16 was easy because they all came into their own right at some point. John Lennon (for his legacy and death), Paul McCartney (and Wings), George Harrison (While My Guitar Gently Weeps and other hits right up until the mid 1980s), and Ringo Starr who we all know starred in the Caveman movie (with Dennis Quaid! Hubby likes to say "Lana, zookzook" as Ringo did in the movie). 19 I knew right off, but I loved Candid Camera as a kid and always worried when I brushed my teeth, I'd end up on it. Why? Dunno. Ironically, I thought "a little dab will do you" was attributable to another old hair jelly, Dippity Do. Wonder how many of today have even heard of Dippity Do? That's an oldie too. Didn't know 4 or what Dylan said. I guess I am still somewhat young.

I watched the video and read the transcript and saw her on Oprah. I saw nothing that came close to child abuse. If those nets over the cribs are more dangerous than 12 month old babies (their age when they began crawling and the nets went into use) crawling over the sides and landing on the floor I would like to know how. I did cringe at her lifting one child by one arm...another by two arms...but both times she had other babies in the other arm. A very good reason that multiple births are so unusual. I absolutely do not think she had all her "marbles" when she set out on this crazy, crazy plan....she sort of admits that now too. In several..as in many..instances in the documentary they speed ed up the film, and I believe the part showing her pour milk into bottles then quickly unzipping the cribs and throwing the "cold" milk into the beds was also speed-ed up. Nadya does have a huge "hyper-activity" fault....everything about her shouts ADHD, so even with fewer children she would most likely be unable to be the relaxed, cuddly, cooing mama we think all babies deserve. But they are 8 that make a whole and 14 that someday will be bigger whole.... and their lives are going to be very different from what we call the norm. And their lives will be THEIR norm. Waiting their turn....sharing EVERYTHING....never being an individual, always being a piece of an ever changing blob of humanity called a group. Who knows what "bright light" will emerge from the competition. I don't defend her...but her children, thankfully, all seem beautiful an bright...and they are here. Our State (and States) have supported many children of many less deserving mothers or mothers who have not cared about the children they have. I don't have the wisdom to know how society can help this woman cope with the mess she had made of her life. And I think she, ultimately, is the one that has to figure out the way to survive. JMHO...FWIW. Nanny (Always a BTW) The child with the cleft lip....needs genital surgery which is done later in life...and she chose to wait and have them done at the same time.

A Slip of the Lip (Can Sink a Ship) - Duke Ellington, 1943

I helped a friend clean out her infested pantry some years ago and was pretty amazed to find larvae inside everything, including anything stored inside a Tupperware container! The worst was finding tiny squirming larvae inside a closed jar of peanut butter. My experience with her was the impetus behind big changes in my own storage practices.