D. Armenta
PlagmanLegends of Orble Pt. 2: Mrs. M., Everyone's Mum
Well, Orbleites--after many many hours of agonising deliberation I've managed to come up with the perfect candidate to follow up the notoriously hard-to-follow David. Someone who is pretty much the polar opposite of the Black Knight but whose work has garnered an equally voluminous amount of heated responses in its day, with this difference: this author has never offended anyone. That, you have to admit, is quite a feat.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present...(drumroll please)
The always charming Mrs. M., whose longstanding and popular blog Mum's Word has finally become active again after a long respite! Welcome back, Mrs. M.!
For the uninitiated, the blog title (Mum's Word) and a quick glance through the post titles create the initial impression that this is a parenting site; probably chock-full of helpful tips about strained peas, potty training and all that other stuff.
{ I must admit here that I myself had that impression at first; since I have less than zero interest in parenting and/or baby articles, I skimmed right on past her blog when I first arrived here.}
Stupid assumption on my part; I almost missed out on some exceptionally fine writing because of that. Don't make the same mistake!
Fortunately I was saved by the lady herself when she left a polite and intelligent comment on my very first post here. I went to her site to do the obligatory comment payback, clicked on a post that didn't sound like it would go on too much about poopy diapers, and found one of my favorite bloggers.
Here's a quote from the first post of Mrs. M.'s that I read; the title is The Seven Year Itch and she is wondering to herself where all her kids' problems are coming from:
I turn to my husband and it suddenly dawns on me. It's him and his dodgy genes. He looks up at me and notices me intently staring at him, studying him. "What's wrong?" he asks.
"You have dodgy genes" I tell him.
"Excuse me?" he asks incredulously.
"You heard. You have allergies, and you've passed them onto Alex. You're teeth aren't perfectly straight and you've passed that onto Jordan. And you can't even stick your tongue out properly. You're tongue tied and you've passed that onto Christian. Seven years we've been married and I didn't have a clue", I state with an accusatory tone.
At this point my husband tells me that he may not be able to stick out his tongue properly but he can certainly raise his middle finger just fine.
"You have dodgy genes" I tell him.
"Excuse me?" he asks incredulously.
"You heard. You have allergies, and you've passed them onto Alex. You're teeth aren't perfectly straight and you've passed that onto Jordan. And you can't even stick your tongue out properly. You're tongue tied and you've passed that onto Christian. Seven years we've been married and I didn't have a clue", I state with an accusatory tone.
At this point my husband tells me that he may not be able to stick out his tongue properly but he can certainly raise his middle finger just fine.
That line just cracked me up; I was hooked.
(Part of the fun of Mrs. M.'s posts is the fabulous wit-and-parry that goes on in the comment sections between her and her husband, filmmaker Yoda76. I always skim through the other comments to read their exchanges first and have a good chuckle.)
"But how can any of this cause controversy?" you ask.
I'll tell you how: Mrs. M. has an uncanny ability to pose good, thought-provoking subjects that have universal appeal, like "Clash of sporting ideologies" (45 comments) and "Would you punch a sibling?" (44 comments) and the hilariously titled "Pull your weight men, not the other thing" (30 comments).
A strange phenomena of Mrs. M.'s blog is that no matter how violently people disagree about her subjects, they always play nice in her comment section. Always! Some of the most abusive and irascible trolls known to Orble have always kept it clean when they posted comments on "Mum's" posts. Mrs. M., for her part, has never ever been mean to anyone--even when they deserve it.
I know why, too..it's because Mrs. M. is everyone's Mum (the young, cool Mum of course!)
She's also a very talented writer with a fine sense of humor, and I am so glad to see her posting again.
I raise my second pint to: Mrs. M, everyone's Mum!!
Coffee Quip
Pop Culturist
Pop Rock Factory
Is it a co-incidence perhaps that this post follows immediately on from your Sexiest women in History post
Stay well
My Turn
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Flick Wit
Michaelie
Rugby World Cup 2007
Great choice DA.
And now...could someone please do one of these on you?
Dusk
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
"D. Armenta, over 40 sepo who still laughs at farts"....
Dusk, you're in the lineup as you may have guessed. Got a lot more candidates in mind..there really are some excellent writers here, new and old.
Movies and Life
A brilliant choice...
Tracy
Mum's Word
There a show here in Oz called Rove (it's a Letterman type show) where the host always asks he guests who would they turn gay for.
Honey, I would turn gay for you!!!! How sweet are you to write this post.
Sorry I haven't been here sooner. Head up my bum and that sort of thing.
And I'm not the sort of person who likes to read about strained peas either
Damo, Raven, MNG, Sara, Cibby, Michaelie, Dusk, Tracy,
I love youse all so much right now
And Dusk is right. D, someone should do one of these for you.
Right, well I need to go an hug someone right now
Love & stuff
Mrs M
The Tube Blog
Unlikely a coincidence
I know I kind have to say that, but I wouldn't if it weren't true!
Congrats, Mrs M, and good choice, D - I know this will mean a lot to Mrs M. Yet another Orble accolade to reassure her that she is a talented writer.
I guess all the nights of retreating to an empty bed while the distant rattling of Mrs M's keys and Orble mouse-clicks until 2am have been worthwhile.
Very true. The reason she's up so late with Orble is not usually because she's writing, but because she feels obliged to spend quality time with all her adopted Orble kids!!
Best Mum, best wife, and best Orbler ever!
=D
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Hooray for Mrs. Mum, another Orble legend....
Kalikapsychosis
This is so funny, cos I did just what you did D! I cant remember what led me over there, but the Mums Word blog quickly became a fave with me. Mrs M can really write, and its real life stuff that we can all relate to.
Health and Beauty
Reality TV
The Jeepney Stop
First Time Mum
Political Certainty
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Hi Aimzster--yes, you nailed that--no lectures and a great sense of humor.
Jim S.--it's worth a lot. Thank you.