Buzz is in the air about a new book called How Not to Look Old.

Bit by bit I’ve been “coming out” about my looming big birthday. And as I contemplate what 49-going-on-I-don’t-feel-50 should look like I find thoughts of Botox dancing in my head. And then I feel ashamed.

Aren’t I supposed to embrace myself as I am? I certainly don’t want to send the signal to my eight-year-old daughter that mommy is obsessed with her changing body because soon enough she’ll be confronting her own changes that I want her to embrace. How non-P.C of me to struggle with my bulges and my roots!

Still, I wonder — should I hate this book or run to Barnes and Noble to buy it?

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School cafeteria lunches have been the brunt of jokes since we were all in elementary school — tater tots, milk boxes and mystery meat patties were the mainstays of high school meals if you weren’t brown-bagging it.

For the moment, it’s time to take those jokes a lot more seriously.

We trust that if we send our kids off to school with some money for a hot lunch, that while it may not be as nutritious as something we’d cook at home, that a school lunch isn’t going to give them E. coli poisoning. Or mad cow disease. Or salmonella poisoning. This week, a large California meat packing company recalled close to 150 million pounds of beef after an undercover video was disclosed showing sick and downed cows being dragged to the slaughterhouse.
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Last week, I was pondering the apparent recklessness of my early motherhood by allowing PunditGirl (then merely a PunditBaby) to toddle around with water, juice and milk in brightly colored sippy cups.

I didn’t know then what I know now about the possible chemicals that can leech out of the plastic after many uses and washings. But that doesn’t make me feel any better. Granted, there’s nothing I can do about that now, but how can I be more vigilant going forward?
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Right smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, President Bush has vetoed for the second time the extension of federal funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

But is it worse that Bush vetoed it again or that the Congress doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to the President and make sure that millions of children don’t lose what meager coverage they have just days before Christmas?

Or that Congress is willing to go along with the President’s demands for yet more money for the Iraq war, yet won’t allow a fraction of that money to help children who need health insurance because — GASP — that would mean raising the cigarette tax to fund it!
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We just finally got around to watching Sicko, Michael Moore’s movie as indictment of our health care system in America. All I have to say is, now that I’m a tad closer to 50 than 40, I may have to rethink where we’re going to retire just on the basis of dealing with the medical issues that can come in later decades.

Yes, I am a Michael Moore fan, but I am able to admit that there are times he can go a little too far over the edge when trying to make a political point.

But after watching Sicko, I am worried sick about my semi-retired parents, as well as what the “golden” years hold for us here in the United States when it comes to health care. My dad, who has been a farmer all his life, drives a school bus part-time just so he can hang on to his medical insurance and not have to rely on Medicare and Medicaid. But, as Moore shows us, not even having a premium insurance policy will guarantee us needed treatment. And that’s what makes this documentary part horror movie.
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