As I mentioned on-air today, I drove to Akron, Ohio to share in the wedding of my youngest nephew and his lovely bride. The day was perfect, and went off without a hitch (no pun intended), but it put me in mind of how a simple wedding could go terribly off the rails. I did a little research, and found A few online examples of TERRIBLE WEDDING GUESTS:
• A bridesmaid polished off most of a bottle of champagne on the way to the reception, then hit on nearly every male guest and exposed herself on the dance floor.
• The bride’s cousin initially refused to RSVP, then called last minute to say he and his girlfriend would attend. During the rehearsal dinner, he demanded preferred seating and skipped the ceremony entirely.
• A mother-in-law brought her brother-in-law, who had COVID, to the wedding, infecting many guests.
• The bride’s employer brought their dog, who ran up and down the aisle during the ceremony. At the reception, they fed the dog cake at its own place at the table!
• The bride’s grandmother abruptly walked out halfway through the vows, saying only, “I’ve had enough,” and waited in the car until someone drove her home.
• At the reception, the bride’s parents got on mic and announced their separation to everyone in attendance.
HOW DOGS SHOW THEIR LOVE _ Want to know if your dog loves you? Watch his left eyebrow. Researchers used high-speed video to capture the subtle facial expressions of 12 dogs of various breeds. Each animal was led into a room divided by a curtained partition. Then the curtains briefly parted, and the dog might see its owner (who was instructed to show no emotions), an unfamiliar person, or an object the dog loved, such as a squeaky ball, or an object it feared, such as nail clippers, for 800 milliseconds. The dogs’ facial expressions varied in response to what they saw. When the dogs saw a person, they lifted their eyebrows — and if the person was their owner, they raised their left eyebrow even higher. Strangers caused the dogs to move their left ears back slightly, a sign of caution. Beloved toys elicited no response, but those dreaded nail clippers caused dogs to twitch their right ears.
INVEST IN HOMEWORK SHIRTS _ Does your child need help getting into “a homework state of mind?” Pediatrician Ken Haller said he believes that something as simple as a T-shirt can do the trick. Haller, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, says parents should invest in what he calls “homework shirts” for their children. Haller says there are a lot of examples in life when you dress a certain way to tackle a given task. You frequently dress formally to go to a wedding. Athletes wear uniforms to play their sport. Curious to see if wearing something special put him in the mood to study, Haller tested out an ordinary gray T-shirt. He says when was he done with homework he took it off and felt a sense of relief that he had accomplished something. Haller suggested having just one “homework shirt” for your child to wear while doing homework during the school year.
