Minnow’s Five Things

Royal baby gifts, autism insights, summer camp tips, Cory Monteith, the Boston bomber and Smart Diapers—they all caught my attention this week.
1. Last week I wrote about the economic impact of the royal baby’s arrival to the UK (an estimated 400K bump in sales of trinkets and trash). So what about the Canadian economy? The royal family is popular here, enough that one of my favourite shops in Toronto (Dolce & Gourmando) has put together this wonderful British gift basket stocking all kinds of British treats that you can’t buy in Canada (a British Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar, anyone?). You can purchase it online and it makes for a great cottage or hostess gift to celebrate the theme of the summer. Let’s see if our economy can get a little bump from the royal baby, too.

2. I wonder if Carly, a young Canadian woman with autism and a well-known autism advocate, is following the arrival of the royal baby? Until recently, she would not have been able to answer that question, but with the help of technology she has found her voice and is using it to encourage others to do the same. Her ability to communicate and express herself has advanced to the extent that, amazingly, she will be attending the University of Toronto next year (my alma mater, ahem). She has also written a book, has her own blog and Twitter account and, with the help of her father, produced an incredibly insightful video illustrating her perspective as a young autistic adult. Please watch it here.

3. In more incredible kid news, our good friends at Name Your Tune, Candace and Eric Alper, have a very cool 10 year old daughter. You may have heard of Hannah—she has her own blog about being a kid and well, saving the world. She is very involved in the Me to We movement but she also writes about normal kid stuff like going to camp for the first time, and provides tips for her readers. Here are her first time camper tips—from a kid who understands. Stay tuned, you’ll be hearing more from Hannah at SavvyMom.

4. Sometimes our perception of young people is not at all reality. Cory Monteith, the handsome and successful Canadian actor from Glee died last weekend of an alcohol and heroin overdose. This is such a profound loss of talent and potential. He portrayed a squeaky clean image and was interested in helping others. In contrast to Cory’s fame and popularity is the story of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the young Boston bomber, who shockingly made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine this week. The tag line reads: How a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam and became a monster. He was young, American, popular and a talented athlete. How did this happen to him? Then of course the rest of the world is asking WHY is the Boston bomber on the cover of Rolling Stone—the sacred page reserved for celebrated rock stars? The article is excellent, but the decision to put him on the cover is wrong. I’m not in favour—are you?

5. On a lighter note, I bring you Smart Diapers—diapers that can track your babies’ health by monitoring their pee. They come with a QR code that connects to an app. Parental anxiety not included.

Have a good week!