I just saw a commercial for this show, and of course they were all
TOASTING. Oh that makes me so mad! Why do they have to incorporate
booze into this?? Does EVERYBODY drink alcohol? What kind of a way is
THAT to start out a relationship? Don't any of these people want to
marry someone who DOESN'T DRINK??? People in our church would never
drink alcohol. We have no desire to, and we know it is wrong. It is a
mind-altering drug! It is not good to use a psychoactive drug. Just
because alcohol is legal doesn't make it right. It just drives me
nuts that these shows promote and glorify alcohol, making it look so
romantic, fun, and acceptable. Grown adults should be WELL PAST the
age where they want to use a mind-altering drug.

I wrote a blog entry about alcohol which I will include here. There
are lots of other entries on my blog and homepage which explain why
alcohol is unhealthy and unwholesome. It just drives me nuts that
this show has to include alcohol. I would like to know if ANYBODY
doesn't drink. Aren't there any nice girls who have no desire to
consume a mind-altering drug? And does each bachelor drink booze,
too? If so, that is terrible. And don't say alcohol is fine in
moderation. That's like saying poison is okay in moderation, or that
smoking a joint is okay in moderation. Most booze drinkers wouldn't
ever smoke pot. Most of these people on The Bachelor wouldn't smoke
pot. Yet these same people will consume a mind-altering drug in the
form of alcohol. They think just because alcohol is legal it's okay.
And they don't even consider it a drug! But it IS!!! Doesn't anybody
belong to a church where they teach you it is morally wrong to use a
mind-altering drug? Heck, I stopped drinking alcohol even before I
had any religious beliefs! The last sip of booze I had was a sip of
champagne at my wedding in 1979, at age 22, which I took just to be
polite, because they wanted us to toast and everybody was watching. I
sipped that champagne, but I scrunched up my nose to show my disgust.
I knew it was wrong to drink, even back then!

Well anyway, I REALLY wish I could talk to all those producers and
contestants and try and talk some sense into them. It just makes me
sick that they think nothing of consuming a toxic, mind-altering
drug. Grown adults should know better, and set an example and NOT
DRINK. Yet shows like this glorify alcohol, making it look all
romantic and acceptable and fun, like drinking booze is "the thing to
do". It shouldn't be that way! Like I said, people in my church don't
drink. The young people in my church look for a partner who does NOT
drink! And parents raise their kids to never drink, either! Yet
people on these shows all drink booze. It just drives me nuts. And I
suppose if I tried to tell them why it is wrong, they'd be all mad
and offended and reject everything I said.

Cindy
My homepage: www.geocities.com/cindybin46

JUST SAY NO

How many times have you heard that phrase? You know the one: "Just
say no—to drugs." Most people think of an innocent school child being
approached by some street thug trying to lure them into trying
marijuana. But do you realize that alcohol also is a drug? It's true!
Ask any doctor. Alcohol is the most commonly used and widely abused
psychoactive drug in the world. And a highly addictive one at that.
It poisons cells, has been linked to cancer and birth defects.
Studies show that alcohol damages our brains and can cause heart and
liver damage, and that alcoholism is under-diagnosed in both women
and men. It just isn't good to ingest this toxic chemical, not even
in moderation. That's like saying poison is okay in moderation, or
that smoking a joint is okay in moderation.

Yet alcohol is promoted and glorified everywhere you turn. Cooking
shows tell you which wines to pair with various foods. Travel shows
admonish you to "live the good life" and sample the beer in Germany,
the wine in Italy, visit the English pubs and booze it up with the
locals. Restaurant review shows rave about the wide selection of
wines or the great mixed drinks at dining establishments. There are
magazines and websites devoted to alcohol. Newspapers and websites
such as Yahoo even have such things as "wine writers" whose job it is
to drink, promote, recommend and rave about booze.

No wonder so many people drink. I myself experimented with alcohol in
my college days in the 70's, to be bad and cool and as a bad way of
dealing with some problems. I even got tipsy once or twice (hic!).
But I didn't keep it up. By the time I was 20 or so, I just lost my
desire to alter my mind with this liquid that I did not find
appealing at all. Wine, beer, mixed drinks, they all tasted horrible
to me. I much preferred milk or plain old water. The last bit of
alcohol I had was a sip of champagne at my wedding in 1979, which I
took just to be polite. Even then, I remember scrunching up my nose
to show my displeasure. And then a year and a half later I joined a
church in which alcohol is against our religion. The LDS Church has
The Word of Wisdom, which we believe to be direct revelation from God
saying that alcohol is not for the body. So I don't drink now for
that reason, but again, I had stopped all alcohol consumption before
I even knew anything about this church, before I had any religious
beliefs.

When I see people drinking, it saddens and upsets me. It's not that I
think they are bad or that I am "better" than them, but I just have a
very hard time understanding why they want to consume alcohol—to
spend their hard-earned money on an expensive, psychoactive drug. The
only thing I can think of is that most people do not view alcohol as
a drug. They think that because it is legal, it must be okay. And no
wonder, with all the ways alcohol is promoted and glorified in our
society. But I really do think that many people drink to fit in, to
be social, to be cool. Men, especially, think they have to drink beer
to be one of the guys ("Let's go have a couple of beers and watch the
big game!") And women drink wine because they think it is elegant,
sophisticated and romantic ("I love to savor fine wine with my
meal."). People think celebrating means opening a bottle of champagne
and "raising a toast." At least that is the strong impression I get
from what I have observed.

I always say, "We can hardly chastise our youth for underage
drinking, when grown adults make alcohol look so fun, glamorous,
cool, romantic, and sophisticated." Grown adults should be past the
age where they want to use a mind-altering drug. Most of these same
adults would never smoke pot. They tell their kids, "Stay away from
drugs!" But these grownups don't realize that when they consume
alcohol, they are trying to achieve the same effect as the pot-
smokers, to get that "buzz", to relax and unwind, or WHATEVER it is
one gets from this chemical. Or they do it to fit in and be social,
because they think "that's what grownups do." And of course many even
become addicted.

It shouldn't be this way. We should not be afraid to take a stand, to
set an example. A friend of mine recently told me of how he was
sharing a beer with his uncle in college. His uncle said, "You know,
I don't really like beer." My friend said, "Neither do I!" He
remembers this as being a turning point in his life, essentially
giving him PERMISSION to not feel he had to drink beer or other
alcohol to fit in and have a good time. Isn't that inspiring? I wish
more people were like that. I think of Paris Hilton and all the
brouhaha she has been through what with having to serve jail time for
an alcohol-related offense. How much easier would her life be if she
did not drink at all? That's one of the benefits of having religious
beliefs where you know that alcohol is wrong because it is a mind-
altering drug, and you have no desire to consume it anyway. This also
reminds me of a bridal site I visited recently, where all these young
ladies were posting questions about what alcohol to serve at the
reception and how much of it, how to keep costs down, and one bride-
to-be had concerns about certain guests consuming too much and
causing a ruckus at the reception, etc. Again, how much easier would
their wedding planning be if they did not drink, if they had the
religious convictions of LDS young people where alcohol does not even
come into play during a wedding reception, or any part of their
lives, for that matter. And really, one need not be religious to stay
away from booze; my husband is not LDS nor is he particularly
religious, and he does not drink. (Yet I know Christians who drink,
so go figure. That I don't understand at all.)

My point is that we all have a choice. We can choose to drink or not.
We can choose whether we want to consume a toxic, mind-altering
chemical. Just because alcohol is legal doesn't make it right. But I
think far too many people don't realize this. They think they HAVE to
drink, that it is expected of them in order to socialize, to fit in,
to throw a good wedding reception, to celebrate, to be romantic, to
be one of the guys. Just remember, though: alcohol is an addictive,
psychoactive drug, and does bad things to your body and brain. Just
because OTHER people consume this stuff does not mean YOU have to.
You CAN say no. Cindybin gives you permission.

June Cleaver is Cool
It was the end of a grueling assignment and Charlie's Angels and
Bosley were sitting around the office sipping wine or champagne.
Farrah Fawcett as Jill was making a guest appearance so there were
four women on this episode. As they made a toast, Jill's sister Kris
said, "I'll drink to that," and then they all smiled brightly and
downed their booze. I bet these people wouldn't even THINK of sitting
around the office after a tough assignment smoking joints. Drugs are
bad and we all teach our children to stay away from drugs, right? Yet
the booze drinkers are no better than the pot smokers, except that
they aren't breaking the law. They're after the same effect, which is
to relax and unwind, get a "buzz", or WHATEVER one gets from this
highly-addictive, toxic, psychoactive drug that has been linked to
cancer, birth defects, heart and liver damage and other bad things.
Or they think they HAVE to consume it to fit in and be social. They
think they're being all sophisticated and elegant, holding their
goblets and making a toast, as if that is just part of life.
This type of behavior only gives the pot smokers justification to
continue their habit. Seriously, when I used to chastise pot smokers
online, they would say all accusingly, "Yeah, but I bet you still
drink your WINE." They were eager to prove me a hypocrite. I would be
offended because of course I did not drink wine. Didn't they see my
point? I was trying to tell them that consuming any mind altering
drug, legal or not, is wrong. But then I had to remember that these
people did not know me, and thought I was like "everybody else",
where I would "savor fine wine" or order a margarita or celebrate
with champagne or even have a beer with the guys. I had to set them
straight and say no, I did not do any of that, I was totally against
it.
But those pot smokers DO have a point. I mean it, booze drinkers who
chastise pot smokers are hypocrites. They are all using a
psychoactive drug. I remember back in college in the 70's when I
found out my studious, soft-spoken, church-going roommate and her
friends smoked pot, and how shocked I was, and how I told my
parents, "I don't know why people feel the need to do that," and my
dad replied, "Neither do I," and I thought about how he drank beer so
much and my mom drank wine, and they both ordered martinis when we
went out to dinner, and was that so different? And then there are all
the Christians who drink booze. I have friends both in real life and
online who are Christians, who are active in church, who claim to
know the meaning of "true happiness", yet think nothing of consuming
a mind-altering drug in the form of alcohol. That I will never
understand. These same people would NEVER smoke a joint. Like me,
they would not even know where to GET marijuana. And they will use
the excuse, "Jesus drank wine." People have told me Jesus drank wine
and cussed me out in the same sentence! We all know nobody is
drinking wine or other booze to be more like Jesus. Besides, I am
sure Jesus does not want his followers to use a mind-altering drug
(or cuss). And you don't have to even be religious to know not to
drink.
So then shortly after Charlie's Angels, I watched an episode of Leave
it to Beaver. Airing in the late 50's and early 60's, I don't
remember Ward and June Cleaver consuming any alcohol. If they ever
did, I missed it. At the end of their grueling day, Ward read the
newspaper while June sat next to him knitting. I love June Cleaver.
It amazes me how she always looked so clean and fresh. She did her
cooking, vacuuming and heavy housework wearing a crisp, stylish
housedress, low-heeled pumps, pearls, earrings, makeup, her hair done
up, and never looked disheveled. I do my housework wearing a t-shirt,
shorts, no makeup, no jewelry, barefoot, hair in a ponytail, and
covered with sweat. No matter if the air conditioner is on full blast
or it is the dead of winter, I am drenched.
Dennis the Menace's mother was the same way; I watched that show
recently, and she was vacuuming wearing a housedress and looked cool
as a cucumber. I don't know how these women did it. And this was in
the days before air conditioning. I remember growing up in the 60's
without the comfort of cool air circulating through the house. Since
I was a kid, I guess I didn't notice or suffer as much as an adult
might have. Later my parents got a room air conditioner for the den,
the kind you put in the window to cool a single room. The whole
family would sit in this one room on hot summer nights, gathered
around the television. It wasn't until the 70's that we got central
air.
Those were also the days that you watched your shows on a black and
white portable TV, got up to change the station (we had a total of
three channels), and if you were gone or your mother scheduled your
piano lesson during your favorite show, you missed that show. Maybe
you could catch the reruns, but there were no videos or DVD's or
Internet downloads or summaries or message boards. We also had to get
up to turn the record over on the hi-fi, and the more we played the
record, the cracklier it got, and we put up with it. And if someone
called when we were gone, we missed the call. Or if someone tried to
reach us while we were talking on the phone, they had to wait until
we hung up (and hope we didn't go outside). We also had to get out of
the car to open the garage door. However, they did pump gas for you.
No matter if you were a big burly guy who worked as an auto mechanic,
if you drove up to a gas station, the nice attendant would come
running out and give you full service, including washing your
windows. I do miss that, because I hate pumping my own gas, it makes
me nervous.
Besides Leave it to Beaver, we had shows like That Girl in the mid to
late 60's. I watch the DVD's of that now and it brings back such
memories. It was my favorite series as a young girl. I idolized Ann
Marie and my dream was to live in my own apartment someday like her.
This was a groundbreaking show, a young woman living alone and
pursuing a career. Another great thing about that show is that Ann
and her boyfriend Donald never slept together. They dated seriously
for five years before he proposed, but he respected her completely.
Once they had to spend the night together in a motel room because
there were no other vacancies, and this situation proved extremely
uncomfortable. They tried to stay up all night playing cards to take
their minds off the fact that they were an unmarried couple alone in
a hotel room. Finally they got so tired, Donald slept on the couch
and Ann slept in the bed. And they managed to avoid touching one
another throughout the rest of the night. Whew! But even though Don
and Ann did nothing more than kiss, they drank alcohol. Quite a bit,
in fact. They often celebrated with champagne, or brought along a
bottle of wine on a family picnic. Although Donald's father did not
drink, so that's good.
And then I remember distinctly when The Mary Tyler Moore Show first
aired in 1970, and how they implied that Mary Richards was not a
virgin, that she was 30 years old, unmarried and even used birth
control. This was shocking! I know they often talk about all
the "free love" that occurred in the swinging 60's, but I never saw
anything like this. People in my life just did not do those kinds of
things. When I was an adolescent, I knew a couple of young ladies
(family friends) who became pregnant out of wedlock. One was in high
school, the other in college. They both had "shotgun weddings", where
you better believe they got married as soon as they found out they
were expecting, and when they had that baby they told everyone it was
premature. This was standard procedure at the time, because it was so
scandalous. I remember my parents and I being shocked that these
girls had sex before they were married. I thought, "How could anybody
DO that??" But sadly, I think Mary Tyler Moore changed the way many
people thought about premarital sex, even me back then. The days of
Don and Ann were over.
Jump to more modern-day shows: Roseanne, Friends, Seinfeld, Scrubs,
King of Queens…I think all of these shows are funny and entertaining,
but they took a giant leap forward even from Mary Richards. Roseanne
was a great mother in many ways, but we were stunned about her house
being so cluttered. I know, they were trying to portray a more
realistic setting, which was rather refreshing. She also probably
looked more like me when she cleaned. Perhaps Barbara Billingsley,
the actress who played June Cleaver, was a mess when she cleaned in
real life, too, although if she was a rich TV actress she probably
had a maid. (By the way, did you know Barbara is still alive? It's
true! She is 91 years old! Amazing!)
And all these characters on modern shows sleep together and have
premarital sex with multiple partners; Elaine on Seinfeld will jump
into bed with someone whether she loves him or not--all that matters
is that he is "spongeworthy." I saw an episode of Friends where
Monica was lamenting that now that she and Chandler were serious, she
would never be able to sleep with anyone else ever again. On my That
Girl DVD's, Marlo Thomas tells of how she played Monica's mother, and
compared how she and Donald never slept together, and on Friends they
were talking about who had to sleep in the wet spot. She just
couldn't get over it. Many programs have entire episodes about the
characters' sex lives. Even Home Improvement was like that. We never
knew anything about June and Ward's intimate moments, and we didn't
WANT to know anything about them. It wasn't necessary as part of the
storyline. They did not have to rely on all that personal stuff back
then.
And then there are the other morals, where characters like Doug
Heffernan on King of Queens, who is supposed to be a "nice guy", goes
to strip clubs and bachelor parties with strippers, and there was one
episode where his wife Carrie even HIRED a stripper for his party!
And she went to the party and WATCHED this!!! And her father was
there, too! How could she take part in such an activity that sets
women back 100 years??? How could Doug and Arthur watch this??? Ward
Cleaver would never go to a strip club! And June certainly would
never hire a stripper for him!
And it's like EVERYBODY drinks alcohol (except for T.C. on Magnum
P.I.). And then there are the reality dating shows like The Bachelor
and Age of Love, where the couples are always drinking booze. Yep,
you just HAVE to consume a mind-altering drug in order to get
romantic, because that's what grownups do. Sheesh. Elliot and the
others on Scrubs all drink, and they are doctors! They should know
better! Even Marge Simpson drinks wine! She gets on Homer for
drinking beer, but she consumes a mind-altering drug just the same.
And don't get me started on the PBS cooking shows, travel and
restaurant review shows which promote and glorify alcohol. Those are
the worst, because they are REAL PEOPLE, not characters. These real
people portray alcohol as romantic, fun, sophisticated, glamorous,
and acceptable. They set a terrible example. But then when I was a
kid, Dean Martin hosted his own variety show where he was known for
his love of booze. It was a famous gag of his. I grew up watching
that kind of behavior. And everybody on TV drinks coffee and tea,
too, like that's just "what grownups do," whereas people in our
church know to avoid it (and not just because of the caffeine). Yet I
avoided these substances BEFORE I had any religious beliefs. I just
knew they were wrong.
Anyway, I know most of these people are TV characters and not real
(they aren't, are they?), but I really do think that they are
representative of lots and lots of people. At least that is the
impression I got from talking to people on the Internet and watching
bits and pieces of the reality and PBS shows. People really do go to
strip clubs and bachelor parties with strippers, drink booze, coffee
and tea, have premarital sex with multiple partners, casually use
profanity, etc. But then you go to an LDS church and virtually nobody
is like that. (And I'm not saying all Mormons are perfect, because
they aren't, especially me.) But then you might have Mormons who were
WORSE than that before joining the Church—like hard-core drug addict
worse or criminal-behind-bars worse. So obviously people can change.
I had some different morals before I joined the Church as an adult. I
always like to think about how just because people believe a certain
way at one point in their lives doesn't mean they will always believe
that way.
Maybe someday, television writers will once again make characters
more like June Cleaver than Roseanne or Monica or Carrie Heffernan.
Staunch Mormon Donny Osmond had a couple of funny cameo appearances
on The King of Queens; I like to think that maybe he and Kevin James
(who played Doug) are friends in real life, and that they talk about
the LDS Church and that Kevin will someday join it. Wouldn't it be
neat? Maybe Mormon missionaries are knocking on Farrah Fawcett's door
at this very moment, and she will take the discussions, accept the
Gospel and understand why Charlie and his Angels should not drink
alcohol. Then again, maybe at this very moment Barbara Billingsley is
sipping a martini, barefoot and sweating. But somehow I doubt


--- In The_Bachelor@yahoogroups.com, "sirlinksalotnet"
<sirlinksalotnet@...> wrote:
>
> The Eleventh Edition of "The Bachelor" to Premiere September 24th
> http://www.celebrityspider.com/news/september07/article091107-7.html
>