Citizen Mom

CHOP gets a Sugar Daddy

Sweet, sweet money: The Inquirer's Heard in the Hall blog reports this morning that a Big Beverage interest group is giving Children's Hospital of Philadelphia $10 million to fund (wait for it) "research into and prevention of childhood obesity."

The three-year grant is funded by a new organization, the Foundation for a Healthy America , created by the American Beverage Association, the national trade group representing manufacturers and bottlers. The ABA was instrumental in lobbying Philadelphia City Council to reject Nutter's proposal to tax sugary drinks at 2-cents per ounce as a way to cut consumption and raise money for the general fund.

In a press release Wednesday, CHOP insisted that it will "retain absolute clinical and research independence," as the source of its funding for the research is likely to come under attack from those wary of the beverage industry's influence.  That includes funding for clinical studiesto be submitted to peer-reviewed publications.

Let's see now, research into and prevention of childhood obesity . . . OK, lemme take a crack at this one:

My intensive field research over nine years of parenting is that many overweight children consume too much sugar. To prevent this, don't put Mountain Dew in your toddler's sippy cup. This message brought to you by Mountain Dew. WHERE'S MY TEN MILLION?

COOL ISH: Five Step

Mashup of Radiohead's "15 Step" with the Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Take Five." Because the 5/4 time ain't for amateurs, son.
H/t @ckrewson

HEADHUNTER: Census Bureau Job Lead

Dear Neighbors,

The United States Census Bureau is now recruiting for the following
positions:

               Office Clerk
               Administrative Assistant
               Recruiting Assistant
               Crew Leader
               Assistant Crew Leader
               Enumerator

If you are interested or know of anybody interested in these positions,
the following are prerequisites...

               1) No criminal history in the last 10 years
               2) Two forms of ID (including Social Security Card)
               3) Must be 18 years of age
               4) A score of at least 80 on the qualifying exam.

The exam will be given every Friday at 11am in City Hall.

If you are interested, please contact myself or Mark Taylor in our office
at (215) 686-3416 to be scheduled for the exam

Thank you,

Josh Cohen

Deputy Chief of Staff
Office of Councilman Curtis Jones Jr.

***

Got a job lead? Send it to citizenmom@citizenmom.net and we'll hook it up.

A Note From Your Mother

I don't know about you, but I've always felt like the year really starts in September. My school days are far behind me, but this time of year always feels like the beginning of something. To that end, I want to let you know about my new venture, a column for the Philadelphia City Paper. It debuts with the Sept. 4 issue (that's Thursday, for any of you suffering Monday-holiday discombobulation) so please pick up a copy or look for it on www.citypaper.net .

The plan is for the column to run weekly, and not many subjects will be off limits. Please be part of the conversation by sending me ideas, tips, secret plans, gossip, or anything else you'd like to whisper into Mom's ear. Email citizenmom@citizenmom.net or check me out on Twitter, @AmyZQuinn.

Why a newspaper, you ask? Aren't they all going out of business any second? Well, we can agree to disagree on that last part, but let's just say Citizen Mom loves trees of all kinds -- live, dead, and the ones one which checks are printed. Which is a polite way of saying yes, they are paying me. Those handbags don't buy themselves, you know!

I'm really looking forward to this, and thank Brian Howard and Doron Taussig for smellin' what Citizen Mom is cooking.

AmyZQ

MEOW MIX: Good Woman Gone, Own Your Failure, and You're A Bunch Of Dirty Pervs

* First, completely on the serious, pause a moment in memory of Andrea Collins Smith, who documented her struggle with inflammatory breast cancer on PunkRockMommy until she passed away Saturday. She is survived by her husband, Kelly, six children, and everyone who spent time on her site and came away staggered by her grace and candor. Peace and prayers to her family. [Photo by JackHag66]

* Back during the long, Parliament-smoked dream that was the 1990s, there was a skate and surf shop on Route 70 in Cherry Hill called Failure. I remember having a great conversation with the owner, who was a kid about my own age, about why he'd picked the name and what it means to own your own shortcomings and how maybe the only way to prevent bad luck from getting to you is to call it out first.

If performance purge is your thing, prepare to throw it down at Fail Camp, an upcoming all-day session being put on by the Independents Hall shared workspace. Personal failures, professional missteps, bad choices in general -- they "want your fail." Like all your hopes and dreams, it goes down on July 26. Get the info here.

* It's hard to decide who comes off looking worse in the whole Lizz Winstead vs. Moe and Tracie thing. Is it Winstead, who sounded like a finger-wagging old lady (she actually wrote "Their work on Jezebel has made them role models for young women everywhere"),  or Moe and Tracie, who just seemed unbearably childish and disappointing?

Though I guess that's the point here. Winstead came to the conversation expecting the Jezebels to confirm every bit of last-century truth in re: sex and rape (casual sex is always dangerous, rape is always as cut-and-dry as "no means no"). Except Moe and Tracie's experiences don't seem to be bearing out those assumptions. Moe could have had a rational discussion about the whole "gray rape" thing, about which she's written intelligently and engagingly on the Jezebel. Instead she just kind of sounded like a drunk. Everyone involved failed, as Jezebel editrix Anna Holmes observed today. 

* Finally, I will resist the urge to make the obvious stimulate-my-economy-baby joke here and simply tell you straight: The online porn industry is reporting a jump in memberships coinciding with the arrival of the first batches of Bush Bribe checks. [NYPost] Makes sense, if you think about it. Gas is expensive, people are cranky, nobody's got money to go out anyway . . . though I thought the whole point of the Internet was so people could look at free porn? (Hat tip, TaxGirl)

Mr. Brown, Meet The GravyMaster

Thankfully, Mrs. Quinn v. 1.0 (Codename: GravyMaster) has fully schooled me, so the great Thanksgiving Gravy Disaster (it didn't thicken! the horror!) won't happen again. But if you're still working on your kitchen issues, Food Network wants to hear from you:

Inspired by letters from fans, Food Network is launching a new series,
Dear Food Network, which will feature top chefs answering your cooking
concerns, problems and challenges. We're looking for Thanksgiving,
winter holiday and grilling cooking issues--specifically Thanksgiving
Day disasters, turkey issues, desserts and what to do with the leftovers.

If you've ever dreamed of having your favorite Food Network star help
you out in the kitchen, we want to hear from you!

To be considered, make a 1-2 minute video telling us why you want a
chance to have your questions answered and problems solved by a Food
Network chef. Tell us your story—have you been making the same pie for
10 years and your family is over it, or is it so bad that friends have
stopped coming over for celebratory dinners? Or maybe you just need
some new inspiring ideas on how to wow your family.

Read the full deets after the jump!

Bok! Bok!

So, what's going to be in your Easter basket? Or your kid's? Is it all toys or -- gasp! -- candy?

A Time To Say I Love You

Merry Christmas from Citizen Mom!  As your gift, here's a vid of my all-time favorite "rockin'" Christmas carol, coming from all the way back when the Tegan and Sara haircut was called the Martha Quinn.

There's No Need To Ask For Christmas Presents When Your Wildest Dreams Have Already Come True

Holiday Prep

Image from AnneTaintor.com