Strollerderby : Dallas

Grown Kids Try Forcing Dad To Divorce Second Wife In Court

Brett Singer — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:00:00 GMT

The death of a parent can be tough on the kids. So can second marriages. But usually when we talk about things being "tough on the kids", those kids are, you know. Kids.

This case in Dallas, Texas is a little bit different.

The dad, Claude Thomas, kept his marriage to Susana Martinez Ramirez a secret for a while. Like a couple of years. Why did he do that? Maybe because he thought his children would be concerned about the difference in their ages: Thomas is now 87, Ramirez is 45.

But hey, if he's happy, what's the problem? As usual, it comes down to money. According to Thomas' children from his first marriage (there are no children from the second marriage mentioned, and they would be too young to sue if there were), "their father's estate was valued at as much as $1.5 million. It's now estimated at $165,000, according to court documents."

It's possible that the elder Mr. Thomas is not "capable of making his own decisions." The article says that he, "early signs of dementia, but he appears to know what's happening around him. He's said in court that he wants no guardian – he's happy with his wife and her spending habits. And he has disputed testimony that portrays his wife as a villain."

The details are soap opera worthy. Ms. Ramirez "pushed the tea cart" at a local restaurant, and became close with Claude Thomas and his now-deceased first wife, Geneva Thomas. Some are claiming that the first Mrs. Thomas asked Ms. Ramirez to take her place when she died; the children say that's not true. To make matters even more complicated, Thomas works with his kids at a family business he started.

I'm conflicted about this one. Whose money is it, anyway? If the old man wants to let his young wife spend it all, do his children have the right to stop him? Is an inheritance a right? If Thomas is found to be mentally incapacitated, that's different, at least legally (I think). If not, I think the new wife can do whatever she wants to. The family business part makes this legally more complex (again – I think). But the main issue of inheritance and what happens to it when there's a second marriage is something we can expect to see more of, according to Terry Hammond, executive director of the National Guardianship Association. "It's a case indicative of where we are as a society…accumulated financial wealth is a target. And the exploitation and love, or the appearance of love, is one of the first ways to an elderly person's heart." I'm sure that's true. But is it always the case? Is this particular situation Harold and Maude, Woody Allen and Soon Yi (I know, ew, but I don't think she's after his money), Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones? Or is it Anna Nicole Smith and James Howard Marshall II, Paul McCartney and Heather Mills?

Source: Dallas Morning News

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Five Forgotten Fictional Fathers

Brett Singer — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

OK, "forgotten" is a little strong. But while we are all familiar with Darth, Homer and the rest, here are some other unreal dads that deserve a mention on Father's Day. Not all are great dads; some are pretty damn bad. Most just don't make it onto the usual "best/worst dad" lists. Here you go, on Father's Day, in no particular order:

1. Jock Ewing, "Dallas", played by Jim Davis

OK, maybe it's not in any particular order, but was there ever a tougher TV dad than Jock Ewing? As The Onion's AV Club puts it, "[Jock's] sons Bobby and J.R….have absorbed his good and evil sides, respectively, and are used by their deceptively benign father to consolidate his power." He also had an illegitimate son, Ray Krebbs, who worked on Ewing's Southfork ranch; this wasn't revealed until after Ray had been working there for a couple of years. Which means that Jock hired his own son to work on his ranch but didn't tell him that he was his father. Go ahead. Find me something better than that. Davis' portrayal of Jock was so iconic that when the actor died, he was not replaced; they killed the character and put a portrait of the Ewing patriarch in the family dining room where he could continue to exert his will from beyond the grave. Here's a clip of Jock tossing out ten grand like it was ten cents in order to "purchase" Bobby's wife Pamela (Victoria Principal) from her father, Digger Barnes.

2. "Man", played by Antonio Banderas, in "Four Rooms"

Banderas doesn't get a name in this segment of the largely forgotten hotel comedy. He plays a gangster of some sort who pays off the bellhop (Tim Roth, currently appearing in "The Incredible Hulk") to watch his offspring while he and the missus go out and celebrate New Year's Eve. When he looks at his children and demands, in full Antonio-accented English, "Don't misbehave," you know that they will. Video clip below, not remotely safe for work or family-viewing. (Banderas also gets a nod for Gregorio Cortez in the three "Spy Kids" movies.)

"Four Rooms" Video clip (Not Work-Safe)

3. Mork from Ork, played by Robin Williams

You probably forgot that Mork was a dad. In a desperate attempt to save the weird "Happy Days" spin-off, Jonathan Winters signed on to play Mearth, Mork and Mindy's son. Of course, Orkans are born old and age backwards. It wasn't much funnier than it sounded. Now that I’m a parent myself, I have to say that I don't think I'd want things to work that way. Not that changing diapers is fun, but it's definitely easier to do it when the kid is smaller than you.

4. Wayne Szalinski, "Honey I Shrunk the Kids", played by Rick Moranis

Fathers in movies and television are often portrayed as bumbling fools who fall to pieces in the parenting department as soon as mommy leaves for five minutes. This guy, however, actually manages to shrink his children to microscopic size when left to his own devices. The character was slammed back in 1997 by Dr. Helen Haste of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, who took issue with the way that, " writers and directors employ stereotypes for almost every scientist seen on film and television."

5. Michael Kyle, "My Wife and Kids", played by Damon Wayans

This ABC sitcom ran for five seasons, which is certainly respectable. But it never quite caught on with audiences the way "Everybody Loves Raymond" did. One reason could be that the parents were, at times, intentionally not 100% nice to their children. For example, in the episode "The Grassy Knoll", mom and dad discover that Michael Jr. is stoned. So they decide to mess with his head. (The only clip I could find was in Spanish, so you'll have to just take my word for it that it was funny. Unless, of course, you speak Spanish.) It was a silly show, but there was something very realistic in the way Michael dealt with his son. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't always behavior you wanted to emulate. But it was usually pretty funny.

Here is a clip from "Junior Gets his License".

There are, of course, many more. Who are your favorites, forgotten or otherwise?

Oh yeah -- happy father's day!

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And You Thought Your Parents Were Strict

Adrienne Martini — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:30:00 GMT

On Sunday, two Dallas-area teenage girls were buried by their mother and older brother. The sisters - Sarah and Amina Said - were found shot to death in a taxicab. The suspected murder isn't some drifter who has a thing for teens. No, the suspect is the girls' own dad.

Police have been on the lookout for Yaser Abdel Said since the discovery of his17- and 18-year olds' bodies on Wednesday. While parents of teenage girls have long been tempted to keep them under lock and key, it appears that Said allegedly went overboard, to understate the case. Friends of the killed kids claim that their dad struck them as a stalker who would "show up before their shifts and watch them clock in and stuff."

In a truly 21st century twist, friends of the girls are maintaining Facebook pages for those who want to leave thoughts and prayers.

One Child Left Behind. In a Daycare. After Closing Time.

Karen Murphy — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:26:00 GMT

No childcare situation is perfect. Let's just get that straight. Even if you believe that the best place for a kid is at home, there are holes in that, too. So instead of hating on those who take their kids to daycare, for whatever reason, let's just move on and explore something awful that happened, something that was almost catastrophic.

A 16-month old girl was left alone in a Dallas-area daycare after the owners locked up and left for the night. For two hours. Strapped into a high chair. Asleep.

No, I'm not a daycare-hater. But I like to point out problems. And while there's absolutely no way to tell if something like this would ever happen in the facility you patronize (or is there?), it's good to figure out not only what you would do if it happened to you and your child but also ways to minimize the risk.

The baby was fine, by the way. But imagine arriving to pick up your child and seeing her, head lolling, asleep but through a locked door. Mom called 9-1-1 and firefighters broke in. Baby was checked out at a hospital, totally fine, as a precaution.

Though police and Child Protective Services are checking into the matter, the mom says that she's going to continue taking her baby to that daycare. Not that she likely wants to at this point. But because she has no other choice.

Bad Day Care: Parent's Worst Nightmare

Karen Murphy — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:33:00 GMT

It wasn't so very long ago that my older daughter was small and and I was a corporate drone who had to rely upon a succession of daycare providers for the things one normally expects from a daycare: attention, love, safety and, well, care. In short, all the things that I couldn't provide just at that moment, not on an all-day Monday-Friday basis.

So there's a certain expectation that grows in the daycare-parent relationship. After all, you're offering up your most precious possession in exchange for the ministerings of an underpaid and overworked caregiver. That's a lot of trust to give someone who is clearly not in it for the money, and I'll say that for the most part I received what I hoped for and my daughter was surrounded by different people who did indeed care for her and cared well.

But there's always that little part of you that wonders, any time you leave your child in the care of another: Are things truly as they seem? Is my precious baby really safe?

So it's news like this that makes my skin crawl and my heart ache for the kids and the parents involved: kids at a Dallas-area daycare were being disciplined by being stuck in the back and the arms with thumbtacks.

And it makes me wonder, how do you really know what's going on when you leave your child with someone, anyone? Short of nannycams and private investigators, or endlessly-yet-casually grilling your kid on the nuts and bolts of their day, how do you deal with the remote-yet-constant possibility that something awful could be happening to your kid when you're not there, and you'd never know it?

Airport Insecurity? Boy, 9, Flies Alone, Ticketless

Karen Murphy — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:17:00 GMT

A Seattle boy, 9, hopped two Southwest Airlines flights this week. By himself. Without a ticket. That's right, and he made it through airline security to do so. Twice.

Semaj Booker's Seattle - Dallas odyssey began on Sunday when he stole a neighbor's car that had been left running and made off for the airport only to be given chase by authorities. Semaj was apprehended and taken back to his mother after county juvenile officials refused to admit him because of his age. He later escaped and somehow made his way to Sea-Tac, where he lied his way onto an airplane and again in Phoenix where he changed planes. Semaj was foiled by a second attempt to change planes in San Antonio, and never made it to his destination of Dallas before airline workers finally were clued in that something was amiss and that his story didn't check out.

As a former frequent flyer previously married to a pilot for a major airline, I can attest to the vagaries of the airport security system, and I have seen the system change radically since 9/11. Granted, Semaj Booker doesn't sound like the typical 9-year-old, but still this story boggles my mind and I cannot fathom how one smart 9-year old was able to lie his way onto two airplanes, successfully eluding the multiple checks and balances that are present in the system, not once but twice. I will say, however, that security practices do not seem to be uniform among all domestic airports: some are known to be "easier" or "harder" than others.

Which brings me to this somewhat-tongue-in-cheek yet thought-provoking post at The Stranger's Slog. Isn't it time that TSA quit chasing little fires like whether fluids are in or out of ziploc bags and in what size bottles, and what people's shoes are made of (not to mention the indignity of taking them on and off repeatedly), and wanding every random 100th person whether they fit the "profile" or not, and address what the real threat is? Until that threat is understood, it will continue to exist. All this fear-mongering is not helping anyone, and is actually hurting an already-ailing and bloated airline industry. Take a page out of Israel's Ben Gurion Airport's (long regarded the SAFEST airport in the world) security measures handbook, and use it.