Oh Glorious Leader: why is the Mommy blogware different than your's? There is a track back function and you don't have to enter a letter from the preview screen to post. Very odd.

I don't know about the post letter, but I was getting hundreds of spam trackbacks a day, which was making me crazy, so I disabled that function. EL

A wise man once said to me, "Annoying kids tend to have annoying parents."

I like KristinB's comment over there.

And I'm glad that as a kid, I had no idea that adults found kids annoying. Except teachers. Man, they must sprout a new gray hair every day.

Shields up! I did something bad on the mommy blog. Betrayal thy name is OMG!

Thanks, I just didn't want the Sandbox to be missing something new and shiny.

Damn Kate Shatzkin I say. Damn her. I now have two tabs open and am bouncing back and forth. I have to, OMG is contributing and I don't want to miss anything.

I have the feeling that the other blog's regulars would prefer that we stay in our own yard, having called us meatheads and requiring us to use our inside voices. They have no idea what goes down in Fracas Town. I did enjoy two single guys giving parenting advice. That was great. USA! USA! USA! (and I'm sure I got some hate vibes from my swipe at Empress Oprah.)

Have no fear, OMG, we'll stand behind you!

Talk about duck & cover. Most of the other bloggers seem to have gone home. At least that thread looks like an outpost of Sandbox. Its still better to be home.

Guys, I think you may have frightened the mommies and the horses.

One of the systems people where I work used to work for the FBI, and when my kids went online he warned me that there are "a lot of weird people out there." Hmmm ....

My first thought was to wonder why no one mentioned that the sandboxers had taken over the mommy blog. Loved the comments - the mommys didn't know what hit them...

That was pretty good reading over there on the mommy blog. I guess I should get some actual work done now, even though its Friday.

the sandboxers had taken over the mommy blog

Some of those complaining about children are behaving pretty childishly themselves.

I imagine that there has been an uptick in page hits for the mommy blog, which is rarely a bad thing. One of the posts we smothered has 28 comments and the usual is 1 or 2. But I think we punched ourselves out and will return to our little corner of the world. In all fairness, they should mount a campaign to have all their children come here and describe everything as yucky and denounce us all as poopyheads.

Please. I don't mind unruly children, but I do mind cute children. Of course, my child excepted. EL

I think Hal has delusions of gradeur. He had added another title to his name.

The spellbound porcine one said: I think Hal has delusions of gradeur (sic).

A bit of googling should remove your illusions of delusions.

Yeah, but do you like babies in flower pots?
http://www.annegeddes.com/modules/products/books/lol.aspx

Or kittens in bowties?
http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Cats/Cat-with-hat.jpg

I am so bored.

I LOVE the kittens in bowties. Cute cats are a totally different matter. Remember, I'm the one who has the picture of the cloned kitten cc in the lab beaker taped to my computer. EL

Please. I don't mind unruly children, but I do mind cute children. Of course, my child excepted. EL

Is that in the unruly or the cute department? ;-)

Very good point. Both. EL

Leah has demonstrated that children are often wiser than adults. (That could divert this blog to another topic, genetics. Leah has two very smart parents, which reinforced the point several people made on the Mom's blog that it's usually the parents at fault when children misbehave in public. So does Gailor, but you already know that.)
I was surprised (and puzzled) that some of the comments on the Mom blog from posters here were more reasoned than I recall from previous go-rounds on this issue. Disappointed, too, since I really like this blog and don't feel drawn to the Moms blog.
Fair warning: Our grandchildren, eight and six years old, will be staying with us the week of June 22 and will dine out with us several times, mostly in South Baltimore.

No Hal, I meant "Gradeur".

http://www.absolutestockphoto.com/search_gradeur

Those photos are of Gradeur Valley in Yosemite. They are named after an eccentric Frenchman Jean Samuel Gradeur,who attempted to set up his own kingdom there in the 1800s. He gave himself many illustrious titles, including Emperor of the West and the redundant Grand Vizier of the West. Because of his self-anointed titles, there is a little historical joke about delusions of Gradeur. He loosely inspired the Warner Bros. cartoon character Yosemite Sam because of his boisterous manner and ready sidearms. They already had a silly French character Black Jacque Shellac, so he became American. Jeez, I thought everybody knew that.

I don't know that genetics are involved. Dumber animals are more easy to train. Since a human baby starts out being less capable than any other animals I know, it's best to train them thoroughly before their intelligence progresses. Baby chimps can do magic tricks by the age of one. Not so with human babies.

For a site with LOTS of cute cat (and sometimes dog or other animal) pictures, check out
this site

Susan -- the icanhascheezburger.com site has spun off the dog photos onto a companion site, ihasahotdog.com. Another site in the same vein is Fail Dogs.

Federal Hill Jim: I very much appreciate the shout-out to Leah and her parents, but don't quite follow you...you're surprised, puzzled and disappointed that the comments from Sandboxers were more reasoned on my blog than here? Do you mean you wish for more reasoned posts here? Or did the reasoned nature of those "mom blog" posts disappoint you? ;)

And Hal Laurent: I don't know what your other titles mean, but you ARE the Voice of Reason.

VoodooPig, that's a great story. I think you made it up, though. Interestingly, a Google search for Jean Samuel Gradeur responds with "Did you mean Jean Samuel Grandeur?".

Nonetheless, I think I'll take up Emperor of the West for awhile.

Kate, since this is a food blog, I suspect that EL may be going for more seasoned posts.

Spotted: well-behaved children at Cinghiale!

Read more at http://www.baltimoresun.com/charmcitymoms