The Fish Pond

Discovery's "Deadliest Catch" Starts Tonight at 9 -- UPDATED

I've already told you what one of my guilty pleasures is - this is another. I LOVE Deadliest Catch. The action is cool, some of the fishermen are hott, and I could listen to Mike Rowe read the damn phone book for hours - yum. Plus watching it with BigDaddyFish gets me lots of brownie points, ahem. The new season starts tonight at 9, and you can bet your bippy my ass will be on my couch in front of the plasma as far in advance as my children's bedtime will let me. Think they'll go to be at 6:30?

Today we found out there is a Deadliest Catch game for Xbox 360 and PC coming out sometime this month, called Deadliest Catch Alaskan Storm. We are such geeks that we can't wait for it to come out. We might even buy an Xbox 360 just for it. Or upgrade our gamer's box.

Anyway, what inquiring minds really want to know is this:

Sig or Edgar? Which one, and why? I'll tell you my answer after you tell me yours.

MY ANSWER: Edgar. They're both sort of hot in a rugged, stinky, not sleeping, smoking, hard working kind of way. But Sig's main skills are driving a boat and finding crab. Which is great, if that's what you're trying to do. I really don't anticipate needing those particular skillz anytime soon. But Edgar? He's a deck boss; he manages people by yelling at them, so he'd be good in herding the cats children, PLUS he cooks! PLUS he makes kids eat raw things! PLUS he fixes stuff! Edgar is just plain a little more useful to have around. Sorry, Sig.

note to Sig and Edgar's wives, in the one in a million chance they end up reading this blog: this exercise was all in good fun. I have no designs on your husbands - I'm quite happy with mine, and I'm sure yours quite happy with you. Not to mention that you're both drop-dead gorgeous, and have no reason to be concerned about frumpy short housewives that your husbands will never meet. Thank you.

Crikey!

OMG!  I had this long post planned out about some pregnancy rant and preparing for Little Man's birthday party, but I just saw that Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, DIED today.  My post was insignificant at best.

My kids loved Steve Irwin, and while I occasionally found him annoying, I recognize how much my kids learned from him, and how much he did to educate people about wild animals and conservation.  I hope that animal planet continues to air his shows, because they will continue that legacy of education even with Steve gone.

He will be missed.  We are sad here today.

There But for the Grace of God...

I wanted to take a few minutes to post a little bit about the Andrea Yates verdict.  BigDaddyFish is having a little trouble with the idea that I sympathize so much with this woman; I feel the verdict in the trial was the correct one, and I really have trouble with the idea that the other people involved in this horrible tragedy are not being held accountable.

Yes, the others.  Rusty Yates in particular.

You see, I've been in a situation similar enough to be able to identify with this poor woman.  No, I never killed any kids, or did them any harm.  I wouldn't ever.  But I AM able to recognize getting close to the line more times than I can count; I've yelled too loud and too often, been rougher with them than I should have, spanked them.  I've had to put MYSELF in time out to make sure no one got hurt, so that I could calm down and be rational.  I've dealt with the awful guilt I felt every time I didn't get myself into time out fast enough.  I recognized before I stayed at home with my kids that dealing with the emotional isolation, the overwhelming nature of dealing with small irrational people all day long with few breaks and few interactions with other adult, rational people would be the biggest challenge I would face, and did what I needed to to address that.

I've also been depressed.  Horribly, awfully, wish I would die depressed.  I still had the wherewithall to recognize I was in trouble, and to get help.  I had a supportive spouse who did what he could to help.  It stressed our marriage; we are blessed that we made it.  But he helped.

But Rusty Yates not only didn't help, he made the situation worse.  Both Yates' were warned that Andrea shouldn't have any more children because of her unstable mental condition.  She had attempted suicide.  She had been institutionalized.  Yet he not only told her she needed to have as many kids as God would allow, but encouraged her to homeschool them, too!  He, and the mental health system and child protection system in Texas, failed Andrea.  More importantly, they failed those 5 innocent children.

Since we don't have a "Guilty, but insane" defense in this country (do we?  I would be happy if we did), I believe the verdict is the right one.  Andrea Yates didn't have depression like I did.  She had psychosis.  She thought she was protecting her children from Satan and Hell by killing them while they were children.  In a peculiar way that most of us can't identify with, isn't this just her maternal insticts working?  If we thought a predator was after our children, wouldn't we rational people do everything we could to protect our kids?  My father is bipolar, and I know from dealing with his illness for more than 25 years that the mentally ill can no more turn their illness on and off at their convenience, as some have suggested that the Post Partum Psychosis is simply a convenient excuse for Andrea, than they can stop a heart attack or make their bodies thinner or make an inactive thyroid make the right amount of hormone just by willing it to do so.  Andrea Yates was not in control and did not understand what she did was wrong. Period.  So she will be where she needs to be.

The jury in this case needed to override their emotions about the horrible end these children faced, and arrive at the true and just verdict.  It is right and just that they did not let feelings of revenge or retribution over the loss of those five innocents prevent them from making the right decision about their mother.  IF she ever "gets well" she will have to live with the fact of what she did for the rest of her life, and that is punishment enough.  I just hope Rusty Yates has an active imagination.  I wonder how he sleeps at night.