Woo and Wow

First, the woo:

Let's go the generic route and explain what I mean by "woo" with an appeal to a dictionary. A quick peak at The Skeptic's Dictionary says...

Woo-woo (or just plain woo) refers to ideas considered irrational or based on extremely flimsy evidence or that appeal to mysterious occult forces or powers.

Here's a dictionary definition of woo-woo:

adj. concerned with emotions, mysticism, or spiritualism; other than rational or scientific; mysterious; new agey. Also n., a person who has mystical or new age beliefs.

So, sitting at my dad's house with E today, I decided to watch a bit of TV while the boys were out at the shooting range. Martha Stewart was the least offensive thing on...I mean, compared to an insanely pretentious house show on HGTV (whose master suite needs a second master suite contained within it? It's like pretentious matryoshka dolls.) and the ever-irritating Bobby Flay trying to prove that he can do anything better than anyone, Martha making curry was a great alternative. And then the woo came.

My alarm bells started going off when Martha stared the camera in the eye and gave us an appeal to antiquity: "What would you say if I told you that most of your aches and pains could be cured with a centuries-old method of healing you've probably never even heard of?" I'd say, just because it's old doesn't mean it's safe, or effective. She then unveiled a glass-sided hive full of bees. Oh yeah: medicinal bee stings. All backed by some anecdotal evidence from a random, long-dead farmer who essentially said, "So there was this one time I was stung by a bee, and it made my knee stop hurting, because it had been hurting real bad before, but ever since I got stung by that bee, I've totally felt better." And this was demonstrated by an acupuncturist who makes her own homoeopathic dilutions of bee venom.

Martha, you make me sad.

Now for the wow:
My son is hilarious. Granted, the video I have is highly biased since he's surrounded by his family, but I think my point stands. E finally met his Auntie Victoria the other weekend as she graduated from Wake Forest, and I think she's easily replaced pretty much everyone as his new favourite person. I only hold my place in the hierarchy because I have the food. Anyway, V could keep Ethan in hysterics for ages...which in turn sent the rest of us into a giggling fit of epic proportions. Just take a look: