****NOTE: Please keep Harley and all our friends in the line of California's fires in your prayers and thoughts....As of this writing, 250,000 people have been evacuated - including Harley - with no end in sight. Thanks.****

TMI

By Sarah

I am on deadline for SWEET LOVE - my best book yet. I'm a busy woman with a month worth of rewrites  ahead of me along with kid duty, housework, bills to pay, Thanksgiving to attend and lots of carpooling. Which is why I'm so very glad NASA, a federally funded organization, has announced that they will NOT be releasing data on near misses at airports because the public simply doesn't need to know.

Hear, hear.

It's about time that someone in this age of information finally blew the whistle, drew the line and executed a whole bunch of other cliches that mean "stopped this craziness." Too much information. That's what we're dealing with these days. We know about everything from Dick Cheney's enlarged spleen to Britney Spears's custody arrangement and the color of her underwear. Of course, there's lots of stuff that we should know that we don't....but certainly the number of birds that fly into engines and pilots who stagger into the cockpit are not on that list.

Frankly, I'm overloaded. The data on red wine alone has my head spinning - and not in the normal good red wine way. First, alcohol is bad, but a glass of red wine is good. Wait. It's really good, especially if you live in France and eat lots of fatty cheeses. But hold on! Red wine for women is a no, no. Even a glass a day can cause breast cancer. Though, if you can analyze the statistics, that's bull since only a certain percentage of women get breast cancer and, of those, a teeny tiny percent drink alcohol. Plus, red wine can help your heart. Conclusion? Ask your doctor since he or she has even MORE information, information you can't possibly understand without attending seven years of info-saturated me school.

As for taxes.....

Unfortunately, this Age of Information thing, the concept that with the speed of the Internet we can know Now and in Detail, has spilled over to everyday discourse. No longer are particular subjects taboo. People reveal the most personal tidbits about their lives with the least little nudge.

Look, I live in a bubble when I'm writing. I find it hard to leave my desk long enough to go to the grocery store. But when I do, I invariably run into an old friend or long lost acquaintance who is all too ready to dump about a relationship that's not working because her husband doesn't pay attention to her. Hours have been consumed, positively pissed away, listening to stories about dogs with mange, dogs with loyalty issues, dogs with bad attitudes and, worst of all, dogs with worms.

Health concerns are top of the TMI list. I'm sorry, but as much as I love you please don't tell me about the color of your urine. Urine color, along with snot consistency should never, ever be discussed outside a doctor's office. Ditto about these thick prospectus these companies in which I've invested keep sending me. I really don't care and I don't have the time to sit down and try to comprehend why section B of Article II is up for proxy vote. Borrring!

Last week, our daughter and I began the school tour. We looked at my alma mater, Tufts, Dartmouth and Boston University - three different schools within a reasonable distance. We came back with books - books! - the schools gave us listing their courses, professors, typical days, typical nights, requirements, admission standards, statistics on who gets in, who doesn't, tuition (don't ask - horrifying), scholarships, rooms, libraries, dining, extracurricular activities, tradition, alumni.....endless amounts of information I will never read. Wanna know a secret? We threw them away.

Even a trip to the dentist is fraught with unnecessary info, most of it technologically driven. Because they have digital equipment, dentists feel compelled to show you up close and in graphic, high definition detail, the decay in your right bicuspid. No, no and no! I don't want to see that icky black detritus left by devouring bacteria. I want to put my headphones on, open my mouth for the Novocaine and forget why I'm there or what they're doing.

Which is why I'm glad NASA's not telling me about how many near misses there have been. Flying is a fact of everyday life. Rarely can one get 25,000 feet into the air and ask to be let off. We're victims, really, poor sitting ducks with few options. Better that we don't know our plane nearly clipped a private jet flying too high.

Am I wrong? Or, admit it, you're sick of TMI too....

Back to the book,

Sarah

Comments

[Josh]

Awww. Does somebody need a hug?

[SarahS]

Don't mess with me, Josh. I'm in a mood!

[Darlene Ryan]

Josh, I don't think a hug is going to do it. Sarah sounds like she needs chocolate and lots of it!

[Nancy Martin]

Okay, you sound nuts. But the ray of hope: "My best book ever." You go, Sarah!

Cheney has an enlarged spleen? Where have I been?

[ramona]

I'm not sure I want to know about anyone's enlarged spleen, even my own.

I feel your pain on the collage stuff, Sarah. We're going to a college fair tonight, and I just know we'll come home with a bagful of pamphlets and brochures and crap that will end up in the recycling bin afer never being read. If it's glossy and pretty and the person holding it out is smiling, I feel compelled to take it and bring it home. I do not, however, feel compelled to read it and overload my already oozing brain.

About NASA witholding the near-miss info--thank you. Really, thank you.

[ramona]

Okay, that's COLLEGE stuff. I don't do collages, and I certainly would not attend a collage fair.

And yes, well wishes to Harley!

[Lynn]

Sarah sounds like she needs a personal assistant, and then lots of chocolate.

[j renee stuart]

Or maybe a glass (or two) of red wine ?

[Maryann Mercer]

Did they say anything about white wines?

I learned a long time ago that if someone asks you how you are, the answer they want is "Fine". Period. As a flyer who has a :White Knuckle" badged pinned to the inside of her purse, I don't even want to know about "far misses". Being told that the pilot has to shut down one engine on a twin engine commuter plane is already more than I need to know (not to mention the flight attendant having to check the manual to know how to deal with an impending 'rough landing')
I'm not even sure I want any more news from the Middle East, good or bad. I know too much already. And colleges? In my day you were lucky to get a catalogue of courses...I went to ISU sight unseen, making my decision from the course listings. Now it's a big marketing campaign, complete with little keychains!
You go, Sarah...maybe brandy is better than wine anyway. My grandmother always kept some around for medicinal purposes :o)
Good thoughts to Harley and the others. If I could, I'd blow our rainy weather their way.

[Michael]

So then I guess you guys don’t want to hear about the airline that has its engines overhauled in Bangladesh? :)

[Joyce Tremel]

I'm with you, Sarah. Way TMI.

All you really need to know about college is where to send the very large check.

[ramona]

Joyce! I think we have a new TLC bumper sticker!

[michele]

Yeah, Mike, I want to know which airline that is!

Sarah, I loved this blog. Man, if even half of that anger and passion is going into your next book, it's gonna rock. But I can't help asking, what is a former journalist doing complaining about too much information? I thought journalists were all about information, all the time.

[Kerry, The Martial Tart]

Rock on, Sarah, especially about the medical stuff. I don't want to hear about it first hand while you've got me cornered on an elevator, and I really don't want to hear about it second-hand while you discuss it, loudly, on your cell phone, thankyouverymuch. I don't want to hear about your sex life, or any body parts normally concealed by clothing (unless the point is to show me your awesome new tattoo -- and even then I want to be asked first).

I do want to hear more about Sarah's book, though!!!!!

[SarahS]

Yes----Sex life. I forgot about that.

Sweet Love - tons of dessert stuff/old crushes returning/mother-daughter-grandmother...I like to think of it as a snapshot of the life of a forty-something woman. A very transitional age.....But funny, too. (Or so I hope!)

I've put on weight (I'm sure) making banana bread pudding, fresh blueberry pie, lemon bars, peach cobblers....All for the sake of the book. (Or so I'm bullshitting.)

[Mary Storyteller]

Dark chocolate with red wine! -- it's medicinal and has to be good for you.
I find that I can handle news in the paper better than on TV, fewer graphic images. Right now even the newspaper is a trap because of all the ads and articles, with photos,of a Body exhibit at the science center, which I don't think I want to see. I opted out of high school biology and avoided lab invitations by friends studying human anatomy, just too icky for me. So yes, TMI -- I don't want it.

[SusanCo]

Harley, if you read this, there is plenty of room at my house in Colorado. Just call and I will pick you and your beautiful children up at the airport! Praying for you kiddo. SusanCo

[Mary Storyteller]

My library just purchased Harley's _Dating Is Murder_ on CDs, read by Bernadette Dunne. It's excellent!!

[michele]

Hey, I'm wondering where are all the people telling ME about their sex lives? This blog is making me feel like I never get any good gossip. When I run into people in the grocery store, they never give me anything juicy like that!

[William Simon]

While I side with ramona (like a lot of things, I probably don't REALLY want to know), now that it's out ("They have it but they're keeping it a SECRET"), there's going to be a lot of speculation and rumor and Heaven Help Us, postings on The Net that "this is the REAL document THEY didn't want you to see!" Watch eBay the next few days, see how fast the "Secret Documents" show up for sale.

Then again, I guess we should be grateful that NASA did admit they wouldn't share...as opposed to "We're not keeping a secret ..... but if we DID keep a secret, this MIGHT be how we'd do it...."

[Rocco]

Ciao Bellas!

Michele, sweetie, you are shopping at all the wrong places! You spend one day shopping with me and you'll hear enough to last a lifetime.

Sarah, lovey, you need some champagne. The bubbles will perk you up and the buzz will chill you out.

And if you are writing about deserts, you mustn't forget that the best thing to serve with dark chocolate is port; no Italian desert is complete without a nice Banfi Rosa Regale; and a well-made Bellini is a perfect desert in and of itself.

Salut and can't wait for the new book!

[Kathryn Reschini Sweeney]

Amen on the medical TMI -- there's a reason I chose law school and not med school!

And that goes double in a grocery store - or even worse - a restaurant! I am EATING over here, or at least thinking about eating - so I don't want to hear, from two aisles over, as you shout out the color and consistency of various things coming out of your body.

Sarah - hang in there. Some day, you will look back on this and not remember how crappy you feel today.

[Nancy Martin]

Okay, so I'm cleaning out my kitchen cupboards in preparation for the massive overhaul that starts shortly. I found a bottle of ice wine that I picked up at a Niagara-on-the-Lake vinyard last year. I'm supposed to put it on ice cream? Maybe I should send it to you, Sarah.

Also, I have a jar of lemon curd. I'm sure I bought it for a good reason, and now I can't remember. What should I do with it? Slathering it on pound cake seems like a waste.

[Nancy Martin]

Bangledesh? Oh, lord.

[Rebecca the Bookseller]

Hear, hear! If I want to know about your personal/medical/pet/sexual details, I'll ask. Otherwise, please assume I can do without.

Ramona - have you seen how the right wingers have reacted to Albus? What a riot - as if this is a real problem.

Nancy - I love Ice Wine - it's made when the grapes freeze, and the sugar content is high. Extraordinarily sweet. Perfect in a little apertif glass, or over sorbet.

Lemon curd? Sorry, can't help with that one.