celebrities, complaints

Now, I know why…

Happy Monday, everybody. I, for one, am glad the weekend is over. I spent it alone again, although it wasn’t without a little excitement. As I wrote in my travel blog, on Saturday night, our dog Noyzi was a naughty boy who ate part of a brand new toy. I explained the drama involved with that situation, and I’m happy to report that everything turned out fine. Noyzi is totally okay after that experience. It was upsetting and frustrating on many levels, though, because I unexpectedly found myself somewhat helpless in that situation. There was so much to think about that, two or three years ago, I wouldn’t have needed to consider.

Two years ago, my biggest issue would have been getting Noyzi into the back of the car for a trip to the vet’s office. But thanks to the pandemic, there was so much more to prepare for, right down to making sure I had a fucking face mask. In the end, it wasn’t necessary for me to rush Noyzi to the vet on Saturday night. It’s still unnerving that doing so would have been difficult. I guess if it had come down to it, I could have tried to get help from the neighbors, although I know the next door neighbor wasn’t home when this was happening.

COVID-19 has made things infinitely more complicated for everyone. I’ve noticed that people have less patience than they used to have. There’s also a marked decrease in civility across the board. I’ve noticed that people are a lot less willing to listen to opinions they don’t happen to share. And instead of just quietly scrolling by, they get into arguments that quickly get heated. Sometimes, those arguments are also offline. Which brings me to the title of today’s post.

Last night, I noticed I got a bunch of hits on an old post I wrote about the actor, Ricky Schroder, I had written for my old Google blog. I reposted that piece some time ago, mainly because I thought it was interesting. I know not everyone shares my opinions about what’s interesting and what’s not. When I repost things from the old blog, I notice they don’t tend to be read right away. But then, if something comes up in the news, people will find those reruns. Sometimes, that leads to interesting connections. For instance, I got a comment on the contact page last night from someone who had read a repost of a piece I wrote about seven years ago. I especially tend to get these kinds of comments on true crime posts– from true crime buffs, crime writers and researchers, and sometimes even friends and families of the victims or perpetrators.

So anyway, Ricky Schroder is in the news again, which has caused people to search for info about him. That’s led some new people to my blog. Ricky Schroder is notoriously conservative. He was a Mormon convert for a number of years. He helped bail teen Kenosha killer Kyle Rittenhouse out of jail last year. He’s a big proponent of gun rights. And evidently, he’s now in the news for being against being forced to wear a face mask at Costco.

Ricky Schroder posted a video to his Facebook page showing him confronting an employee at Costco, who wouldn’t let him in the store without a mask. Evidently, in the wake of the CDC’s recent announcement that face masks are no longer necessary for fully vaccinated people, Costco dropped its face mask requirements. However, the new rule only applies in places where local ordinances don’t still require masking. In Los Angeles, which is where Ricky wanted to shop at Costco, masking indoors still applies. That’s why Ricky was confronted by a Costco employee named Jason, who would not let him pass the front door. Jason sounds very much like he’s been well-trained by his corporate leaders. I sympathize with him, and commend him for keeping his cool, under the circumstances. But I guess if you live in Los Angeles, you might be used to seeing 80s era TV stars every day.

Ricky says that people should boycott Costco. He’s come to the store to get a refund and, I guess, to drop his membership. Bill and I had a Costco membership when we lived in Texas. It wasn’t very useful for us, since there’s only two of us in the house. I also don’t like shopping in big warehouses. However, I know that a lot of people love Costco and it’s a company that is reportedly very good to its employees. And, to be honest, I hate wearing face masks, so I wouldn’t want to shop at Costco right now, anyway. On one hand, I agree with Ricky that the idea that we should all wear masks indefinitely is not a good one. On the other hand, I also respect the rights of business owners to run their businesses the way they see fit. Costco is a private business, and especially as a Republican, Ricky Schroder should have respected that, and their right to set policies that work for their business. He doesn’t have to shop there, and it sounds like, from now on, he won’t.

As someone who used to have to deal with the public, I have a lot of empathy for Jason and his cohorts. And as someone who votes blue, but sometimes leans right, I understand how Ricky feels, too. I hate that COVID-19 has made everything so complicated and political. This should not be a political issue at all. It’s about avoiding getting sick and dying or spreading diseases that can kill other people. I think a person can be cooperative with policies and not be pro or against an issue. I know it’s trendy for people to make assumptions about a person’s politics by how they feel about masking or other hot button issues. Hell, I’m even guilty myself of figuring out who is pro Trump, simply based on their behavior. I remember a couple of years ago, I correctly surmised a couple of guys were Trump supporters because they got drunk and decided to test out a bullet proof vest. That’s just not the kind of thing the average liberal does… although I suppose it’s possible a Biden fan might try such a stunt.

What put this on my mind today? It’s partly because last night, I was reading a news article about how the new mask guidelines have caused mass confusion and strife in the United States. The CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, is now having to defend the new guidance as people have gotten up in arms about it. For approximately the last year (because the mask habit was slower to pick up in some areas than others) the overwhelming advice by public health experts has been to wear face masks. Just a couple of months ago, some experts were advising people to “double mask”. To be honest, that idea was not gonna fly with me at all. I found the idea of wearing two masks really horrifying. The idea that the air is so fouled with pathogens that I need to cover my face everywhere while wearing two masks? That just sounds dystopian to me. Nope… I will wear only one mask, and only where they are required and I can’t avoid going.

After the double mask fad that was going on a few months ago, it was very strange to hear the CDC suddenly reverse course. It was even stranger to hear the people who were begging people to listen to the experts at the CDC suddenly changing course, telling people NOT to listen to them. As I read that news article last night, I was reminded of how annoyed I was last year when people kept sharing the “public urination” meme, comparing wearing a mask to wearing pants and not peeing on people. I lost my temper with more than one person who shared that with me, partly because unlike many people who were sharing it, I’ve actually taken courses in epidemiology and worked in the public health field. The comparison of spreading COVID-19 to public urination was just non-sensical to me. They aren’t comparable situations. Who goes around peeing on people? Even if they did, avoiding pee is much easier than avoiding airborne viruses or other microscopic microbes.

So glad to see this meme died, at long last.

Last night, I read an angry comment from some guy who compared going maskless to driving drunk. Once again, I was shaking my head at the lunacy. Driving drunk is something that only people who drink alcohol and drive cars do. Not everyone drives. Not everyone drinks alcohol. And not everyone chooses to drink and drive. We all have to breathe, though, and until COVID-19 showed up, breathing uninhibited by a face mask was completely appropriate and okay. Moreover, even those who wear masks can spread the virus or catch it, even though the risk is much lower. But if you don’t breathe, you will die. Breathing is necessary for living. Driving a car and/or drinking booze or both are not necessary for living. The masks aren’t normal, and we shouldn’t normalize this situation. This is a temporary condition and it should be treated as such.

Ditto to the seatbelt argument. To me, the masks aren’t like seatbelts. Seatbelts are only worn in the car or on the airplane. They don’t inhibit communication, breathing, eating, drinking, socializing, vision (because of fogging up or the mask riding up), or hearing (because of the ear loops that sometimes knock out hearing aids or make lip reading hard). Moreover, we’ll probably all be wearing seatbelts for the rest of our lives… at least until cars are obsolete. The masks, on the other hand, I hope are temporary. Even if we can’t get rid of COVID, I’m hoping someone will come up with a way to temper the virus so it’s not such a threat anymore. Car accidents, I fear, are always going to be a threat to human life, no matter what.

Mark my words… someone will come up with some kind of HVAC system that kills viruses… or some other system that eventually makes the masks unnecessary indoors. A year ago, I was worried that the masks would become trendy forever, but now I know that people really do want to be rid of them. That’s comforting to me.

Noyzi this morning. He’s in fine fettle.

In any case… none of this drama affects me personally. I’m still in Germany, where vaccinations are finally picking up, but aren’t as widespread as they are in the United States. The Rewe is still only letting 35 properly masked people in their stores at a time. Things are still shut down here, although there is talk that fully vaccinated or recovered people will be allowed more freedoms. Actually, that is currently the case in Germany, although I can’t enjoy it myself until next month. I don’t get shot #2 until June 9th, and I won’t be considered fully vaccinated until the 23rd. However, it is comforting to see that widespread sickness is going down in the USA. The vaccines are working. With any luck, things will get markedly better soon for a lot of people. Frankly, I’m just glad that in a few days, Bill will (hopefully) be home… and if Noyzi eats another toy, we can handle it together. As for Ricky Schroder… I hope he finds a retailer whose policies are more in line with his right wing politics.

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true crime

Kenosha Killer Kyle Rittenhouse is out of jail… and he has Ricky Schroder, in part, to thank for it…

2020 has certainly been an *odd* year. Never did I believe, just twelve months ago, that I’d be cringing with so much disgust about so many things. I didn’t write yesterday because I was feeling really cranky. I decided to put up all the Christmas decorations instead, and that took a couple of hours. After that, I just didn’t feel like writing. However, I did post a few comments on news stories. I often regret commenting on stories, but sometimes I can’t help myself.

I ended up blocking one guy with “correctile dysfunction”, who kept trying to mansplain the morality of being pro-life while also being pro-death penalty. Another post, about a wonderful, warm hearted Italian baker who was putting out free bread to feed the hungry in Milan, left me in tears. The baker got COVID-19 and the virus killed him. A third story, about people who got COVID-19 while on an 18 hour flight from Dubai to New Zealand left me feeling disgusted.

A woman who clearly hadn’t read the article, wrote a scolding comment about “manning up” and wearing a mask. The people on the flight were wearing masks and gloves. Several of them got sick, anyway, which is bound to happen, whether or not people are wearing masks.

Sorry, but face masks are not a panacea against the coronavirus. Wearing them slows down the rate of infections. It doesn’t stop them cold. Many people do not wear the masks properly or change them as often as they should. Wearing a mask for eighteen hours on a plane is sheer lunacy, anyway. I don’t think long haul flights like that should be allowed until there’s a vaccine. And frankly, I’m tired of people judging and scolding others about COVID-19. People need to tend to their own business, and they should read before they comment on news articles. I mentioned I was feeling cranky, right? This COVID-19 stuff along with my hormones are really doing a number on my disposition and patience.

But then, just as I was about to turn off the news and enjoy the rest of my Saturday with Bill, I read about how actor Ricky Schroder contributed $150,000 to help bail teenaged killer Kyle Rittenhouse out of jail. Yep… in a world where people have lost their jobs due to the hellacious happenings of 2020– in a world where an Italian baker was putting out free bread for the hungry because people really needed it– Ricky Schroder thinks donating $150,000 to a bail fund for a known killer is a worthwhile thing to do.

Well, it’s his money… And I know that despite how many of my friends and classmates thought Ricky was adorable in the 1980s, he’s grown up to be quite the conservative freakazoid. Earlier today, I reposted an article I wrote in 2017 about Ricky and his family– ex Mormons who have evidently turned into poster children for the word “vapid” and made their own reality show about “Growing Up Supermodel”. In 2019, I wrote about Ricky’s older daughter, Cambrie, who is gorgeous but has issues with her dad. I seemed to have come away with a more favorable opinion of Cambrie in 2019.

Before yesterday, I knew Ricky Schroder voted Republican and has conservative values. I know Kyle Rittenhouse’s case is a bit complicated, too. Here he is, a seventeen year old guy, just on the brink of legal adulthood, living in Antioch, Illinois. All year, there’s been chaos. We’ve had rioting, protesting, political unrest, and a pandemic. I’m not in America right now, so it’s hard for me to judge the overall mood of life there. I can say that as an American abroad, I assume that people of all stripes are feeling restless and uneasy in America. Some people probably feel scared and helpless. Guns make them feel better and “safer” somehow.

Kyle Rittenhouse is a young man in the heart of America. He felt the need to carry a weapon to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, even though he’s a minor. He says he was there to help protect businesses from looters after protests erupted when Kenosha police shot Jacob Blake in the back, paralyzing him. Rittenhouse was supposedly there to act as a medic, and help clean up.

Perhaps Rittenhouse really did think it was his civic duty to cross state lines on August 25th of this year, and get involved in a protest that led to him killing two people and injuring another. But the fact is, he should not have been involved. It wasn’t his business.

Kyle’s mom defends him.

Rittenhouse was too young to buy a rifle. He had an adult friend do it for him, using money he got from the government’s stimulus program. He had “plans” to apply for a firearm owner’s ID card so he could keep the gun legally, but evidently, he hadn’t done that at the time of the crime. Rittenhouse also needed a ride to the protest, which was provided by his mom. Kyle reportedly wanted to be a police officer. He carried a medical kit with him wherever he went. He was allegedly trying to “help” when he went to the protest in Kenosha. Instead, he wound up on camera, shooting people. He claims it was “self-defense”. My question is, what the hell was he doing there in the first place?

So Kyle’s dream was to be a police officer. Why didn’t he stay in Illinois and work toward making that dream come true, rather than taking it upon himself to get involved with a protest in another state? Where did he get the idea that he needed to bring a weapon to the protest? Even if he meant to be “helpful”, it wasn’t legal for him to purchase the gun. And he probably wasn’t trained in dealing with protests. It was a foolish idea that may cost him his freedom.

Of course, right now he’s out of jail, thanks to Ricky Schroder and the CEO of My Pillow, Mike Lindell, who helped raise the $2 million to get him out of the pokey. While I’m not sure I believe Kyle Rittenhouse is a hardened criminal who needs to be locked up forever, I do think that he stuck his nose where it clearly didn’t belong. He made a terrible mistake that cost people their lives. And I find the below tweet very interesting and telling…

“God bless ALL who donated to help #FightBack raise required $2M cash bail. Special thanks to Actor Ricky Schroder @rickyshroder1 & Mike Lindell @realMikeLindell for putting us over the top. Kyle is SAFE. Thanks to ALL who helped this boy,”

Notice that in the tweet, Rittenhouse is referred to as a “boy”. If he’s a boy, then he had no business attending a protest in another state, especially armed. He needed more adult supervision, particularly since it’s obvious that he has an obsession with weapons and Donald Trump. One would hope that by age 17, most young people would have more wisdom and insight than Kyle did. But his actions only prove that he still has a whole lot of growing up to do. Unfortunately, he may be doing it in prison. At the very least, it’s likely that his dream of being a cop will never come to fruition. But at least he has a friend in Ricky Schroder. I know back in the 1980s, some people would have thought that would be really cool.

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bad TV, celebrities, healthcare, LDS

Repost: Ricky Schroder’s kids and prejudice about healthcare providers…

I’m reposting this old post from my original OH blog because today I intend to write fresh content about the actor, Ricky Schroder. I may want to reference this post. I’m leaving it as/is, so pretend it’s still 2017 if you choose to read it.

This morning’s topic is somewhat of a rerun with a new twist.  Yesterday, I spent most of the day watching a totally vapid Lifetime show called Growing Up Supermodel.  It starred the children of several formerly hot models and actors.  These kids all grew up in California and their parents are somewhat wealthy… Don’t know if they’d hang out together if they weren’t thrown together for reality TV.

One of the families profiled was Ricky Schroder’s.  Ricky Schroder, as you might know, was a big kid star in the early 80s.  Women from my generation had mad crushes on him.  I never found him that attractive because he was too baby faced for my liking.  However, I will admit that he had a certain ethereal look to him– blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.  He looked angelic.  That look has now kind of passed because he’s apparently sporting a full beard and darker (probably dyed) hair now.


Ricky doesn’t like the show.

Ricky Schroder’s now ex wife, Andrea, was raised LDS.  She and Ricky have since left the church.  Andrea has a very deep, husky voice.  She sounds like a pack a day smoker.  She and Ricky were married for 24 years when she filed for divorce.  They had four children together.  The two youngest, their daughters, Cambrie and Faith, were featured on Growing Up Supermodel.  Ricky Schroder’s daughters are stunning.  Cambrie looks like a young Brooke Shields.  Faith is similarly lovely.  They probably could be legit models.  Andrea seems a bit immature and evidently lacks parenting skills.  She doesn’t discipline; she claims that was Ricky’s job.  Moreover, in more than one scene, it appears that her older daughter is more mature and actually more of a parent than Andrea is.  I watched Cambrie comfort her mother and try to discipline her teenaged sister while Andrea whined about the divorce and how “lost” she feels. 


Andrea and the girls… 

As I mentioned before, I spent all day yesterday watching this show. It was incredibly mindless. At times, it was downright frustrating and annoying. And yet, it was also kind of like watching a trainwreck– awful, yet hard to turn away from. Other people on the show included Kelly LeBrock, who was a hot model/actress in the 80s and is now a very down to earth mother of three. Her youngest daughter, Arissa, is an aspiring plus sized model. She looks a lot like her father, Steven Seagal. I actually liked Kelly and her daughter. I think they should get their own show.

Watching the manufactured drama on Growing Up Supermodel made me curious about Ricky Schroder’s Mormon conversion story.  I know he grew up without religion.  Courtesy of Deseret News, I found a rather sickening tale of how Ricky had struggled to believe in the church, even after he was converted.  His mind was changed when he was hunting with his dad and a friend and shot a buck.  Sadly, the bullet only wounded the beast.  Ricky felt like shit because the deer was wounded and would now suffer.  It was getting dark and he couldn’t find the buck to put him out of his misery.  Ricky prayed to Heavenly Father and, miraculously, was able to find and kill the buck.  This led him to believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “true”.  Or, at least he believed for awhile. 

It’s pretty clear that he and Andrea are now outside of Mormonism.  Andrea was sporting a cross necklace and spoke of starting a drinking habit.  Their gorgeous daughters do not dress like Mormons.  And Ricky, whose conversion story was pretty shaky from the get go, has moved to Atlanta, though plans to come back to California when he’s needed.  Of the Schroders who were featured on the show, Ricky (who says he hopes the show will get cancelled) seems to be the most reasonable and grounded.  Apparently, he was the sole disciplinarian in their clan.  After watching his wife and daughters, I have to say I pity anyone who dates Ricky Schroder now. 

I posted about my impressions of Growing Up Supermodel on RfM.  Afterwards, I noticed someone had started a thread called Mormon dentists.  The anonymous poster, who lives near my old stomping grounds in northern Virginia, says their family is searching for a new dentist and they (apparently) want to avoid Mormon dentists.  He or she was asking how one can tell.  I must admit that I could empathize with their question.  

A few years ago, when we lived in Texas, I similarly avoided a dentist who was obviously LDS.  Of course, it never occurred to me to want to ask that question of a healthcare provider ahead of time.  The truth is, I don’t really care what a person’s religious beliefs are as long as they’re private, especially in a professional situation.  But when it’s very obvious what someone’s religion is, it does send a message.  I figured it would be better to choose one of the many other dentists in San Antonio… someone with whom I would be more compatible.  As much as we’d like to be open-minded about everything, the fact is, everybody judges to some extent.  

The responses to the poster’s question were interesting.  I was actually kind of surprised no one lectured the person for being bigoted, even though RfM is the “recovery from Mormonism” message board.  Sometimes, the people who frequent that board can be rigid in their thinking and very vociferous about expressing themselves.  A lot of people have a trigger PC response when it comes to “prejudice” in that they think it’s always wrong.  Honestly, I think many people don’t actually stop and think long and hard about this kind of issue.  Many of us have been conditioned to be open-minded at all costs.  But when it comes to healthcare, I think it’s very important to have a good rapport– if at all possible.  If a provider is very obvious about a lifestyle choice that makes a patient uncomfortable, I do think the patient has the right to seek care elsewhere…  even if that means the person is being “bigoted”.   

If you read this blog regularly, you may have read about my tendency to avoid medical people.  It’s strange that I would be this way, given my training in public health and social work.  On the other hand, maybe it’s partly because of my training that I avoid medical people.  I think the main reason I avoid doctors is because I had a very bad experience with an OB-GYN back in the 90s.  I don’t know if I have a tendency to become phobic or it’s just garden variety anxiety, but ever since that disastrous first “women’s health” exam, I often have almost full blown anxiety attacks when I must see a doctor.  Fortunately, I am ridiculously healthy. 

Because of my anxiety around medical people, I fully support being picky about choosing a healthcare provider.  I think a patient’s comfort and ability to trust is of paramount importance.  So while it may be anti-PC or “bigoted” to reject an obviously Mormon dentist, I think that’s okay.  The main point is that the person gets the care he or she needs from a provider with whom they feel comfortable.  Otherwise, they might end up phobic, like me.

I turned 40 in 2012, when we lived in North Carolina.  Because Bill was still on active duty at the time, I was assigned a primary healthcare provider at Fort Bragg.  Because I had turned 40, they determined it was time for a mammogram.  I got the phone call one October day and the person who called gave me the name of my provider, a woman I had never seen before.

I took down the woman’s name and looked her up on the Internet.  I soon discovered that she was quite a bit younger than I am and likes to party.  Her social media accounts were rather public and, to be honest, turned me off.  I decided I would not see her.  I happened to casually mention this decision to some now former online friends of mine.  Quite a few of them took me to task and proceeded to try to school me, which did nothing more than piss me off.  I got a lot of impassioned lectures about how it’s wrong to be “judgmental”.  However, when it comes to my health, I think I have the right to judge.  If you’re in the business of providing healthcare, it is incumbent upon you to put forth a professional, experienced, and mature image.  If you aren’t experienced or mature, I think you should learn how to fake it convincingly until you are.

I completely understand that medical providers have lives outside of their work.  I also get that a person’s activities outside of the professional environment may have zero bearing on how well they do their jobs.  However, I don’t think it is incumbent upon me to give healthcare providers a chance to prove themselves to me (or anyone else).  It’s my body.  It’s my health.  Due to my past experiences with a horrible (and female) OB-GYN, I have special needs when it comes to my healthcare.  I need to find someone with whom I will feel very comfortable.  I did not feel comfortable when I saw this woman’s public posts on social media.  I had a feeling she would not be mature or experienced enough to deal with my specific issues.  Moreover, I was just a name on a piece of paper to her.  My decision not to see her would not affect her in any way.  Maybe it was wrong to be prejudicial, but dammit, I think I have the right to have high standards regarding anyone who will be examining my private parts.

Incidentally, Bill later saw the woman to whom I’d been assigned.  It turned out my instincts about her were dead on.  He said she was quite inexperienced and tried to prescribe medications for his blood pressure that he can’t take.  She also lectured him about too much salt on his food.  In addition to having high blood pressure, Bill also has hyponatremia.  It’s a rare hereditary condition he shares with his father.  It means his sodium level is abnormally low, despite the fact that his blood pressure is high.  Most people with high blood pressure need to reduce their salt intake, but if Bill did that, he’d be putting himself at risk.  Experienced doctors know that if one has hyponatremia, salting food is essential, even if the person also has hypertension.  Extremely low sodium levels in the blood can be deadly.

Bill said the provider I rejected gave him a lot of textbook answers during their visit.  She was clearly very “green”, which I understand is normal for new providers.  They have to learn somehow.  But she would not have been a good choice for me.  I don’t have to volunteer to “train” this provider if it compromises my comfort.  Making people comfortable is a very important aspect of a healthcare provider’s training.  I think if I feel uncomfortable before I’ve even walked into a provider’s office, that’s a red flag that shouldn’t be ignored.  Also, the older I get, the more I realize that I should listen to my gut feelings.  They usually turn out to be right.

Naturally, there are times when you won’t have a choice of providers.  If you’re in an emergency situation, you may find yourself being tended to by a doctor with multiple tattoos and piercings.  Some people are fine with that.  Other people aren’t.  Or you may find yourself being resuscitated by someone who looks like he just got off his Mormon mission.  You won’t have a choice in that situation.  You may even find that it doesn’t matter anymore after that.  On the other hand, I didn’t have a choice of OB-GYNS back in 1995 and I wound up with a woman who really hurt me.  So now, I insist on being comfortable.  I think everyone should, as much as the situation allows. 

As for the person asking about how to tell if a dentist is LDS, I think he or she has the right to determine a comfort zone.  If someone’s obvious religious proclivities are a turn off, I think it’s okay to make another choice.  There’s no shame in that.  Northern Virginia is full of people who need healthcare and plenty of people will not have issues with a provider’s religion.  Some people would even choose a provider based on shared religious beliefs. 

It’s all about getting the best outcome and being comfortable.  And frankly, knowing what I know about LDS beliefs, I think I’d be a bit wary myself of someone who is very obviously Mormon.  Think of Ricky Schroder’s decision to believe in the LDS church because he was able to find and kill the buck he wounded.  It’s all about exercising good judgment.  When it comes to healthcare providers, it’s probably best for them to leave religion out of the picture and lock down all social media accounts.  Don’t give people a reason to get the “wrong impression”. 

And here are the original comments:

6 comments:

  1. AlexisARDecember 30, 2017 at 3:37 AMYou need to be comfortable with an OBGYN. A younger health care provider really should to be all the more cautious with regard to social media than should a more established healthcare provider. She may be highly professional while on the job, but, unfortunately, if one does not succeed in keeping one’s private life truly private, it’s possible for one’s actions while not on the job to interfere with others’ perceptions of one’s professionalism.ReplyReplies
    1. knottyDecember 30, 2017 at 7:06 AMYes, exactly.  

      Plenty of women would reject male OB-GYNs simply for being male. They could be excellent doctors, but many women would rather see a mediocre female doctor than an excellent male one. The woman who examined me the first time was pretty awful in my opinion. Others might love her.

      I’m surprised you don’t have any comments about Ricky Schroder’s family. Maybe I’m just getting too old.
    2. AlexisARDecember 30, 2017 at 8:12 AMThe OBGYN I see is male. I’m very comfortable with him. i might be equally comfortable with a female OBGYN in the future. It just depends on the doctor. 

      I hadn’t read the “Mormon Dentists” posts. I noticed that Scott posted there. He thinks it is inappropriate to ask. I’m inclined to agree. I have no problem with anyone rejecting me as a physician or surgeon based on my religion. If for any reason they don’t want to be treated by a not terribly devout Catholic, I would rather they go elsewhere. At the same time, I don’t think I would answer the question if posed to me in a professional setting. It’s no one’s business. If a person would rather not be treated by me because I don’t want to answer any questions about my religion, that would be fine with me. And I do get why someone might want to know, as there have been times in my life when I wouldn’t have wanted any of my insurance funds to go to supporting the Mormon church. If a person is over-the-top religious, it’s not usually hard to determine his or her religious affiliation with very minimal sleuthing. If the person isn’t extreme, I personally don’t think his or her religion matters. 

      I don’t feel strongly enough about it to instruct my staff never to answer such questions. That would be up to them if they actually knew the answer. I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve to the extent that my future employees would necessarily know of my religious affiliation. If someone works for you for long enough, it probably comes up in a conversation eventually, but the person might not know right away.

      I noticed that Cheryl at RFM, whom I usually agree with, thought it was perfectly OK to inquire as to the religion of a dentist. That surprised me. I know that she was a teacher. I wonder if she would have been be OK with students’ parents questioning her about her religious affiliation. I can’t imagine that she would have welcomed such questioning. I’ve substituted but will never be an actual teacher, though I’ve been around family members including my mom who were or are in the education profession for my whole life. They’re pretty consistent on not wanting a kid in their classes if the kid’s parent would prefer for any reason that the kid be taught by someone else, but at the same time I think the consensus would be that a parent has no business asking questions about a teacher’s religion. (What the parent does does in a gossipy setting is of no consequence; I’m referring to asking the teacher herself/himself or asking administration about it.) If a parent has good reason to believe that something inappropriate has been said in the course of instruction eithr with the parent’s child or reliably reported from an earlier situation that was somehow influenced by the teacher’s religion, that’s a different matter, and the discussion might then be appropriate, but most teachers don’t say inappropriate things pertaining to religion or to much of anything else.
  2. knottyDecember 30, 2017 at 9:56 AMI think it’s inappropriate to directly ask about religion, too. But if it’s obvious what the religion is, that could be an indication that problems may arise. People are going to be picky about all kinds of things. No matter how we try to squelch prejudice, it’s always going to be an issue to some extent.ReplyReplies
    1. AlexisARDecember 30, 2017 at 11:12 PMI understand prejudice and don’t actually have that big a problem with it. Despite the fact that my cohort was 54% female initially and is still 50% female, a whole lot of people want to be treated by male doctors. in the end, if someone wants another surgeon to operate on his or her kid, i’m good with it. Whatever. I don’t want to operate on anyone who doesn’t want me to.

      I just don’t want to be asked about my religion in the workplace, and would assume that most healthcare professionals feel similarly.

      It isn’t hard to find out. And if the person is the offensive and over-the-top sort of Mormon (or anything else, for that matter), it really isn’t hard to figure it out. If it’s very difficult to find out a health practitioner’s religion, chances are that it won’t impact his or her patients in a very significant way.
    2. knottyDecember 31, 2017 at 6:21 AMI agree. Usually the really obnoxiously religious show themselves before that question would need to come up.
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celebrities, fashion, LDS

Cambrie Schroder, daughter of “The Ricker”, on growing up in her dad’s shadow…

On December 28, 2017, I spent a whole day watching a crappy reality show called Growing up Supermodel. It aired on Lifetime and featured the children of several 80s era stars. Since I was growing up in the 1980s, I watched the show and blogged about it. One of the families profiled was that of Ricky Schroder’s. He’s about my age, and a lot of our peers loved him on the sitcom, Silver Spoons. He grew up without religion, but later became a Latter-day Saint when he married his ex wife, Andrea. They divorced in 2016 and have four children, three of whom are grown– two boys and two girls. It appears that now, the family has left the church.

Ricky Schroder’s elder daughter is 22 year old Cambrie. She was recently interviewed for the Daily Mail. I remember seeing her on Growing Up Supermodel and thinking she and her sister, Faith, were both extremely beautiful. Cambrie now works as a fitness model. She has a huge following on Instagram and serves as a “celebrity fitness guru”. However, she has her father blocked on Instagram because he made comments about how she needed to wear more clothes. Cambrie admits that she doesn’t have a good relationship with her dad.

I think sometimes people look at the children of celebrities and think they must have it made. We assume they must be happy because their parents usually have money and live in beautiful homes. Many people think that money buys happiness. That’s not necessarily true. Cambrie grew up privileged and beautiful, but she still suffered from depression. Fortunately, she focused her efforts to get over depression through exercise rather than doing things that are more self-destructive, like taking drugs or hanging out with abusers.

Although I found Growing Up Supermodel to be a rather vapid show, it was obviously edited to make Schroder’s daughters look spoiled and entitled. Actually, I remember watching it and thinking Cambrie was the most mature of anyone in her family, including her mother. Of course, some might point out that Cambrie at least knows her dad, and didn’t grow up poor or homeless. And she’s very pretty, which will put her at an advantage in many ways.

I guess I just find her story interesting, because I remember how much people of my generation, particularly the girls, thought Ricky Schroder was such hot stuff. I remember my friends having pictures of him in their lockers when we were in, like, sixth grade. I never really liked Ricky myself. He was too “pretty” for me. But he was definitely much beloved in the 80s.

Cambrie two years ago…

By contrast… here’s Ricky as “The Ricker”. This was what we were watching when I was an adolescent.

He’s so cool.
Weird…

Well… I am sure Cambrie doesn’t have the worst life she could have. At least she doesn’t have to hang out with Menudo.

This is pretty cringeworthy. Those guys aren’t even on pitch.

Seriously, though. I know Cambrie doesn’t have it so bad. I guess her story is just a reminder that money and beauty aren’t always a ticket to happiness. I empathize with her. Life is tough for everyone.

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