Sometimes it's hard not to freak out over these stories when they're dribbled out by media. But then, that's exactly why Daddy Types bundles them up into one, giant Friday Freakout, so they can ruin your weekend, not your whole week:
- Parents who can't figure out how to find a frickin' chicken pox party online are somehow managing to get pox people to mail them half-eaten lollipops? That is disgusting. abcnews/yahoo via dt sr freakout correspondent sara]
- "Is the coal industry poisoning the fish you eat?" Oh sure, especially you pregnant and/or reproductive types. [sierra club magazine via publicist, who rather amazingly cited Jeremy Piven]
- On the bright side, your fish is probably less toxic than the coal-poisoned cancer fog enshrouding Shanghai. [shanghaiidaily]
- Noted reader anxiety induction experts at The Daily Beast has attempted to replicate the results of NY Magazine's recent, "Men are worried about their sperm's biological clocks, too, you know" article, with limited success. [thedailybeast]
- Is your shortening cervix sextupling your risk of premature delivery? Ask your doctor! Offer valid only for people with cervixes. [some pr pitch for some disposable cervical measuring device]
- Sandblasted jeans are made with the lungs of dead jeanblasters. It's blood denim. [nyt]
- Official Toledo has mobilized against co-sleeping after the death of a 2-mo baby. [npr via dt guru dt]
- Sometimes the press release headline writers do all my heavy lifting for me: Fatherhood can help change a man's bad habits" [oregonstate.edu]
- And sometimes they craft things that just bug: "MOTHERS, GRANDMOTHERS DEMAND VILLAGE VOICE BAN CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING ADS [oy via publicists]
- Stress is not the reason for your not getting pregnant, ladies, so just relax. [slate, in what may be a platonic ideal for meta-freakout journalism]
- The CPSC is doing some ongoing freakout with its scary baby doll hanging from window blind cord poster and the ominous doctor staring us down about swallowing magnets. [cpsc]
My favorite quote from the co-sleeping article:
When a doctor's advice is a stark pronouncement that a baby "should sleep alone in a crib by themselves," however, I wish for greater clarity and context.