Yesterday was one of those days at the Legislature that started at 10 a.m. and went on forever.

As I was trying to eat a sandwich, write a story and monitor what our House lawmakers were doing, I heard Rep. Alex Sonson say, “One man’s pet is another man’s protein.”

The comment was made during floor discussion on a Senate Bill 2895 CD1, which adds equine animals to the list of animals covered under the animal cruelty law.

I don’t think Sonson was saying, “Hey, let’s go out and eat a zebra.”

He was opposed to expanding the list of protected animals because to some people, they happen to be food.

That’s a dangerous topic, so I’m going to step around it and bring it back around to raising kids.

I think all of us have that “ICK!” feeling when we first realize we’ve eaten a cute ol’ cow or silly lil’ chicken.

My daughter is different. Either she doesn’t grasp the concept or doesn’t care, no matter how much her brother tries to impress on her that she’s eating chickens just like the ones that cheer her up every time she spots them on the side of the Pali.

She likes those chickens, but she likes her Chicken McNuggets (and cheeseburgers), too. She’s not giving meat up for any ethical reason.

Sonson’s comment reminded me of a discussion I’d had with my daughter a couple days before, after we waved at the horse and cow we regularly pass on our way home.

“People eat cows?” she asked.

She didn’t seem particularly distressed when I said yes.

She was just leading up to the big question, though. “DO PEOPLE EAT HORSES?” she asked in horror.

“Um, no,” I told her, figuring I’d leave the dog food discussion for another day.

To her, it’s pretty clear: bovine = protein; equine = pet.

I just recently read an article about downloading audio books for kids to listen to on their iPods.

You know me, I’m all for technology, but that seems to be going a little far. Sure, audio books are a great way to introduce kids to literature if they have trouble with regular books, but for a regular reader, why deny them the pleasure of a good page turner?
I might be in the minority, though.

Have we reached a point where parents are too busy to read to their kids and it’s better to just put on an audio file than do nothing at all?

Maybe I’m turned off by the idea because I’ve loved curling up with books for as long as I remember.

Maybe it’s because I don’t see a huge difference between an audio book and an educational video.

Maybe — in this one way — I’m just old fashioned.

I might need to ask my kids’ opinions.

There are some free examples at Candlelight Stories Audio for Kids. The “Three Little Pigs” I sampled wasn’t bad. Storynory has both classic and new tales, which pretty cool. I was amused that they have “Alice in Wonderland,” which my daughter has just consented to let me read to her.

There are tons of other sites for free audio stories if you’re up for a Google search.

If you want to pay to get audiobooks for a kid’s iPod, the Associated Press article I read focused on AudibleKids.

I do think that audiobooks have their place. They’re perfect for the car stereo or even the iPod when reading a book isn’t possible.

I know parents who have turned reluctant readers into traditional readers by getting them engaged with an audio book first.

I’ve also talked to parents whose kids have had problems learning to read and audio books opened a whole new world to them and inspired them to work harder to master reading on their own.

There’s also a whole bunch of physical issues that might make holding a book difficult.

In any case, I’m not going to pooh-pooh audio books altogether.

I’m just not going to buy my kids iPods so they can listen to them at bedtime.

The prodigal son has returned.

He burst into the baggage claim, gave me a courtesy hug, then told me to wait off to the side while he retrieved his suitcase.

On the way home he was silent, exhausted, but fighting sleep.

When he has to fight sleep, he usually fights me, too, but he didn’t bother. He answered a couple questions, but mostly he said, “I’ll tell you tomorrow, okay?”

Tomorrow came and he woke up and got dressed with minimum fuss, then actually talked about his trip as I was driving him to school. Apparently it inspired him so much that he now wants to specialize in history.

After school, he held in his rage when I sadly informed him that the cell phone that replaced the one that got washed twice ended up in the washing machine along with the other contents of his suitcase.

He clenched his fists. He said, “But it wasn’t in my pocket!”

Then he accepted my promise to replace the phone as soon as possible. He doesn’t need to know that I bid on a one-cent phone from eBay, right?

The shocker was when he pulled out a math test with a score that made both of us beam. Since I knew how hard he worked on it, I figured a celebratory trip to the bookstore was in order.

He not only picked a book for himself, but one to read to his little sister, which he patiently started to read and explain to her even as she interrupted with little revelations that had nothing to do with the Frisby family or the rats of Nimh.

He read his own book, of course, but put it down at homework time and took a shower without argument.

I don’t intend to send him away again any time soon, but I have to admit that it’s nice to see that he might have learned as much about himself as he did about the historical sites between Boston and Washington, D.C.

I’ve been going nuts because my son has only called me once during the four days he’s been on the East Coast.

It was a good time to hear about a New York judge’s decision not to overturn a 2005 ban on cell phones.

Jacqui Chen wrote about it on Ars Technica yesterday:

Thousands of parents petitioned to have the ban overturned, asking that cell phone use be prohibited but possession of the devices to be allowed in case of emergency. Many argued that their kids had to commute on public transportation and through various parts of the city in order to get to and from school, and that a cell phone was essential to their safety during those times. Some parents even complained that if their kids had access to a cell phone, they could have called for help when being bullied by other children at school.

(New York Supreme Court Judge Angela ) Mazzarelli wrote in her opinion that she sympathizes with these parents, but pointed out several other rulings that shot down their arguments. One court noted that cell phones had only begun to be widely adopted (what ever did they do before?), and that parents and children had adapted their behavior to be dependent upon them, for example. Mazzarelli also noted that the ban does not infringe on parents’ constitutional right to care for their children, because “the right is not absolute and is only afforded constitutional protection in ‘appropriate cases.’”

She noted that cell phones have been used for cheating, sexual harassment, prank calls, and intimidation, and that all of these things threaten order during school hours. She also rejected the suggestion that kids be able to carry cell phones but not use them, pointing out that even adults cannot be trusted to turn their phones off (or on silent) during movies and cultural events. “While the vast majority of public school children are respectful and well-behaved, it was not unreasonable for the Chancellor to recognize that if adults cannot be fully trusted to practice proper cell phone etiquette, then neither can children,” she wrote.

I’m one of those parents who feels more comfortable knowing that my son can call me in an emergency. I don’t want his phone to interfere with his education, but I don’t see what’s wrong with him having his phone – turned off – in his backpack.

Maybe I’m wrong, though. Since I haven’t been able to reach my son on his cell while he’s been gone, I’ve been trying to figure out whether to risk embarrassing him by calling him in the hotel room he’s sharing with three classmates or going even further and asking people who live in Washington, D.C., to track him down and tell him to phone home.

That’s all silliness. I can’t mortify my son just because I miss him.

Still, in my discomfort over his refusal to call or return messages, it’s occurred to me that I have numerous ways to track him down – even all the way across the country – regardless of whether or not he picks up his cell.

We’ve never had a problem when he’s forgotten to take his phone to school with him, a pretty frequent occurrence, so maybe he doesn’t “need” it. I just want him to have it.

I have to admit the arguments for banning cell phones are legitimate. Most of today’s parents survived school without them and there’s no reason to think that things have changed that much.

Kids can still use the phone in the school’s office in an emergency and there’s nothing to stop parents from giving their kids some extra quarters for the pay phone.

Does it make me a “helicopter parent” to want my son to have a phone for extra insurance anyway?

Courtesy of MSNBC:

“We’ve all goofed up and flubbed up things we’ve previously done time and again.

It turns out the root of these brain farts may be a special kind of abnormal brain activity that begins up to 30 seconds before a mistake even happens.

The solution to such screw-ups could be a kind of mind-reading hat, a device to predict and even prevent mindless errors that can threaten lives.”

Sign me up for a mind-reading hat!

In case you were wondering what a mind-reading hat might look like, the MSNBC article links to one at Live Science. It talks about a mind-reading computer that can tell if you’re overworked, underworked or not working at all:

“The mind reading actually involves measuring the volume and oxygen level of the blood around the subject’s brain, using technology called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

The user wears a sort of futuristic headband that sends light in that spectrum into the tissues of the head where it is absorbed by active, blood-filled tissues. The headband then measures how much light was not absorbed, letting the computer gauge the metabolic demands that the brain is making.

The results are often compared to an MRI, but can be gathered with lightweight, non-invasive equipment.”

I couldn’t resist finding out what the “not working” hyperlink would lead to. To me, if you’re brain’s not working, you’re probably in trouble.

The link led me off on a tangent about how one rotten employee can bring down a whole company:

“The researchers define a bad apple as a toxic teammate who shows one or all of three features: dodging their work, dumping some of their responsibilities on others; persistently expressing pessimism, irritability and general unhappiness; and bullying co-workers.

The bullies have specialties: making fun of someone, saying something hurtful, making inappropriate ethnic or religious remark, cursing at someone, playing mean pranks, acting rudely and publicly embarrassing someone.”

I was thinking the article reminded me of someone, but then I had a brain fart and forgot.

Maybe I don’t want a mind-reading hat after all.