Today’s mail contained bills, my car registration renewal, and two things I wasn’t expecting: a copy of Parenting magazine and an envelope from Similac. Clearly, someone sold my name to some mailing list, and I’m pissed. It can’t have been BabiesRUs, since we only just signed up for a registry there. I suspect it was Gap/Old Navy, since I’ve ordered maternity clothes from them on two occasions. BCBS has been sending me free baby and childcare books in the mail, but I don’t think HIPAA would allow them to sell my information to anyone.

Parenting is just as useless and inane as ever. I about threw it across the room after reading the results of the following reader survey question: “Is it cruel to make your toddler eat a vegetarian diet?” 63% of the morons who read this magazine said “YES”. I guess that means that, what, half the parents in India are child abusers? Are observant Jews “cruel” for denying their kids pork products? I’m not vegetarian and I think even asking the question is beyond ludicrous. Do these people think that parents in vegetarian cultures around the world suddenly start cooking steaks and fried chicken for their kids instead the same foods the adults eat?

I’m going to see if I can get this subscription canceled somehow; in the meantime I want to buy a bunch of copies of some hippie-homebirthing-breastfeeding-clothdiapering magazine with articles longer than 2 pages in 30-point font so I can wash my brain out.