Aging gracefully?

From USA Today: "This obsession with plastic surgery is an epidemic. It's lunacy! These women have had their faces rebuilt and they look terrible. It's going to backfire at some point; sadly, somebody famous and young is going to have to die on the table." --plastic surgery veteran Jamie Lee Curtis, 45, to More Magazine.

Well, guess what, Jamie? Even that won't stop the lunacy. In a society where what you look like on the outside is of paramount importance, people--especially women--will continue to pursue that image of perfection, whether it be through plastic surgery or extreme diets.

Don't get me wrong; I believe in looking one's best. As an old preacher once said about women wearing make-up: "Even an old barn looks better with some paint." (OK, that's a groaner.) I don't even have a problem with people correcting something that really, truly needs fixing.

But I do believe the plastic surgery craze is getting out of control. It started in Hollywood and it's spreading across the nation, aided and abetted by the plethora of cosmetic surgery reality TV shows. One of the most disturbing trends is young girls hopping on the plastic surgery bandwagon; teen-agers getting breast implants, etc. My daughter picked up a copy of Teen Vogue recently, and it included an article on this disturbing phenomenon.

It might be a good idea to do a follow-up on some of these people and see if altering their appearances was the ultimate antidote they thought it was going to be. Hmm, makes me think of a thought from the Bible: "Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised."

Do Bonnie and Charley sound scary enough?


My 101QFL co-host, Darren Marlar, doesn't think "Bonnie" and "Charley" are scary enough names for the hurricanes headed toward Florida. He opened the phone lines this morning for callers to give us their suggestions for more macho or downright frightening hurricane names.

Some of them were pretty clever, and frightening indeed:

~Hurricane Mother-in-Law
~Hurricane Principal's Office
~Hurricane Stinky Feet
~Hurricane Alien
~Hurricane Ditka ("da Hurricane"? That one was one of my faves because my own hubby called it in
~Hurricane Hannibal (as in "Lecter")
~Hurricane Charlie Manson
~Hurricane Hitler
~Hurricane Attila (as in "the Hun")
...and one of the scariest of all...HURRICANE IRS!!!

Feel free to add your suggestions in my comments section.