The Lace Mafia?

My wife forwarded to me an iota of info she found trolling some news sites. It seems that a school district in Merrillville, Indiana has banned their middle- and high-school students from wearing pink clothing or accessories, due to fears of gang violence. My first reaction was (roughly) "you've got to be kidding," so I looked around. It seems that there is a gang in Chicago (not too far away) called the Imperial Gangsters, and their chosen "colors" are pink and black.

I can understand the desire to keep the youngsters out of harms way, but pink? I mean, it's a dubious tactic at best to ban a "gang color." Gangs can change colors, and different gangs (and there are lots of 'em) have different colors (presumably why these guys got stuck with pink). You can't seriously expect to ban them all. You'll have these poor kids running around in nothing at all!

What's more, the ABC affiliate out of Oklahoma, KTUL (what a K-tool!), included, at the bottom of their article, a nice couple of warning signs that your child may be in a gang:
1) "If your child prefers only one color or even refuses to wear other colors"
2) " if their friends all wear one color"
Those should be warning signs to all of us parents. Monochromatic=gang. I'd hate to think what my mother must think of me now. When I was younger, I wore almost exclusively black. Yes, I even wore a black trenchcoat. Man, I might have been in a gang and didn't even know it! Heck, I should go back through my yearbook and see if I shot anybody. You can't be too careful.

--Beav (I'm watchin you...I mean me...)

But I give thanks every day!

So Thursday is Thanksgiving. A great holiday. Well, mostly because I love food. We are going all out and having a huge dinner despite it being only 3 of us (well, 2 1/2). Turkey, ham, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, home-made ice cream, the works. We're going to be eating Thanksgiving leftovers for Christmas dinner! But that's fine with me. If there's anything better than Thanksgiving dinner, it's post-Thanksgiving sandwiches and snacking. I think some of my in-laws will come visiting after T-day, though, so it won't be a lonely season.

The day approaches when I'll finally get to see the movie I've been waiting for. Well, Episode III is coming, too, but I'm talking about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! You can go here for the official site, but it does look a bit sparse. IMDB has a more complete cast list, so you're not totally without resources, though.

And now for the dreaded Church Marquee of the Day: "Sometimes you have to take God at faith value."

Now, far be it from me to criticize a good pun, so I'll leave that alone. However, you kinda have to take God on faith all the time. That's pretty much the point, isn't it? "God says 'I refuse to prove I exist because proof denies faith and without faith, I am nothing.'" (Douglas Adams (Nice tie-in, don't you think?))

--Beav