Colleen_b

115 posts
I love a fact-based brawl followed by the clanging of glasses. I don't take fools lightly and they don't usually take a liking to me anyhow. Yes, I have three wonderful children, but they aren't so wild anymore. Just waiting for/dreading the teen years when my name will be accurate once again.

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by Drinking Irish Wine

I don’t like beer. I haven’t liked it since 1985 when I was drinking Budweiser products at the basement of the Sigma Chi house at UW:Madison. It isn’t snobbery, I’m just not a fan of the taste. I’ve struggled over the years to properly celebrate St. Patrick’s Day without drinking Guinness, Harp or the gawdawful green beer. Then I met my husband and everything changed.

My husband’s ancestors are known as ‘Wine Geese.”  What are Wine Geese? Well it comes from Wild Geese, which refers to exodus of Irish soldiers to France at the end of the 1600’s following the Willamite-Jacobite war. The damn Catholics and Protestants always fighting. Catholics were forced to skip town. Wine Geese refers to Irish emigrants who became involved in the wine trade in other countries. Continue reading →

Jan Berenstain, Co-creator of Berenstain Bears Dies

Janice “Jan” Berenstain died this past Friday after a severe stroke on Thursday.

Jan along with her husband Stan, created a book series for pre-schoolers over a period of 50 years. Jan and Stan met when they were 18 on their first day of art school.  They married years later after Stan returned from a stint in the army as a medical illustrator in an army hospital.  During that time, Jan worked as a draftsman in the Army Corp of Engineers and a riveter of seaplanes. Continue reading →

The Contraception Controversy and the Catholic Church

The Crasstalk political team has been going back and forth about the latest health care controversy: requiring Catholic hospitals, schools and charities to provide their employees with insurance that covers contraception, abortion-inducing medication (like the morning after pill), and sterilization. This expressly goes against the beliefs of the Catholic Church. As much as I believe that these medications and services are necessary, I’m with the Catholic Church on this one.

A key tenet in the Catholic Church is that you treat the person regardless of their faith or beliefs. In other words, one is not required to be a practicing Catholic or to believe in any Catholic teachings to receive assistance from a Catholic charity, care at a Catholic hospital or education at a Catholic school. Continue reading →

Just a Click Will Help this Deserving Couple

Let me tell you a story about my cousin Marci Lapinskas and her husband Jason. A little over a year ago, Marci was pregnant with her second child. It had been quite a year for Marci and her family. Her father had been in and out of the hospital and her mother was recovering from breast cancer.

The shining spot in this family’s life was that she was expecting. One day, she was with her mother and she asked her mom if you could get bruised from the baby beating you up in the inside. Her stomach was covered in deep purple bruises. Marci went to the doctor and found out she had a rare form of leukemia, it was aggressive and needed to be treated as soon as possible. However, Marci was just over 7 months pregnant and they would not be able to start chemo until the bambino was out. Continue reading →

Obnoxious People of the Day: Story Toppers

We all know a story topper. If you have a bad cold, she will tell you about the time she had pneumonia. If you had an argument with a co-worker, he will talk about how a disagreement at work came to blows. If you are talking about your trip to Florida, he will comment about how much better Tahiti is. Ugh. These people are insufferable. This personal flaw is probably the result of some sort of deep-seated insecurity or a desire to connect with another person but  one up them in the process. Most of the time, these individuals aren’t even aware that they are doing it.

Continue reading →