When my husband was young — like young enough for his parents to still buy his clothes for him — he didn’t have a lot of interest in fashion. Most 12-year-old boys don’t.

His mother, because she was a nice mother who thought children should have input in these things, used to ask him what he wanted. My husband, like most boys his age, didn’t know. She asked what he liked. He didn’t know. She asked what other boys his age wore. He didn’t know.

She, quite sensibly, suggested that since he saw these boys at school FIVE DAYS OUT OF SEVEN, that maybe he should have at least a clue what other kids are wearing. My husband, never the most observant when it comes to things like this, confessed that he did not.

One day, though, he knew. There was a new fashion, and he wanted in on it. He wanted a buzz cut.

All the boys were getting buzz cuts. It was approaching summer, and he relished the ease of maintenance of virtually no hair.

His mother, delighted that he was taking an interest in his appearance, hooked him up with a buzz cut as requested, and all was well.

A few days went by — I’m going to take some poetic license here and assume this took place on a Saturday — and he trundled off to school with his shiny new buzz cut. He was stoked. (Was stoked a word when my husband was in grade six?)

He walked into school sporting his new do and his teacher looked at him with resignation.

“Do you have head lice, too?”

One of the questions I get most frequently when I’m consulting with bloggers is whether or not they should install this widget or that widget. I will not mention the widgets in question by name because I find most of them morally reprehensible. We’ll avoid the reprehensible ones for now and focus on something nice and safe like Amazon.

You’ll notice that I have Amazon links in my sidebar. (RSS readers can trust me on this.) They were there when I started this blog and for the most part, they’re still there now. I get a lot of questions about them. A lot of people assume they make me at least decent money because otherwise, I’d kick them out and replace them with real, paying ads.

The reality is, I put them there because I’d seen them on other blogs and I though I’d like a splash of color in the sidebar. I haven’t really had the time or the energy to replace them by hooking up an advertising page and changing the theme and God knows what else.

I make about two bucks a month from them.

Attention: Blogging Newbies

Just because someone with a bigger blog than yours does something, doesn’t mean you should do it, or that it’s even working. Please remember this when the next God forsaken widget comes out. Just because you can drive your car with your knee doesn’t mean you should.