School Days

This morning, I helped out with school registration. Which means it's really happening: summer is ending. There's a part of me that's looking forward to getting back on a grown-up schedule with a time to get up and a time to eat and a time to go to bed, but there's also a part of me that really enjoys all the alone time, fluidity of time, and silence. I was able to see some of my old students today, which was fun, and to reconnect with some of my teacher friends from last year, but it was definitely nice afterward to come back home to my empty house and not think about it for a while. I know it's inevitable, but I really would like one, maybe two more weeks of vacation. I'm pretty sure the kids wouldn't mind if we asked them to delay some.

Radley's Obsession

Friday, a woman Kelly works with brought some zucchini in to the office to share because she had received an abundance from her garden. When Kelly came home, he sat them on the coffee table.

Friday evening, we were enjoying each other's company in the comfort of our living room when Radley started acting strangely. We can set any number of things on the coffee table - within easy reach of our pups' noses - steak, sausage, hotdogs, and other things that encourage lesser pups to disobediently snag said items from the table. Friday evening, Radley was trying to do just that - only without the temptation of smelly, meaty foods. All that was up there was said zucchini.

Kelly picked up one of the large, green vegetables and held it toward Radley's face so he could smell it and see how silly and confused he was acting - disobediently trying to climb onto the table and all. Rather than sniffing it and walking away dejected as anticipated, however, Radley lunged at the zucchini, aiming to make it his snack.

We were surprised at this, to say the least. We laughed and decided to cut a piece off for our crazed pup...which drove him mad. He couldn't wait to get a piece of that zucchini in his mouth! He was dancing all over, doing every trick he knows, trying to impress us into giving him more and more zucchini! We thought he was just hungry, so after feeding him (and Lucy, who, usually our fruit-and-vegetable-lover, was only mildly impressed) a couple of zucchini rounds, so we gave each pup a fresh cup of dog food. Nay! said the ravenous Radley. He only wanted zucchini. We had to put both the zucchini up on the kitchen counter and distract him from pacing the kitchen floor. I honestly think he was depressed we wouldn't just give him the whole thing.

The next day I tried tempting him with the succulent squash once again, thinking that perhaps Friday night was just a fluke. Nope. He did the same song-and-dance numer again on Saturday, almost more excited than Friday at the possibility of having more delicious zucchini. I've never seen him like this before, even for aforementioned smelly meats and definitely never for vegetables. Now that he has the taste for zucchini, I think I should warn all my neighbors to carefully guard their gardens and to put up electrical fencing around their zucchini patches, lest my dog devour all unprotected zucchini under the cloak of night.

More Germany Photos...Because You Asked For Them

This is the castle in Ludwigsburg. It was built to look like the palace at Versailles. We learned in Germany that a lot of castles were built to look like the palace at Versailles. Evidently, it's the coolest palace ever.

This is me and Ethan going down the stairs in the Ulmer Munster. It was a little dizzy-making to walk in that tight spiral for so long. I couldn't help but think of the centuries worth of germs I was picking up by holding on to that center post. Ugh.

This is the entire American family in Germany. Here we are in front of the oldest house in Ulm - dating from somewhere in the 1400s, I think.

Here's me and Kelly on the other side of the Danube River with the Ulmer Munster sticking up behind us.

These bears were all over Ulm. Except I don't think they were bears. Large jungle cats of some kind, maybe? I don't remember. Pumas? I just thought they looked like oddly posed, skinny bears. They're part of a city project that raises money for the Munster.

Our Trip

All right...I've been promising this for a week now...This is planning to be a quick run-down of the trip so that the pictures at least make sense. This isn't all of my pictures - only a few. If you want to see more, we'll have to do that in person. I know this is a lot of writing, but we were there for two full weeks. And this isn't even everything that I could have written about! Also, I can't promise that I've correctly spelled everyone's names. If I got something wrong, I apologize in advance.

First, Kelly and I flew into Frankfurt on the same day as his parents, Rex and Liz, and his Aunt Monica. Liz and Monica (as well as another sister and a brother) are our connection to Germany. Their parents emigrated to America (well, Canada, and later to America) in the 30s (40s?) and over the last 80 years the American family and German family has been able to stay in touch.

So day one: Kelly, me, his parents and aunt load up and drive to Ludwigsburg to stay with Jurgen (Liz's cousin) and Irene. (For anyone who remembers, their son Daniel visited us two summers ago.) These two people were amazing with their generosity and hospitality. There was never a shortage to eat, drink or discuss. I wish we could have stayed longer so Irene could show me a few things in the kitchen because she was a tremendous cook. She made for us a whole host of traditionl German meals that made me sad my stomach could only hold a limited amount of food.

We stayed here our first two nights, using this time to also visit Jurgen's brother Rainer and his wife Ursl and later Joachim, another of Liz's cousins, who painted the picture we have hanging in our living room a few years ago. Then we went to Ulm and stayed three nights with Michael and Karmen and their children Cheara and Samuel. (Some people may remember that these four visited us briefly last summer.) We stayed here with Kelly's cousin Lindelise and her husband Aaron and their children Ethan and Annelise. (Their parents, Linde and Pete, were also on this trip. They are all part of the American family.)

Our first day in Ulm, we went to the Ulmer Munster, which is the tallest church in the world, and Kelly, me, Aaron, Lindelise, and Ethan climbed to the top of the steeple. We ate some and shopped some and that night spent some time meeting more members of the German family.



The next day, Saturday, was the day of the wedding - the reason for the timing of our trip and for the influx of Americans. The groom, Thorsten, is Michael's brother. He and his now wife, Steffi, have a very cute little boy, Dominik. The wedding started at three in a very beautiful and very old Catholic church. Immediately afterward they held a small reception in the church courtyard, mingling with wedding guests with champagne, OJ and croissants because some people at the service wouldn't be going to the bigger reception. The reception was quite the party. There was skits (one of which a bunch of us Americans participated in), much dancing, food, food, food, and all the beverages you could drink. We didn't leave until after one in the morning!



Sunday we had an uneventful day driving Kelly's parents back to the airport and staying in Frankfurt watching the German soccer team lose (sadly) to the Spanish team in the European cup. The next day, we set off on our own.

Our first stop: Baden-Baden. I don't think I'd ever heard of this place, but wow, was it worth it! Cute, cobblestone roads, old homes, open markets, outdoor patios...it was fabulous. Plus, this place had a fantastic smell to it - like all of the flowers were in bloom all at the same time. We did a quick walking tour of the city, courtesy of our Rick Steve's guide book (which was also awesome!) and found this spigot in the middle of town that puts out hot water from the underground spring. The book said that children used to be sent down to collect a bucket full of water every morning for their father's shave and that older people in town still remember doing this. The water was clean and drinkable - if you don't mind the taste of mineral water. Then we went to a bath house - a Roman-Irish bath house, actually. It's a long process of steam rooms and saunas and soaking pools with a soap massage in the middle. At first I was a little uncomfortable walking around naked with all the other women in the bath with me, but after a while all our nakedness didn't seem like a big deal any more and I was just able to enjoy myself. This was definitely my favorite European experience!

The next day we drove a little west to Strasbourg, France. This time, it was my turn to translate! My first purchase was ice cream cones for the two of us. It was exciting how much French I remember after so many years of not using it. We walked around some, at lunch and perused a book store, where I had to ask the lady working for a certain book that my French teacher used to use with us. I loved it so much, I wanted one of my own. My French was successful! She knew exactly what I was talking about. It was great!

Then we went a little further south and back to Germany to Staufen, one of my favorite places that we visited. Staufen was a cute, relaxing town with old-world charm. We stayed at a gasthous with a tremendous view of a vineyard-covered hill with a ruined castle on top, all nestled in the rolling hills of the Black Forest. The next morning we visited that creepy old castle and were amazed at how well it's held up over the last 800 years. No one could live there now...But in America something that old and "useless" would've been torn down ages ago to make room for a new Wal-mart or something.

Then we drove to Hallstatt, Austria. You've seen The Sound of Music? Yup, that's this place. Well, not this exact town, but the area, sure. Hallstatt was a thriving city with established trade routes when Rome was being (legendarily) founded by Remus and Romulus. It got its start as a mining town because in the mountains the town is built around is a massive salt cache. (I learned more about salt on this trip than I ever thought I would! Ask me sometime.) Salt was always very important and, for people farther away, very expensive, so it came to be called "white gold." We stayed in Hallstatt at a fabulous gasthaus ran by a very friendly woman named Maria, who told us of a great place to swim at the lake, Hallstattersee.

After two nights in Hallstatt, we headed back through the Alps to Munich for two nights. We ate at the Hofbrauhaus, which is, unrelatedly, the first place that Adolf Hitler delivered a speech to a large group of people, visited near-by Dachau concentration camp, ate, shopped, ate, drank and walked. We saw the Glockenspiel, rode the tram, I talked to a stranger on my own in German (I told her the bench was free - as in unoccupied), and stayed in a single room to save a few Euros. We both thought Munich was all right - definitely lots to do - but it wasn't our favorite place. If I go back, I'd like to investigate more of the history of the city.

Then to Rothenburg, which Kelly mistakenly called Rotterdam so much that it left me rather confused as to where we were. This city is a completely walled-in city with a fascinating story (another one to ask me about in person) and more old, old, old-world charm. We took a tour that night from the night watchman, who definitely gave the best tour of our entire vacation. We also went to the Crime and Punishment museum - not as in the book, but as in torture, etc. It's sick how much time and effort people have put into hurting other people, but it makes for a cool museum.

The next day was Monday and our last full day in Germany. We drove back to Frankfurt, found a cute place for dinner and ate our last European ice cream cone. We were sad to have to leave, but we were also ready. More than anything, we missed our dogs! We decided that Germans love doors, as there were doors in every imaginable doorway, but we couldn't figure out why, if we were staying in a clock-making capitol of the world, there were no clocks anywhere we stayed. We also noticed that Germans love ice cream, practicing their English, cutting in line and doing other things indicative of a lack of patience, and sitting forever after a meal drinking and talking (which works, even though it doesn't fit well with their aforementioned lack of patience). We enjoyed driving on the Autobahn, practicing our German, learning so much about another culture and history so different from yet still so similar to our own, spending time together through all these adventures, and being able to go, see, and do whatever and whenever we wanted for so long. Kelly loved having so much bread all the time - a different type for each meal, it seemed - but I was missing veggies by day nine. I drank my fair share of eiscafe (cold coffee, often with whipped cream and sometimes with vanilla ice cream) and Kelly drank a dark beer wherever we went. If I wasn't drinking an eiscafe, I was probably drinking Radler - 50/50 beer and lemonade. I didn't think it sounded very good at first, but after I tried it, I couldn't get enough. I highly recommend it. And if I wasn't drinking one of those two things, I was scrounging for water. In Germany, they think water - especially tap water - is just for washing and cooking, not drinking. So if you order water in a restaurant, you get sparkling water unless you specify to them that you want non-sparkling water...which means that you'll likely get mineral water (which I thought tasted like I was drinking dirt). They served all water by the bottle and never more than you could fit in a wine glass. I don't know how they're all still living! I felt so dehydrated all the time!

Overall, the two weeks there were two of the most memorable in my little lifetime. It was a phenomenal way to spend my first trip to Europe!

Doors and clocks

K and I got home from Germany two days ago and even though I'm planning to write a much more interesting, in-depth post about the two weeks we spent there, I'm going to first write about doors and clocks.

Germans, I have learned, love doors. In one place we went, I had to go through four doors to get to the toilet: one door to the bathrooms, one door to the women's bathroom, one door to the line of stalls, and one door to the stall itself. In homes, it wasn't uncommon for every single room in the house to have its own door or for there to be another door at either end of the hallway or foyer. It was rare - in any establishment - for there to be a space where a door could have been but wasn't.

And on the other hand, we have clocks. There was a severe lack of clocks in the entire country, which surprised us considering how famous the area is for their cuckoo clocks and how well-known Germans are for being sticklers on pretty much everything. Most gasthauses we stayed in didn't have a clock in the room. The two that did only had the clock because it was on the TV and it did not have an alarm. Most mornings we relied on my personal internal clock and my watch to get us out of bed on time for breakfast.

What happens in Vegas...

This post is in reference to the new movie that's out by the same title, not something that's recently happened in Vegas on my behalf. The movie was one of those cute, predictable but really fun movies that Hollywood is so apt at putting out every few weeks. The one thing I have to say about it, however, is this: When is Cameron Diaz going to stop taking roles that require her audience to belive that she's still a 20-something, up-and-coming career mistress and start playing characters a little truer to her almost-36-year-old self? She's talented, yes, but at some point her audience isn't going to be able to overlook her wrinkles and split ends as something younger men (as was her male lead in this movie) lust after.

Teacher Compliments

Today marks the last day of my first year of teaching. I thought that, on this occasion, I would relay the two best compliments I received all year from students.

The first was a couple of months ago. I was in the classroom after school one day with a couple of girls who were writing silly things on my board. Then they left and I left and I just figured I'd erase my board when I got there the next morning. The next morning was when I finally paid attention to what they put on my board. The entire space was full of things like "Ms. Hagans rocks" and "I [heart] Ms. Hagans," but right there in the middle was a note that said "Ms. Hagans is a teacher who actually teaches things." It meant so much that I teared up and took a picture with my phone.

And the second was yesterday in a thank you card I received from a student. In her card, among other things, she said, "Your classroom is a place where I feel like I can speak my mind, be myself and have fun." And that, my friends, is one of my biggest goals in teaching - and she said it without me even telling her that that's what I was shooting for this entire time!

So, congrats to me on a job well done. You know, I sort of like this teaching thing. I think I'll give it another try next year. ;-)

He Triumphs Over the Lawn Mower

We were going to work out together tonight after he mowed the lawn, but when he went to retrieve the lawn mower he found that it wouldn't run for more than thirty seconds before dying. A half hour later, I suggested that he leave it alone and we can take it to someone who fixes motors and things. He said he would be right in. After almost another hour of tinkering with it, however, he finally got the dern thing started.

And spent the rest of his backyard mowing time crying out triumphant "Ha ha!"s and "Yes!"es.

I love how his cuteness about even little lawn mower things makes me smile from inside, even when it also means we'll probably not go running tonight. I'm glad that he won - and not just because it means he'll be in a better mood knowing that our lawn looks better than our neighbors. I'm glad he won because his tenacity is one of the qualities I value about him most. Maybe it sounds funny to think, but I don't think I would love him like I do if he wasn't so stubborn!

Tea

Right now I'm drinking some awesome bedtime tea that was a b-day gift from one of the best gift givers ever and happens to be nearly gone (the supply in the cupboard, not the liquid in my freshly-poured cup), which makes me sad because it's awesome and if it's almost gone that means I need to buy some more and part of what made it so awesome in the first place (aside from the flavor) is that every time I drink it I think of Kathy's propensity for generosity and thoughtfulness.

If you also want some awesome tea, it's from Teavana.

Coolest Student Question Ever

The other day in my newspaper class, I was explaining the requirements for their feature articles when M raises his hand. I call on M.

M: I just have a question to make sure I like understand.

Me: OK.

M: So, should we, like, when we write this, should we be using, like, sentences for this? [BTW: He's serious.]

Me: Yes, when you write your feature article, you should definitely use sentences.

Evidently, that wasn't what he meant, but he only realized that after his buddy made a sarcastic remark about what else he might use to write his article. M tried to explain/redeem himself, but gave up the effort before the rest of the class (myself included) believed him that he actually meant to pose a different question.

I love this company:

Newman's Own

I've tried more and more of Newman's Own products lately - from the salad dressings to the salsa and tonight I'm trying the wine. So far, I've found that not only is everything delicious, but everything is of tremendous quality. Plus, this company donates proceeds to charities; they've evidently given $200 million over the last twenty years. If you haven't tried any of their stuff, you should.

There are days when THIS is how I would like to address my students:

Why I Hate Antidisestablishmentarianism

I remember when I was probably eight or nine asking my dad what the longest English word was. He told me "antidisestablishmentarianism," which quickly became my most favorite word despite being slightly unsure of its spelling and entirely unsure of its meaning.

I was a precocious child and sure of my academic superiority over my peers. Somehow, being armed with the knowledge of the longest English word increased that sense of superiority as well as my feeling of mastery of language. I remember reciting it over and over in my head on my walks to and from school and practicing writing it, just looking at it on the page in my own handwriting. Partially, I would write and rewrite this champion of a word because I wanted to make it look pretty and was continually discouraged at the fact that this is, simply, an ugly word. But mostly I wrote and rewrote it because it somehow connected me with an impression of eminence.

Through the years my humility grew. Since I'm not sure I had much humility at eight or nine I'm not sure if "grew" is the completely correct term for it; perhaps I would be more accurate to say that my humility was planted, but I'm not sure who I could credit for that. I realized a lot about my aforementioned academic superiority and other abilities, my relations with peers and the English language. The first serious blow, I think, came around the age of fourteen, when I learned that antidisestablishmentarianism is actually not the longest English word. In fact, antidisestablishmentarianism is a paltry 28 letters and is, incidentally, a mostly useless word in today's English vocabulary except for its ability to excite precocious children. The longest word in major English dictionaries is "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a 45-letter word which refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles specifically from a volcano. Research has discovered that this word was originally a hoax. It has since been used in a close approximation of its originally intended meaning, lending at least some degree of validity to its claim. The Oxford English Dictionary contains pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters). The longest non-technical word in major dictionaries is flocci­nauci­nihili­pili­fication at 29 letters. Consisting of a series of Latin words meaning "nothing" and defined as 'the act of estimating something as worthless,' its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741" (wikipedia). And then on top of that you have some random made up words from James Joyce or Mary Poppins that exceed some of these "actual" words, none of which I fault my father for not knowing. I don't know that it's necessary for really anyone to keep those terms tucked away in their knowledge bank.

My reasons for hating antidisestablishmentarianism have nothing to do with the meaning of the word. In fact, I have no strong opinions whatsoever concerning the opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church, esp. the Anglican Church in 19th-century England. My distaste for the word stems from the word itself. Even though I flaunted my knowledge of this word for so long, I never liked the word. It seemed greater than its own purpose and somehow I came to represent that. Therefore, my distaste for that pompous behavior extended to a heightened sense of the use of words and people who get high off of blatantly showing their own superiority through knowledge of bigger, better or more obscure words. Yes, I think that knowing more words and having a firm command of language is important and impressive. For me, however, it is when that vocabulary arsenal is used to intentionally degrade others that words cease to impress.

Recently, I've been discussing tolerance with my sixth grade gifted and talented students. They spent twenty minutes telling me all about how gifted kids have a higher emotional intelligence than other kids (which isn't necessarily reflected in the literature, by the way) and that they know all about intolerance from other people because they're always being snubbed for being smarter than everyone else. It was the "poor little rich girl" syndrome, basically, only with sixth grade smart kids who have no humility yet for their own gifts. The same day and every day since, I have heard them raving about the "awesomeness" of "antidisestablishmentarianism" and how dumb other kids their age are because they've never heard of it. So it continues.

Yes, I know all about the power of words and knowledge and how smarter (and generally higher income) kids are just exposed to more words since birth than their lower-IQ counterparts and that they're, in that way, factors of their environment that are directly related to their parents pushing them – pushing them to be smarter, know more, do better, get better grades. I get that and don't (usually) hold it against them.

But there's something about that word: antidisestablishmentarianism. It excites nerds. This ugly, pompous, useless word remains a champion among words for a reason that I may never understand again. For me, however, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth that resembles a lack of awareness of the world, naivete of self, and, most of all, a foolish arrogance.

Needs

I did this once with "is," but it's also funny this way. Go to google and put in quotation marks your name plus needs. For instance, when I googled "Angela needs," I came up with...

Angela needs a family who will access and work with a therapist.
Angela needs a parent who uses humor and non-threatening approaches to discipline.
Angela needs a psychiatric evaluation. Angela needs help. Angela needs to take her father off the pedestal. Oh so true.
Angela needs to constantly "feel" the presence of God.
Angela needs help!
Angela needs her space.
Angela needs to take those 18-hour days she spends working on her Web site and devote that time to improving the quality of her clothes.

And when I put in "Kelly needs"...

Kelly needs patience right now.
This tells me that Kelly needs to feel important to someone.
Kelly needs a quivering antenna.
Kelly needs to learn about patience.
Kelly needs modesty.
Kelly needs to prepare and think about a hundred things.
Kelly Needs to Be In My Life, Always.
Kelly needs to "Double Up" on lawyers.

What do you need?

Yes We Can

I think this is the best music video I've ever seen. Partially because it's well done and partially because I also believe we can.

I just can't help it.

I have become quite the little porn addict.

However, I didn't intend to. I did nothing to create this problem and really, I don't even enjoy that it's there. I wouldn't even really call myself an "addict," actually, because I try to ignore the porn when it is there.

The problem is that it's there all the time. If there are ads on an internet site, those ads are all porn ads. I see girls in thongs, wet girls, girls in bikinis, girl butts, girls grabbing their own breasts, girls nearly kissing other girls, and more - all in freeze frame.

I think there's something drastically wrong with my computer. At least, that seems far more likely than a change in my sexual preferences (that's a reference to the excessive porn as well as the massive amounts of hot girl action). If anyone has a quick and easy solution - or a condom for my computer - please pass on the good news.

Lately,

there have been a lot of birthdays in my family. C's now 22, T just turned the big 1-0, and D finally hit 9. Mom had one too, but I don't know what she thinks about me telling everyone in Internetland that she's 44. Oh, oops, I just did.

I've been spending a lot of time with my friends, which I really like. It makes me feel more connected to life.

I've been drinking more water. I've also (subsequently) been peeing more.

K has been speaking more German to me. He's trying to warm me up to hearing it all the time when we're in Germany in five months and four days.

my dogs have been feeling very neglected, I think. We've tried to take them out running at the eighth street trails a couple times, but the weather has been so weird that either the trails are frozen over or completely muddy. Either way, they're unpredictable.

Maybe I should have taken this quiz three years ago.

My sexy new website!

Each teacher at my school is supposed to keep up a little calendar of their classes so that students and parents can access it from home. It only really needs to be done a week at a time, but some of us keep an ongoing calendar. I started off with the format I was given, but it was sooooo boring that I had to change it up. My next draft was a little better and the one after that a little better still. The last one I had was awesome...for a time. Now I have this one. I absolutely love it - which is why I'm sharing it here. I know a lot of people aren't too thrilled to see my kids' calendar, but you may be thrilled to know that I developed this website all on my own. It's a little tricky because we do the sites just on Word and because our server only updates once a week - so anything I work on doesn't show up as an actual change until Monday after school. And, because of that, there are a couple weird things - misalignments and such - on my page that you should just ignore for the most part. I know they're there. In fact, they've already been changed...you just won't see those changes until next week.

Anyway, just wanted to show off my handiwork! I think I'll quit my teaching job and just do web design from now on. This website will get me hired hands down!

What's in your cosmetics bag?

I have an increased awareness lately of the crap that cosmetics companies are putting in their products - and we then put on our bodies and faces. Here, I list just a couple of items you will find in a standard ingredients list with links to the web pages I retrieved the information from in case you don't believe me. Go ahead, read the back of your bottle of concealer, your lotion, your soap. You won't think the same way again about your childhood chemistry set.

Propylene Glycol

This is a tricky one because PG is very closely related to a couple other chemical compounds that are severely toxic (carcinogenic, even), but PG has been approved by the FDA for use in not only cosmetics, but in food (things like ice cream, microwavable popcorn, etc.). However, it can also be a primary ingredient in antifreeze.

But, just so I'm not only providing negative info on something many companies and researchers believe to be OK, here's a good article on the matter from Tom's.

Mineral Oil

What's highly flammable, used as a laxative, destructive when you get it in your eyes or swallow it, and something people rub all over babies every day? Mineral Oil! This stuff also goes by many aliases, such as "hydraulic oil" and "cable oil." Mineral oil, with added fragrance, is called "baby oil," but it is also commonly prescribed as a laxatives. Basically, when used in cosmetics, mineral oil is used to "cut" the product to make it last longer and go farther (the same basic idea coke dealers use when they cut their product with things like bleach).

And, once again, so that I'm letting you decide what you want, here's a site arguing for the safety and continued use of mineral oil.

Parabens

Currently, the FDA doesn't see a serious carcinogenic cause of concern with parabens, used as preservatives in many cosmetic lines, but the products are still under review. The reason parabens are still being tested is that there have been tests that have shown that bodies may react to the estrogen-esque properties in parabens, which may lead to certain types of cancers (primarily for females, who, incidentally, are the primary users of cosmetic products that contain parabens) even when the products containing parabens were only rubbed into the skin - they did not have to be ingested or injected. Problems in young boys who have exposure to parabens have been noticed as well - for instance sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer - and more attention is being paid to general allergies to parabens. For more information about research and cosmetics, visit ThinkBeforeYouPink.org.

I didn't find any web sites extolling the virtues of parabens.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate/Sodium Laureth Sulfate

This stuff, abbreviated to SLS and SLES, are commonly used as cleaning agents in shampoos, soaps, bubble baths, garage floor cleaners, and engine degreasers. They are used in products we expect to foam, but it's a cheap product (which is why it's used in general) and it's a severe irritant (think of the searing pain you experience every time you accidentally get soap in your eyes). There are no known carcinogenic effects of SLS, however, which is the biggest argument for the use of SLS or SLES.