Flannel Shirt

Anne Lamott and Match.com

Interesting and funny article about the dating scene for people my age. My favorite quote from the article is this:

Also, 91 percent of men snore loudly – badly, like very sick bears. I would say that CPAP machines are the greatest advance in marital joy since the vibrator. It transforms an experience similar to sleeping next to a dying silverback gorilla into sleeping next to an aquarium.

I thought this only happened in California

There used to be a Barbie Museum in Palo Alto and once my ex dragged me to see it. It was marginally interesting. This guy sounds like his collection could compete with that museum.

For one man, Barbie isn't just a childhood staple, but a way of life.

Since 1997, Stanley "The Barbie Man" has collected anything and everything related to the iconic doll and has amassed a staggering collection of more than 2,000 Barbies.

The pink and plastic collection is worth, in his estimation, approximately $80,000.

His Florida home is his showcase with his collection covering the walls from the floor to the ceiling.

But his collecting doesn't stop with Barbie, he's also purchased plenty of accessories, including a Barbie plane, pink corvette, and anything else the pint size doll could want.

"Anything that I find at a garage sale that has the B-a-r-b-i-e on it, I'm buying it," Stanley said.

His most expensive Barbie named 'the Pink Splendor' cost him $975, although he knows a good deal when he sees one. He bought a vintage Barbie for only $4 at a garage sale.

"I think it was like $4. The lady thought it was a reproduction. I played right along, played right along," he told ABC News affiliate WFTS.

After 16 years of collecting Barbies, Stanley has no plans to slow down anytime soon.

He still goes to Barbie conventions and garage sales and is always on the hunt for a Barbie he doesn't own.

"Barbie's not just for little girls. It's for everybody who enjoys quality," he said.

Even though the dolls have overtaken his bedroom, he's happy to share the space.

"You wake up in a good mood, because you always have beauty around you," Stanley told WFTS.

Wackadoodle

Here.

Remember Marlin Fitzwater?

I have a mental image of "Marlin Fitzwater" as a marlin jumping out of the water. He actually looks like this:

Bullies, again

Sadly. Any guesses what the bullies said?

The family of a 14-year-old boy who committed suicide outside a school in a Salt Lake City suburb says he was a victim of bullying.

David Q. Phan was released early to his mother on Thursday from Bennion Junior High in Taylorsville before he returned an hour and a half later to a corner of the campus, where he shot himself in front of students.

"David had been bullied for the past few years. He would come home crying sometimes," the teen's cousin, Vy Lake, told the Deseret News.

"Bullies would walk home with him, taunting him and throwing things at him. After ignoring them didn't work, he started fighting back and got into trouble at school because of this," added Lake, who spoke on behalf of the boy's parents.

But the family neither wants to point a finger at anyone for the suicide, Lake said, nor speculate that his death was the result of bullying.

"We are not trying to place a blame on anyone," Lake said. "We just wish everyone would be more aware to bullying in the schools, and a little friendlier to their peers."

Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley said school officials stayed in close contact with Phan after he reported "a bullying concern several years ago."

"Counselors have further remained in close regular contact with (him) because of other issues in his personal life," Horsley said in a statement. "Despite specific personal inquiries, David never reported any further bullying concerns and on the contrary, reported that things were going well."

The teen also was "facing significant personal challenges on multiple fronts," but Horsley declined to elaborate.

While his family is of Vietnamese heritage, Phan was born in Utah.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Family-Utah-boy-who-killed-himself-was-bullied-4083629.php#ixzz2Dr9Tlzqp

What men want, what women want

In case you want to know, women want soft-serve ice cream and men want Ford trucks. And bacon.

Wegman's V. Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin's antics on an airplane apparently scuttled his ad campaign for Wegman's.

I still like Baldwin. I just don't want to be on the same plane with him.

Heartwarming story

This is a great story of a person overcoming slavery to become a citizen.

Hall's Egyptian parents sold her into slavery when she was 8 for $30 a month, according to authorities. The Cairo couple who bought her moved to Irvine two years later, smuggling Hall into the U.S. where she toiled for them and their five children until she was 13.

Hall said she worked 16 hour days, scrubbing floors, cooking meals and cleaning house, and was rarely allowed outside the spacious home. She was forced to wash her own clothes in a bucket and was forbidden from going to school. She never visited a doctor or dentist and didn't speak a word of English.

Her captors, Abdel Nasser Eid Youssef Ibrahim and his former wife, Amal Ahmed Ewis-abd Motelib, berated her and occasionally slapped her around, authorities said.

"I didn't know anything about what America was about. My only hope was to go back home and live a normal life with my family, my brothers and sisters,'' she said. "That's all I wanted."

In 2002, acting on a tip from a concerned neighbor, child welfare authorities rescued her from the house. Her case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, leading to the prosecution, federal imprisonment and, later, deportation of Ibrahim and Motelib.

Hall formed a tight bond with one of the lead federal agents, Mark Abend of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, who has served as a friend and mentor. He was at Hall's citizenship ceremony Thursday.

"I'm really proud of her. Think of everything she's been through. Being sold into slavery at an early age. Coming over here. Not having a family," Abend said. "The resiliency she has is just amazing. The fortitude. Not falling apart. Not being a destroyed soul."