My mom: Did you hear about that teacher?
Me: What teacher?
My mom: The one who they found in the river.
Me: Where? in Wilkes-Barre?
My mom: No, in New York.
Me: Oh. No, I try not to read too much about local crime that they put on the national news. I think it creates a climate of fear that isn't good for people.
My mom: You're right. It's terrible to hear about. It's because those news channels have all that time to fill up. So this teacher disappeared in August and they kept seeing her different places, then they saw her floating in the river so they sent a tugboat out to rescue her. She's still alive.
Me: Sad. She is probably mentally ill and needed care. Like I said, I try not to read too much about crime stories like that. It's not really related to anything around here, and I don't like wallowing in the creepy stuff.
My mom: Yes, you're right. Oh, my heart goes out to that baby.
Me: (smacking self on head) What baby?
My mom: That Anthony baby.
Me: Huh?
My mom: You know, they think the mother did something to the 3 yr old daughter ---
Me: I don't think I want to hear any more about that.
My mom: It's somewhere in the south. North Carolina maybe?
Me: (SIGH.)
I love her dearly, but she's driving me crazy.
My grandmother does this to me too! She loves CNN and MSNBC. She was all about the Scott Peterson Case... Same applies for soap operas. Her-"Do you watch Guiding Light?" Me-"No." Her-"Well So-and-so is dating OtherGuy now and I don't like him" etc.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain.
I miss the days before "national news" meant local gossip from every little town/city in the US; national news was actual news that was occurring that had an affect on our nations government, peoples health, fighting for our basic rights like the Equal Rights Ammendments. There was always local news for that. (Sigh...)
ReplyDeleteRegina
She just needs focus. Teach her to spin. Oh! I know- have her start soaking yarns and rovings so you can dye more.
ReplyDeleteYou've got a good point about the news- I should probably disable my CNN feed... Even better- if it doesn't involve the happiness of my goats, I don't want to hear it... (that really was just a joke)
Love my fiber club roving!
I didn't realize how national the Hannah Upps (teacher) story had become; I heard about it because she was in my graduating class at Bryn Mawr. Actually, by that standard, it's local news for you, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteAnyway--I'm glad she's alive, and I'm sorry your mother isn't listening.
While the DNC was in Denver, my mother kept calling me and asking if I had breakfast with Hillary; lunch with Hillary; dinner with Hillary. For some reason, she thought this was funny. The first time she asked, I was all WTF?!?!? After that I just changed the subject. At least I didn't ask her WHY she thought this was so funny. I love my mom, but yeah...I suppose I should be glad she doesn't want to talk about people floating in a river.
ReplyDeleteWow. Sounds like my mom.
ReplyDeleteI can sympathize. My mother used to get the gist of stories, but them screw them up with other stories. By the end of the conversation, neither of us would have a clue what we were talking about!
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I have to say that I would give anything to be able to have my mother still around to drive me crazy ...
I have clients like that.
ReplyDeleteI am so looking forward to seeing you at Rhinebeck. :-)
Urg. This is why I don't watch the news. Too upsetting. My mom does, however, keep me up on the stuff she thinks I need to know, much like yours =)
ReplyDeleteHave you been talking to my Mum? She's a news junkie and has to tell me about all the crime in the world and then she wants me to explain why it happened.
ReplyDeleteI didn't do it, honest. Too bad you can't just put your fingers in your ears and hum. I keep telling her to give up the news and watch some comedies -- there's still a lot of good, beautiful, helpful people in this world but only the worst of the worst seems to make it to the news.
My mom does the same thing. We'll be taking about the weather and then the next thing out of her mouth is some gross news story.
ReplyDeleteI have to give your mom credit: her comment about "news channels have all that time to fill up" is a fairly astute explanation as to why the nature of "news" has changed.
ReplyDeleteI do feel your pain, although this post did read like a French and Saunders skit.
Wow. I had not heard of either of those stories. I guess I do kind of live in a bubble. (Or getting annoyed by All Campaign! All the Time! and switching to the Cartoon Network helps).
ReplyDeleteI get kind of creeped out by how...attached (for lack of a better word) some people seem to get to those missing-persons stories. I want to tell them, "You do realize that for every cute blonde white woman who mysteriously goes missing, there are a bunch of not-so-cute, maybe not-so-young, not-so-white people who have horrible stuff happens to them, and it never makes the news?"