And, Finally, "What is the Park Slope of Iraq?"

We were amused to find that someone found the inherent humor in the ongoing "Is There a Park Slope in (Fill in the Name of City)?" discussion at the Park Slope Parents group. This email clearly takes the prize in this week's discussion:

I checked the archives and can't find any neighborhood quite like Park Slope in Iraq. They all seem to have drawbacks...The streets of Baghdad are too bumpy for our Mountain Buggy, Mosul doesn't seem to have a Red Hot equivalent, and Basrah isn't getting a Trader Joes until 2062 (according to their webpage). Any help would be appreciated.

Indeed. Excellent stuff.

UPDATE: There are those that have taken umbrage with the original post. One poster retorts that the post is "in incredibly bad taste....I'm all for legitimate criticism, making light of a war in which hundreds of thousands have died in this way should not have a place on a listserv of this kind. Im frankly disappointed that the moderators allowed it."

Another poster, responds to that sentiment writing, " i think it's a mischaracterization to say that she was 'making light' of the war. quite the contrary...the post puts our "problems" into perspective. and i, for one, am not the least bit ashamed of laughing at it. oh, and for what it's worth, i have family native to that part of the world who have been bombed, who have had their government dismantled and manipulated and who have lost their lives-- not on the american side of things."