Day: January 2, 2004

People are comparing Steve Irwin’s carrying his month-old son tucked under one arm while feeding meat to a croc (Crikey!) to Michael Jackson’s dangling his son over a balcony.

There is no comparison. To Irwin, it’s the equivalent of “Take your child to work” day. He’s so confident that nothing could go wrong that he perceives no danger.

Except these are wild animals we’re talking about, something *could* go wrong, and he shouldn’t do it again because it’s just plain asking for trouble.

Michael Jackson, on the other hand, was just plain nuts. Bringing your month old baby along to your work environment, albeit a hazardous one, is simply not the same as dangling your infant over a three story drop just for laughs, and I’m still furious that the German police didn’t arrest him.

Jackson remains a frustration for me. I’ve always been a major proponent in separating the person from the art. I’m the first one to say that you shouldn’t allow personal antipathy to color your enjoyment of the work. But Jackson’s personal life, from his creepy facial metamorphosis to his horrific risk of that infant, has made it so I can’t even watch his older stuff which I used to enjoy a hëll of a lot. That bugs me, because I want to be able to hold true to the philosophies I espouse. But in his case, I really, really can’t.

PAD

The New Year came in quietly at Casa David. We did go to an early party at the local bowling alley which ran from 4 to 8 PM, which included disco lights and music. We were concerned that Caroline would be overstimulated by it all. Instead she found it all entrancing (except for the hour when she corked off). The only downside was our last game of bowling, when I opened with two nine-spares followed by three strikes in a row…and then they shut the lanes down right at 8. There’s nothing like being in the zone and having the game end five frames early.

We then went home, hung out, watched Cirque du Soleil on Bravo, ate some junk food, played Disney Uno, watched the ball come down in Time Square, and exhaled in relief that no one blew anything up there.

Hope everyone else had a safe New Year.

PAD