalen. Nu flyttar Emma för att äntligen börja om.

Foto: LINA BOSTRÖM EINARSSON

Skolan krävs på 75 000 i skadestånd för att inte ha stoppat mobbningen

FUNÄSDALEN.

Helvetet är över.

Mobbade 15-åringen Emmas skola krävs på ett rekordstort skadestånd.

– Nu kan jag börja leva.

Det var strax efter lunch. Plötsligt ringde det i mamma Monikas blå Nokiatelefon. Rösten på andra sidan mobilnätet tillhörde barn- och elevombudet Lars Arrhenius.

Väntan var över.

Nu kräver Skolverket Härjedalens kommun på ett rekordstort skadestånd – 75 000 kronor – för kränkningarna Emma har tvingats utstå under sin högstadietid.

– Är det sant? frågade Emma när Monika ringde hem till sin dotter.

Sedan började hon gråta. Av glädje och lättnad.

Välkomnades med sten

Nu sitter vi vid familjens köksbord. Utanför fönstret faller ett tätt och rått regn. Bäcken nere vid vägen har redan svämmat över.

Förra gången jag satt vid samma köksbord var det höst.

Jag var här för att skildra Emmas fem första skolveckor – dag för dag – till en artikelserie om mobbning som publicerades i Aftonbladet.

Vi skrev om hur Emma första skoldagen i nian välkomnades med en sten i huvudet.

Några dagar efter artikeln i Aftonbladet tömde skolan hennes skåp. Och så ville de ha tillbaka skåpnycklarna. Sedan dess har hon inte bjudits in till vare sig luciafirande eller skolavslutning. Undervisningen har skett på annan plats.

– Och det har varit mycket skitsnack på byn, säger Emma och tittar ned i bordet.

Slutade hälsa

Mamma Monika upplever att hela Funäsdalen har vänt sig mot familjen.

– Till och med kassörskan i affären har slutat hälsa.

Nu åker familjen till Hede, sex mil bort, varje gång de ska handla.

Och Emma är fånge i sitt eget hem. Under ett halvår har hon knappt vågat gå utanför dörren. När hon träffat bästa vännen Sofia har hon genat över skogsvägar för att slippa möta någon.

Nu försöker familjen Brand sälja den röda villan på Retavägen. I sommar flyttar de till ett litet samhälle tre timmar härifrån. Och till hösten ska Emma börja på en estetisk gymnasielinje i Östersund.

– Jag ska börja om. Ny skola … Vänner … Ett nytt liv …

Jag tror att det är viktigt att ungdomar som rör sig i den här datorvärlden blir försiktigare med vad de gör,

Det började som en vanlig chatt på msn mellan en då 13-årig flicka och en nästan 15-årig pojke. Men sen ändrade samtalet karaktär. Killen övertalade flickan att filma sina bröst, vilket hon motvilligt gjorde. Därefter hotade han att visa filmen för flickans kompisar om hon inte filmade sig själv då hon onanerade. Stämningen på chatten blev hotfull.

– Jag tycker du ska göra något sexigt om du inte vill att jag ska skicka vår lilla film till alla på min msn-lista, skrev killen.

Lovade att inte visa bilderna

Till slut gick flickan med på att onanera inför kameran eftersom pojken lovade att om hon gjorde det skulle han inte visa bilderna på hennes bröst för någon. Men pojken höll inte sitt löfte och när flickan nästa gång kom till skolan hade ett tiotal elever sett onanifilmen.

I förhör berättar flickan om hur hon grät när hon lydde pojken och att ingen i skolan ville veta av henne när filmen spridits.

Pojken själv säger att allt var på skoj, men medger efter att ha fått läsa konversationen som polisen skrivit ut, att det låter som om han tvingat flickan.

Förstörda år

Men för att vara en vinnare har Emma förlorat ovanligt mycket på vägen.

– Pengarna spelar ingen roll, säger Emma. Mina högstadieår får jag aldrig tillbaka.

Första dagen i nian välkomnades hon med en sten i huvudet. Om 31 dagar är det sista skoldagen. Då ska niorna firas med sång i kyrkan och efterföljande tårtkalas på stadshotellet.

Emma är inte bjuden.

13-åring tvingad onanera på msn

Ingen ville veta av flickan när filmen spreds på skolan

Den 13-åriga flickan tvingades under hot att ta på sig själv inför webbkameran.

Den 15-Ã¥rige pojken spelade in och skickade filmen vidare till flickans kompisar.

I går åtalades han för grovt förtal vid Malmö tingsrätt.

Måste bli försiktigare

• Vem som helst kan räkna ut hur den här flickan kände sig dÃ¥ hon kom till skolan och förstod att folk sett filmen. Jag har själv inte haft ett sÃ¥nt här ärende tidigare men det kommer säkerligen att bli vanligare. Jag tror att det är viktigt att ungdomar som rör sig i den här datorvärlden blir försiktigare med vad de gör, säger kammarÃ¥klagare Jeanette Sprimont i Malmö till Punkt SE.

SWEDEN

is

NUMBER ONE

Tonight we found out that our favorite podcasts are back. One of them is “BloGun – Insane news on the Rim”. Not only is it back online but we also learned that Sweden is the NUMBER ONE subscriber outside of the United States!!! Heja Sverige!!!

The shows are GREAT! We highly recommend them. The host, SL Slaughter(Slaughter is LAUGHTER WITH AN EXTRA “S”), is a guy with a deep backwoods voice that co-hosts humor laced politically charged news with his woodland friends, most notably Charley, a raccoon.

Each podcast is fairly short which is good for the one of us with the shorter attention span that could give a chipmunk’s **s about POLITICS but does love to laugh..

The Show descriptions are self described as:

“Just straight forward generally accurate predictive stuff intermixed with news and views from the backwoods. There seems to be a number of strange goings on in the forest of the Rim Country. Do not expect “Sweet and Light Metaphizzeling”. Do expect a wide array of happenings of great and little importance bound to tick a few people off. Mostly entertaining and generally harmless unless it isn’t.”

Check out the links below, give them a listen, subscribe to them or visit the home page every once in a while and give it a view. You will have a good laugh and maybe even learn something.

Anyways… It was GREAT TO HEAR SWEDEN WAS NUMBER ONE!!!

Heja Sverige!!!

Jihad, Danger, world political predictions, and more
Last Updated:Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:42:00 -0700
An explaination of the Jihaddi concept of life the universe and everything including YOU. Also predictions and updates on the political scene in simple amusing terms. Politically incorrect but reasonably accurate!

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Happy Valentines Day

Princess

xoxoxoxo

Today was a good Day!

The lady sitting next to them ignores them at first, but her attention is galvanized when she hears one of them say the following:

“Emma come first. Den I come. Den two asses come together. I come once-a-more! Two asses, they come together again. I come again, den pee two times. Den I come one last-a time.”

The lady can’t take this any more, “You foul-mouthed sex obsessed pig.” she retorted indignantly. “In this country, we don’t speak aloud on Public places about our sex lives.”

“Hey, cool-a down lady, ” said the man. “Who talkin’ about-a sex? I’m-a just-a tellin my friend how to spell ‘ Mississippi ‘,”