What Rose Kennedy Did Not Do

Friends, today the Matron was lucky enough to Robert Kennedy's heroic and heartbreaking announcement that Martin Luther King had been assassinated. It's worth the click.

She heard this while on her daily run, lost in a world of head phones, strong sun, sweat and the success of other people's children. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy must have done a thing or two right. Her son was stellar.

That village -- grandparents and mother--who raised Barack Obama? Why, the Matron is liking that end product too!

How about Mary Gates? Her fine hand not only produced the man who created Microsoft (and pretty much everything the Matron is currently touching!), but a man who is now spending most of his time giving money away!!

The Matron was lucky enough to hear Robert Kennedy on the radio because she had fled her house. She escaped into an extra long run and a world of NPR. (yes! she listens to talk radio while jogging AND she listens to the pledge days, too, every single one because she very well may be psychotic after all)

After getting all verklempt over Kennedy, she started down the path of The Success of Other People's Children. This was a long and torturous journey, bumping self-esteem, ego, reality, detachment, and various identities and senses of self (righteous and weary) up and down and back again. The Matron visited the parents of the following people and asked: how great does it feel, how amazing, to have produced a J.K. Rowling, Madam Curie, Susan B. Anthony, Mary Shelley, Tiger Woods, or Michael Phelps?

Why, the Matronly mind even visited the homes of people she knows in real life, and said, "Hot Damn, your kid is genuinely impressive." She thinks she'd feel GOOD.

Then she returned home to Simpsonathon, Day 5. It's become a family event. The only reason Merrick isn't on the couch is that she paid someone to take that child somewhere else, to save him. She hears that he is kicking and screaming to come back.


There have been two overnight events during the Simpsonathon and another planned for tonight. Boys have been in and out of this house like flies. The Matron has ordered pizzas, bought fresh bakery donuts and made one refill run to the grocery store.

Cards, balls, and various weaponry have also appeared to sustain them. Yesterday, during Season 7, Stryker brought out the Rokenbok goodies that John scored for a song at a garage sale.


Lest anyone flirt with delusion (because that's her special job), despite the appearance of this apparatus, touted as THE brain toy for children, Stryker has not been honing his mechanical, creative, or technical skills in anyway.

Indeed--of course---other people's children have been playing with the Rokenbok set.

Because Stryker?

He's watching the Simpsons AND online. Here's what he said to the Matron.




Stryker: "Mom! Can I buy a sword? A Japanese sword called a Katana? I think once the Simpsonathon is over I'll be a ninja. Actually, that might be kind of hard so I'll probably just collect ninja stuff and pretend I did it. Can I have $25?"

Now, that's ambition.

She pauses to consider the person who will find the gene or secure the cure for Parkinson's or Huntingson's Disease, pauses to consider the parent of the man or woman who will be President in 2038. Is there a Simpsonathon taking place in that house?

Season 8.6. One and a half seasons and one movie, to go.


That's just to make her day real special.