Victorian Sweet Sixteen

My fifteen year old, who loves Virginia Woolf and Oscar Wilde, has asked for a Victorian sweet sixteen party. She likes to read a lot that airs for sure. I thought it would be fun to put some of the ideas we came up for her Victorian coming out party we came up with down here.

At it we plan to serve English Tea sandwiches, and sweets. The invitation will be shaped like a fan and we are going to invite sixteen girls for an intimate tea.

The format for this party is based on a proper Victorian tea party with lots of angels, fairies and cherubs as themes. If you want this party to have a bit of a dramatic edge you can ask your guests to wear 'Angel's Wings.' It is always interesting to see how creative people can get when it comes to constructing these.

You could ask the girls to wear crowns or tiara. We were thinking big hatsSixteen Invitation as 'Have Tea With The Queen of Sweet Sixteen.' Otherwise you could phrase your Sweet Sixteen invitation like this 'You are invited to My Sweet Sixteen Party. Dress: Big Hats – also Victorian Dresses, White. Gloves.' Another nice touch would be to include a fan in the invitation or you could purchase white fans and hand write the invitation on them.

Also on your Sweet Sixteen invitation you will want to include the Menu, which is modeled after a proper British tea. You will be serving three of the most traditional of British Teas including Earl Grey, Ceylon and Darjeeling.

Victorians were very fond of their herb gardens and many of the recipes here reflect the Victorian fascination with herbs.

Here is our plan for a menu —

Crab Puffs With Herbs
Sage and Cheddar Cheese Wafers
Cheddar and Jam Tea Sandwiches
Lavender Ham Tea Sandwiches
Cucumber Basil Sandwiches
Pear and Stilton Sandwiches
Chicken Salad With Almonds Sandwiches
Egg Salad And Dill Sandwiches
Scones
Devonshire Cream
Strawberry Banana Jam
Key Lime Custard Jam
Strawberries in Choclate
Lemon Balm Cake
Lamingtons
Orange Mint Cookies
Chocolate Rose Geranium Cake

Using lace tablecloths with pink or floral linens and china can easily infer the stuffy style of the Victorian era. The china can be pure white, but a floral china or silver tea set suits this party perfectly. Drawings of flowers, dragonflies and bees are also symbols of the Victorian era. For each guest, you will need a teacup and saucer, dessert plate, silverware, napkin and placemat (a lace doily would be an elegant touch.)

As this party is going to include a lot of finger foods, we plan to have lots of platters, lazy susans and three tiered platters upon which you will serve your tea sandwiches and little cakes. A serving cart also lends a genteel quality to the scene.

The crowning touch? I am going to make a little crown of roses, daisies and violets for my daughter to wear in her hair!

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The DNA of Bad Kids

Apparently crime is so bad in Britain that they are now thinking of putting the DNA of kids who are really bad on record. This is the plan according to a story by Mark Townsend and Anushka Asthana in England's The Observer.
The idea is that primary children would be eligible to have their DNA put in the database if they exhibit negative behavior. This is because bad kids sometimes tend to become criminals later in life. Of course not all of them do which is part of the problem of this practice. Many public officials including some at Scotland Yard say a debate is needed to decide how far people should take this program. Some experts believe it is possible to identify future offenders when they are as young as five years old.
Is it wrong to identify those who might become offenders later in society. It may not be wrong if this was a study doen blindly. Otherwise it might just be another form of racial profiling. Also another issue would be who would have access to this information. Could your kid apply for a credit card and then be denied for it because of his or her's potentially criminal DNA? Could a doctor make a lot of trouble for your child and put him or her on anti-psychotic drugs or mood altering drugs because he knows about bad DNA? It's a bit too 'Big Brother is Watching You for Most People.'
One of the organizations supporting this is called Public Policy Research. They have put together a report that suggests that the DNA testing should target certain groups of children such as those who have behavioral disorders like ADD or borderline personality disorders. The age group that would be targeted would be those girls and boys between the ages of ten and thirteen years old as that is the age when most adolescents tends to think of offending for the first time.
Currently the idea is prohibited by logistics and the cost of testing everyone in Britain. To be fair everyone would have to give a DNA sample. Currently there are more than 45 million DNA samples from people who have been arrested on file in Britain. The idea is that if that base of DNA samples is expanded then it will be easier to catch criminals.
There is a lot of outrage about this idea. For instance how would you like the DNA of your troubled kid on file because he or she has ADD and is more likely to offend? Then of course there are the racial implications of all of this. Are the kids of black populations who have higher rates of fetal alcohol syndrome babies, crack babies and autistic children just being penalized with these potential DNA tests. Most people would say that it violates democratic rights and that we are already behaving like characters out of a science fiction film.

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