I mink it could be worse? Her last name could be Marten.

(I bet this never gets old)

YES. The hubs and I became purposely dorky and weird and decidedly uncool (almost) without effort once I popped out the babe, for this reason! And our cool pre-parent exploits shall remain secret until her 18th birthday...

not to dox myself, but jacob used to be my boss back when he was starting up software companies. you have no idea how weird this all is for me. Also, the fact that he piped up to clarify “like a sea otter” is so fucking jacob.

This is exactly why white people shouldn’t be allowed to name children.

It reminds me of the Jim Henson classic “Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas” which is awesome and which I may or may not own on VHS...

Elsie-Otteré

If she gets any more Bo-Peep-Bunnikins, I may choke on my sparkly artisan organic vegan cupcake. I hope her next children are called Peter Rabbit and Samuel Whiskers.

It’s the Patton Oswalt theory of parenting: “cool” parents will only breed the opposite.

Elsie Otter sounds like some old Northern English woman from 1960s Coronation Street or some sitcom skit about it. Or something from Beatrix Potter or Sylvanian Families. You could have Ida Squirrel, Maud Badger or Ivy Weasel.

“Elsie Otter is a wonderful name. I’d hire her”

So let’s see, in Burke’s article I guessed... 0/4. Tune in next week, when Burke asks for our Super Bowl predictions and I pick Jags/Lions!

A lot of the Columbus Day parades have morphed into Italian pride parades, which is a conceptual shift that seems to smooth over the less realisticdesirable aspects of history.

Oh that’s interesting to hear! I don’t think I ever realised that some Italian-American communities hailed him as one of their own. I always instinctively think of Columbus as Spanish, given his financial backers, but that’s right, he was Italian. Funny.

It’s always been bigger in areas with lots of Italian-Americans, maybe a sort of Italian Pride day? Growing up in Portland where we didn’t have much of an Italian community we were barely conscious of it and never had it off as a holiday. I know banks are open on Monday in California, but the courts are closed.

Oh hell yes there are parties and parades - where there are very large Italian-American communities. If your city has a Little Italy, expect a gigantic parade and fireworks. Why the fuck Columbus was chosen as the patron saint of Italian-Americans I will never know. If I were Italian-American, I’d be mortified.

I’m from a Columbus and I never did understand Columbus day, especially since we still had to go to school. Colombo was terrible, Queen Isabella was worse, the fallout for native Americans was, and continues to be, catastrophic. If my ancestors had just stayed in the old country, I’d be in a really progressive country…

My 4 year old son and I watched Song of the Sea recently and were mesmerized by the beauty and the storyline . Loved it!

Serious question for Disney: