Mary Novaria

Addiction has become a spectator sport. I’m not a big fan of that. Our culture’s fascination, make that obsession, with celebrity and notoriety has, perhaps, become an addiction as well, and we want more, more, more. More gossip, more dirt, more photos. As our tech capabilities expand, so do our appetites. Our society’s collective and compulsive hunger requires cannibalistic feeding on the bloody mess our so-called idols and stars have made of their lives. We want this so badly that we turn murder supects into overnight celebrities, devoting hours and days and months of coverage to them--especially if they are young, attractive, white women who are charged with killing their children. We want this so badly that we lap up derogatory and a disrespectful monikers like "Octomom." For some of us, in fact for many of us, journalism was once a noble profession. Right now (thank you so very much News Corp), journalists are in the news, breaking laws in order to break a story. Lurki...

Adjust your bra straps, parents. “Breast Milk Baby” is on the way. This 21st-century answer to Betsy Wetsy makes its US debut later this month at a toy industry trade show in Las Vegas. BMB is a baby doll that simulates breastfeeding when its pretend mommy—i.e. our daughters and granddaughters, nieces and little sisters—clutches it to her chest. According to ABC News, “The doll, which comes with a special halter top with two flowers positioned where nipples would be, makes suckling sounds when its mouth is brought close to sensors embedded in the flowers.” Seriously? Flowers where nipples would be? That getup sounds suspiciously stripper-like. No wonder they’re debuting in Vegas. What’s next, junior memberships in the La Leche League? BMB is made in Spain. Did someone forget to do the market research here in the USA? Don’t they know that Americans are still freaked out when a woman breastfeeds in public? Yep, we’ve got plenty of porn and strip clubs and Hooters, but God forbid a woman...