5-25-10

In case you missed it...

ONLINE SCRABBLE, PARKER IS 15, TEENAGERS AND SCHOOL
Pete sang along to the opening theme song and knew all the words and then stuck it to Bobby (who has sang along before but doesn't know all the words to the opening song). Bobby said that at least his words that he knows are in tune! OOOOhhhhhh, them's fighting words! Rosie said it is hard for her to play Scrabble online at Pogo.com on a Mac. Pete said that's because Pogo doesn't work very well with mac applications like Safari. Rosie had been told she had to sign up for a Facebook account because you can play online scrabble on Facebook. Oh, how she teases us with her Facebook mentions. I wish she was on Facebook!! Rosie said she just wants to play Jackie in online Scrabble so she can beat her. Pete said he beat Tanya (Rosie's Nanny/Friend) who went to Oxford! Rosie said Tanya is "smarter than smart." Tanya is Ellis's mom and Rosie talked about how much fun it is having a baby around. Rosie totally adores Ellis and called him "the cutest little thing in the world." He even calls her mama sometimes and Rosie doesn't correct him. ;)

Rosie said that today Parker turns 15! Last night she told him about the cake and the party she wanted to have for him tonight and he told her he had other plans to go over to his girlfriend's tonight and would like to be picked up at 8. Rosie said she pouted over the fact that he wants a social life so she stopped talking to him for the rest of the night. He wanted to borrow her computer but she didn't want him to because she was sulking. She admits she takes it personally that he doesn't want to hang out with her anymore. Jeannie said teenagers don't want to be your friend, they want to be with their own friends and that Parker is just being a normal teenager. Janette told Rosie that she doesn't want him to be an odd boy that only wants to be with his mother, right? Shoshana told Rosie to prepare herself for when he starts to drive! Jeannie suggested Rosie just put him in a bubble to make herself feel better. Gotta love Jeannie. She's the only one who can talk to Rosie like that, lol. When Brendan got his license his father told him "congratulations, you now have a weapon and a license to kill." Nothing like making Rosie feel better about it. Jeannie made her daughter wait until she was 17 to get her license. She told her that driving is not a right, it is a privilege and made her earn it.

Rosie said that Parker also got into a competitive high school and scored very highly on the entrance exam. But to go to the school, they recommended he go to a 5 week sleep away summer camp/school where they teach you how to prepare for the amount of work they are going to receive. Rosie thinks he doesn't have any idea about the amount of work he's going to get since he's been going to a Waldorf School his entire life where they didn't have grades, standardized tests or any major ramifications when work wasn't completed. Parker doesn't want to go to the study skills camp because he's worried he's going to miss half his summer. Rosie told Parker that it's his decision and it's his life, but if he wants to go to that school he has to go to the camp.

Janette asked why Parker wants to go to this other school and Rosie said he's ready for a change and/or a different way of teaching. She said they've realized that his current school may not have enough accountability at his current school. She knows that Parker will face other challenges because he comes from a background of privilege and fame and he needs to learn that accountability. Jeannie and Rosie talked about how it was always assumed that they were going to go college so that they could have a better life than their parents had. Jeannie said that today you can't make a significant income without a Master's. Janette read that so many kids that start college don't finish. Rosie said Chelsea also wants to go to a different school. Rosie had to tell Chelsea that they would have to find her a school that would help her catch up to where the other kids her age are. She said that Chelsea seems willing to do whatever it takes. Rosie said that when Chelsea and Parker took the entrance exams for these schools it was a shocking wake up call to her. And she's not so sure that the Waldorf education is the right thing for her family anymore. So, now Parker has to give up the Rfamily trip to Europe with Kelli and their Jersey Shore trip in order to attend the camp.

The tests Parker and Chelsea took showed Rosie that Chelsea needs more help in all areas and Parker really needs to be pushed more because he's very smart. Chelsea has told Rosie that she would be okay if she didn't go to college, that she might want to be a hair dresser. Rosie said she is fine with that. Janette thinks that Rosie should make these decisions for them, that they are too young to be making these major life decisions on their own. Janette also said that if you don't have discipline in life - you're done.

Rosie took several callers on the topic and the pros and cons of going to a harder high school. One caller was a college professor that wished more of her students learned these basic study skills. She said that so many of her students don't know how to write a basic essay and do basic mathematical functions. She said college will only be harder for them if they don't learn those things now. She told Rosie that it's not Parker's choice, she's the parent and she needs to send him. Rosie agreed and said it would be a disservice to him not to push him.

Rosie agreed that life is about working and pushing yourself. Parker (and all of her kids) don't remember her working the grind and don't realize that the things that they have in life are the result of the years of hard work that she put in, and a little luck too.

LOU, PEARL JAM, DANCING AND MARAL :)
Lou's having Pearl Jam withdrawals and smoking withdrawals. He's been taking Chantix to help quit smoking since Rosie got him ticket to Pearl Jam but said it's very difficult to quit. He said he is going to do it though, because he promised. Rosie said he has Eddie Vedder and Rosie to thank for his longer, healthier life.

Lou and his girlfriend, Maral, have also been taking dancing lessons! They prepared and played an audio clip description of their last dance class and said they were going to put it up on Rosie.com. Lou said he even danced the Charleston at the last Pearl Jam concert. He said there were a a lot of dancing lesbians all over his girlfriend at the last concert. Not sure how that came up, I forget. But I wrote it down, so there it is. Lou also said that there was a gay man who fainted over the charisma of the lead singer (Eddie Vedder).

After they played the video Rosie said how adorable Maral sounds and how she seems to really like him! Lou said he hopes things work out because he's in LOOOOOOVE. :) Lou said that the tickets Rosie got him were pretty good. He said they weren't the "fan club seats" but he was right behind Jamie Lynn Sigler (aka Meadow Soprano) and Mark Sanchez. Lou mentioned how Meadow (as he called her) was the most beautiful famous person he's ever seen. Rosie said Helene used to do her hair and makeup!

SHOSHANA'S SISTER COMING OUT AND CALLERS CONTRIBUTE
Shoshana said that her sister came out to her last week. She said she's suspected that her sister is a lesbian for a long time because she had a 43 year old "roommate" who Shoshana also thought might be a lesbian. Rosie asked her why she thought so. She asked if she was into BBQing. If she was good with a Swiss Army knife? Shoshana said she was really good with tools and building things and they also listened to a lot of Indigo Girls and Lilith Fair. This sidetracked Rosie for a second. She said that Lilith Fair has been having trouble selling tickets and recommended that her listeners go to Lilith Fair because it's great. Rosie said she's going this summer! Shoshana then mentioned how she's not a fan of Sarah McLachlan - who started Lilith Fair but isn't a lesbian, btw. Shoshana said she runs from her songs and doesn't enjoy her but doesn't exactly know why. Shoshana's boyfriend thinks perhaps something horrible must have happened during a time when her music was on. Shoshana asked Lou to please not play her music.

Anyway, back to Shoshana's sister. Rosie asked why Shoshana had suspected that her sister was gay and Shoshana said that she was always obsessed with Angelina Jolie and never had a boyfriend. And she had this roommate and they lived together in a one bedroom apartment. Her sister told her that she slept on the futon that was in the bedroom. Rosie said that her brother, Danny, also had a one bedroom with the man he has now been living with for years and they told her they put the beds together because the futon broke or because it was best for the air conditioning. Shoshana said she never discussed the fact that she suspected her sister might be gay but that everyone suspected it. She said would try to get it out of her but didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. Shoshana's sister is 27 years old and she was with this woman for 4 years until they recently split up because the other woman was ready to settle down and have a family and Shoshana's sister was not.

Shoshana was baffled as to why her sister wouldn't have told her sooner that she was gay considering who she worked for. Rosie asked Shoshana if her sister knows Rosie is gay which made everyone in the studio laugh. It really surprised Shoshana that her sister wouldn't say anything. So, this is how she came out to her. Shoshana and her sister were texting back and forth about their younger sister's graduation present and Shoshana suggested a Victoria's Secret gift-card. Her sister texted back "speaking of secrets I'm GAY!" Her sister came out to her parents and then to Shoshana two days later. Shoshana's parents were very supportive and just want her to be happy. Rosie said that all of her gay Jewish friends all have supportive parents when they come out. She then briefly recommended the documentary Trembling Before God about people who are not accepted by the Jewish faith when they come out.

Shoshana said that is part of the problem, that her sister is having religion issues. She said they were always raised to be very accepting though. Her sister told her that she didn't want to shame the family and just because the family would be okay conceptually, she wasn't sure how they would be facing the reality of it.

Shoshana said she was almost insulted that her sister didn't feel comfortable telling her that she was lesbian. She was out to her friends and she can't understand why she couldn't be out to her. She said she felt personally hurt by the fact that she didn't feel safe enough to tell her. Her sister said it was a private part of her life and not anyone's business.

Shoshana's parents offered to have their daughter's girlfriend over for dinner however the girlfriend is not Jewish. She said they're accepting the gayness but it's a double- standard because her parents wouldn't allow her sister's non-Jewish boyfriend to the house. They took several callers on the topic who shared their own coming out stories and their frustrations with family members that they suspect are gay but won't open up to them.

Rosie first told Jeannie she was gay one night when she was performing at a club when she was with a woman named Corbi. She said she didn't have "the big come out thing" because her mother was gone and her father was basically not there either. Rosie told her sister she was gay in college. She told her sister all about a girl named Chrissy whom Rosie had a huge crush on and thought about all the time. She said it was never sexual but she was completely in love with her. Rosie remembers getting physically sick over the feelings of love that she had - she was so overwhelmed with feelings. She remembered and described this girl's clothes, her hair and the time she went home for Thanksgiving and told her sister that she thinks she's in love. She told her sister all about this girl and her sister said, "Sure sounds like love to me." Awwwwww!!!

One caller who is gay spoke to Shoshana and told her to remember that when you're gay it takes you a while to be honest with yourself. He said that people tried to prompt him and let him know that it was okay, too. He explained that people often come out in stages too. He said, "You're petrified, you're worried." And he said that straight people never have to declare anything so they can't really understand how it feels. He said there is a burden to say "I accept who I am" and oftentimes there's another layer where you have to deal with the religious stuff from your youth. He said you also have to realize that in being true to yourself, you're going to disappoint some people. He said it's a lot to come to terms with.

Rosie remembered when one of her cousins married a Jewish woman and it was such a scandal in their family. She said it was a BIG deal. She remembered thinking "God, they're upset about that imagine if they knew I was gay." The caller said that you have to learn to trust yourself and love yourself enough and to know that you deserve love. He said you can know all that already but it takes time to get there.

Rosie said she wanted to have Shoshana's sister over for dinner and she would find her a nice Jewish 30 year old lesbian to go out with. She said she was now on a mission.

The last caller told a funny story about outing his own brother. He and his brother are gay and his older brother had never come out to his parents. When he got caught with a guy in his room he outed his brother too! Rosie told him he threw his brother under the bus. Lou played I'm Coming Out by Diana Ross and went to commercial.

THE TUDORS, TWEEZERS AND THE BLUE FOOTED BOOBY
Rosie asked if anyone in the studio watches The Tudors because she loves it. Only the actress Joley Richardson is now playing the new queen and Rosie's worried that she's going to be beheaded. She worried for the actress herself because in real life Joley has lost her sister Natasha Richardson and recently her mother Vanessa Redgrave. She was worried about her being beheaded on the show because of all the tragedy in her real life. Brendan googled it for her and told her that the wives of King Henry the 8th went like this: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. She's the 6th wife (Catherine Parr) of Henry the 8th so that means that she's the one that is going to survive. No reason for Rosie to stress. They talked a little about the show and the characters and Pete mentioned some obscure reference to an actor that he thought should play the fat version of Henry the 8th and Rosie made fun of him by saying "You've been lawyered!" Anybody?

Rosie asked the staff and the listening audience if they knew of a good brand of tweezers. She said she bought 8 or 9 different brands and none of them worked well. Jeannie suggested waxing. Janette said she will oftentimes pull hairs and instead of pulling them out it just curls them like ribbon on a present! Rosie also said her rosacea is flaring up again scolded everyone for not alerting her to the fact that she had a stray hair on her face. Rosie said her rosacea flaring up could have something to do with the fact that she has been laying in the sun (not good) or that she has been eating night shade vegetables (also not good). It's not because of alcohol though because she hasn't really drank since her rip-roaring night at Casa Del Sol the other week with Jackie, Jeannie and Tracy. James said listeners were calling in recommending Tweezerman brand. Rosie said she tried those and those don't work for her either.

This lead to not being able to ever find good tweezers or scissors and somehow this segued to Blake having to do a report in school. She said he could have chosen any animal and he chose the blue-footed booby. Rosie said she thinks that Blake just wanted to be able to say booby in school. LOL I love Blake.

Pete said his friend went to an opthamologist and her eyes were fine but the doctor noticed she had rosacea and wrote a prescription for it! He thought that was odd. Jeannie heard of a friend who was feeling sick at the dentist and then the dentist gave her a prescription for an non-teeth related illness. This then started a quick rant by everyone how we prescribe too many antibiotics and are becoming resistant to antibiotics to which Rosie told them to zip it and went back to the tweezer discussion and searching for the perfect tweezers on the Internet.

SAVING AFRICA'S WITCH CHILDREN AND GARY FOXCROFT
Rosie then introduced Gary Foxcroft and Sam. Gary is the filmmaker of Saving Africa's Witch Children which premieres on HBO2 tomorrow (May 25th). Sam is a native of Africa who has saved many of these children and helps to teach the locals that their children are not possessed by witches. In certain parts of Africa, there are witch doctors who arbitrarily decide if children are possessed by witches. The witch doctors say that the devil has possessed their children and the family has to pay money to have their child saved. The child is then tortured to get the devil out of him or her. Sam has dedicated his life to saving these children. Rosie said the documentary was very upsetting to watch yet inspiring to know there are people like Sam who will do whatever they can to save these children.

Rosie and Gary talked about the film and how he began this work. He said while he and his wife were setting up a school in Africa they came across the Child Rights And Rehabilitation Network who was struggling to meet the needs of the children. After talking with them they were told that there are children who have been abandoned, tortured and set on fire because of the belief they were witches. Sam, who was born and raised in Nigeria, said there was a Nigerian movie that was sent out to all the villages that said that children had the potential to be witches. The village people believed this myth. The priests and witch doctors are just doing it for the money and if the parents can't pay to have their children saved they're just abandoned or tortured. Rosie asked why the main man who is doing this isn't in jail and Sam said that the locals are afraid of him. He was arrested in 2003 but he was released and the fear if you tell, is that he would be released again and come kill you. He decides who lives and who dies. This man in Nigeria has denied that he killed children. He has only said that he has killed witches, not the children themselves.

Gary explained that the judiciary and the police all believe that children can be witches so until you can change that belief system it makes it difficult to change. They said that the goal is to reunify the parents with the children and convince them that their children are not witches. They said that sometimes it takes a long time but it's not impossible.

Sam has worked tirelessly trying to make governmental and societal changes on behalf of children. He started with 4 and now has 250 children who live in an emergency shelter. He has counselors for the children and now takes in only the most severely tortured because there are just too many to handle at the moment. He said they council the parents and give them therapy when they come to him with the children that they think are witches. He said that the education of the children also helps to educate the parents. His organization funds a school, about 20 staff members and the cost of feeding the children. It costs them about 100,000 pounds per year and if you're interested in making a donation you can do so at Stepping Stones Nigeria.

Sam said what gives him the greatest happiness is to save the children and return them back home. He said it is important to continue his work and partner with anyone that is willing to help. Rosie said it's very inspiring what they have done and very eye-opening for her to see how hard it is for some children every day. She recommended her listeners watch the documentary and go to Rosie.com for more information.

After the interview Janette and Rosie agreed how amazing it is what they have done for these children and the lives that have been saved from this film and from their work. They also complimented the men on the bravery that has been involved in their work in the face of such danger to protect these children. You can catch the documentary on HBO2 tomorrow night.

Rosie closed reminding everyone that Glee and American Idol are on tonight and said, "Go, Crystal!"

and that's what you missed -kw



Happy Birthday, Parker!!

And on a personal note, the blog hit 200,000 hits yesterday! Thanks for reading!