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Bringing Up BabyThe elusive balance between love and discipline.

Compiled by Adam Christian
Updated Friday, Jan. 26, 2007, at 8:44 PM ET

(Continued from page 4)

Fraysters have taken positions for and against the use of this procedure, but both sides seem to agree that the whole concept is unsettling. Eigenvector (not a fan), exclaims: "this is not Eugenics, this is something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story." Caromer (a supporter) concedes "'pillow angel' is a creepy term."

To marylb, the case of "Ashley X" says more about the medical profession than about parents:

To me the issue is about the medical community acting on expediency, which is ethically troubling. That parents of children with needs are left with few alternatives is certainly true, but does that mean the known reality of these children growing up should be altered? Where is the line drawn for the medical community if indeed expediency is factored in and the medical world tries to make up for lack of services? Where is the definitive line drawn that controls the medical concept?

I only know that I don't know the answer.

Amen to that. If you have thoughts on this subject, please share them with us in the Human Nature Fray. GA … 12:05am PT

Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007

Responding to Daniel Gross' largely optimistic assessment of Whole Foods' potential for profitability despite recent declines in its stock price, some Fraysters took great interest—and in some cases, pleasure—in analyzing the chain's downturn.

In this top 10 list of reasons not to buy Whole Foods' stock, baltimore-aureole points out the "inherently limited … number of people willing to pay $5 a pound for tomatoes which are indistinguishable from non-organic," the absence of "local advertising," "lousy locations," and the need to shop elsewhere for mainstream and practical items such as "diet coke, chicken nuggets, and detergent, etc." johnboy779 highlights the affordability of Trader Joe's "as a significant reason why Whole Foods is taking such a hit" in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. messyONE unleashes an extended diatribe over its "cramped, dirty, and crowded" shopping venues and the frequently "rotting produce" in its bins, while diogene cites larger economic trends for the chain's recent slump: "meager economic recovery of the past 5 years has been consumer-driven all the way, and the consumer--even the affluent consumer--is feeling more than a little tapped out by now."

Pondering the connection between food and spirituality, revrick seeks to explain Whole Food's success in appealing to the holier-than-thou "devotees of vegetarianism and organic foods":

The whole premise behind stores like Whole Foods is that it manages to pull off making two contradictory claims at once. On the one hand, there is Thorstein Veblen's conspicuous consumption at work here. Shopping at Whole Foods says to the world, "I'm so rich, I can blow scads of money buying over-priced produce." On the other hand, there is a gnostic, elitist denial-of-the-world ethic involved as well. "I shop at Whole Foods, because I am a spirtually evolved sort, who can discern the difference between the pure and the impure, the superior and the inferior. Lesser breeds shop at Redners, I get what's good at Whole Foods."

Thanks to Food TV, says marylb, we've witnessed the popularization of gourmet tastes that will continue to fuel the growth of high-end food purveyors in suburban and rural middle America. On the other end of the demographic spectrum, Isonomist- praises the adaptability of Whole Foods to the urban market of New York City:

WF took a risk parking themselves in our gentrifying neighborhood, because there's literally no parking anywhere nearby. So you can only buy what you can carry home, unless you want delivery. They've attenuated the selection, there's no bulk section and you could probably fit the whole grocery section into one corner of your local WF. They just know what we feel like eating, and what we're willing to pay for it. Doesn't sound like much of a model, but in practice, it's the most popular square footage in our area of town.

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Moira Redmond is a freelance writer and a former Slatester. You can e-mail her at .
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