I have to admit right up front, I'm not a blogger who gets really excited or really bummed about blog comments. I love and appreciate the comments that I get but I spend next to no time worrying about whether a post has comments or not. I don't blog for comments and I spend enough time knee deep in metrics to know that comments do not necessarily indicate success or good writing.

While television is full of "reality" shows, few shows get into the real lives and struggles of prominent people the way that BETJ's Parallel Paths does.

Today, when I returned home, my children told me the sad news before I even took off my shoes. Chicago native Bernie Mac, the large, dark, and lovable funny man, died this morning at age 50.

I'll admit my finger is not exactly on the pulse of Hollywood happenings. I have far too much going on in my life to add celebrity watching to the list. However, when there is a natural or home birth in Hollywood (things near and dear to my heart), the news usually crosses my path one way or another. And so I was both surprised and pleased to read yesterday that Jessica Alba's new daughter Honor Marie Warren was born via a natural hypnobirth.

Everyone's buzzing about the Tom Cruise/Oprah Winfrey two part interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." So why shouldn't we at BlogHer do the same?

When I woke up Sunday morning, Jan. 13, I did not envision myself spending most of my day at a Mardis Gras parade in Slidell, La., by the Krewe of Slidellians (aka The Slidell Women's Civic Club) even though I knew my son would be marching in the parade with his high-school band.

Roy Peter Clark, journalist and father, charges his colleagues with complicity in the public meltdown of pop star Britney Spears: [Clark shows the Britney Spears poster that used to hang over his teenaged daughter's bed. Photo credit: Mallary Tenore, Poynter Institute. Used with permission]

Anyone who secretly (or not-so-secretly) checks out celebrity photos while pretending to work (something I have perfected), may have noticed a trend popping up in the last year or so: ankle monitors. Once upon a time, if you were out and about wearing one of these clunky-yet-fashionably-black shackles, the sirens were soon to come after, as you were breaking house arrest. Actor Tracy Morgan wears an anklet on the set of 30 Rock. Source: Eric Ford

Disclosure: I received a copy of Celebrity Detox from Hachette Book Group for review. People often assume I'm a big Rosie fan because, well, because all lesbians are Rosie fans, right? Or maybe it is because I can often be found wearing my "go blog urself" t-shirt gifted to me by a friend and former co-worker. Or maybe it's something else entirely. Maybe people assume I am a Rosie fan because I like brash, outspoken, real women. Until today, I wouldn't have called myself a Rosie fan at all. Today, I finished Celebrity Detox - and it made me a fan.

I'm tempted to focus solely on "Why dog fighting is bad" this week, because it's weighing heavy on a lot of minds, including my own. There's a lot more going on in the world of domestic and companion animals that I'd like to share, though, so a round-up is the way to go. That said, dog- or any other kind of animal - fighting IS bad, and the more reports I see on this issue, the more charged up about it I get. There are 52,546 Technorati hits on "Michael Vick" alone as I type this, meaning my eyes are crossing and all synapses simultaneously firing.