The Bloomer Blogs

The United States and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that allow medications to be touted on television with amazing promises. Be happy! Get thin! Sleep better! Make new friends! Then in little, teeny, tiny print or in an incredibly fast voiceover that is almost impossible to understand come the words, “if you have excessive bleeding, vomiting, a heart attack, go blind, get raging diarrhea, become paralyzed …. You should discontinue this medication.” Gee. But that probably won’t happen so … go ahead and take this stuff because look how happy our actors now appear to be!             It’s called direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising and it is totally legal in this country because we have literally given carte blanche to the medical and pharmaceutical companies in the holy name of greed.             It has worked beautifully because now Americans are self-diagno...

            Okay, so try to imagine how weird it would feel if people from your church, your work, your gym, even your own family actually took note of how often you put on a dress.   As I promoted my books, even media members actually took note of my life-long aversion to dresses.             It was one thing when I was in the 5 th grade and, on the first day of school, Craig Krueger and Jimmy Dunn told me I couldn’t “be in the military” with them because I was wearing a dress.   The one day – the one day – of the year that my mom could get me in the dress and this is the day my childhood buddies were going to recruit new officers.   D For years I foiled my mother’s attempts to refine me by pulling off my first-day-of-school-skirt on the way to school to sport my jean cut-offs or athletic shorts.   She caught on and bought me a dress so that I couldn’t shed...