If you write for Helium, then you probably have had one of their deletions notices.  I find them becoming more and more aggressive and threatening.  My main beef with them, of course, is their star rating system.  I have been writing for them for three years.  They have changed my writing percentage from 67$% to 62.5% and the reason can’t be that my views have dropped because my views have increased.  I think one of my former students works for them and is out to get the old lady. 

Really, I can not understand why an online writing forum like Helium would allow itself to be compromised and used.  I am sure that their objection was to my daring to question their question and their questioner. 

The following is one of the emails that Helium sent me.  I own all rights to my writing property, and I would like to make their brand of seeking to squash their writer’s ego like some ego maniac pretending to be the only writer oops righter in the country.  Shame on you Helium, and as our association grows, I am becoming more and more assured that your online site fits your name, gassy.

I would like to write to this question by taking on one of Heliums’ more outrageous questions and explaining by answering in our own way why we don’t need our family values compromised. I hope they don’t delete it again. How to pick a prom dress has to be the most ridiculous question helium has ever allowed to be picked and picked as the leading question of the day, really? I suppose the question was done to separate those of us who have from those of us who haven’t as if anyone writing online cares. That question is in my mind, the mind of a sixty year old who has already picked out two dresses at the cost of over 1000 dollars, and, now, I apologize.

What is happening to us in America? Are we going back to the Roaring Twenties when the have’s machined-gunned their way into everybody’s living room as the new world elite? Why, did I feel almost automatically defensive about my two exquisite, dripping with sequins gowns, worn once and both hanging in my closed cedar closet?

We all know the answers to both questions. In hard times, we are made to feel less than those who are conning us out of our money. Being defensive about their questions is not going to help. Let us deal with the question, if we can. In order to pick out a perfect prom dress and not just one of the rack at Penneys, one must do the following:

1. Have Mom go into a boutique that only sells prom dresses and

accessories.

2. Mom, you must make an appointment for your daughter to accompany

you for a fitting.

3. Dear, let Mom pick out a few dresses to try on and then go an pick

one out for yourself.

4. Be sure to have appropriate underwear on for your fitting.

5. Choose shoes, bag, matching jewelry, all at the same time.

6. Do not let the prize tag or the feeling of will my best friend buy

a pricier dress make you start a fight on the way home.

Many girls today go to the prom with a group. If you are going in a limo with a date who can afford to pay the limo by himself, you will have to call him and tell him the color of your gown. He has to order the flowers.

I had the best time of a mother’s life when I had to pick out prom gowns for my daughter. I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted sequins and tight bodice. My daughter had to agree since I do have such exquisite taste. Most daughters would agree more with their mothers if their mothers looked as deliriously happy as their daughters felt but were being too sophisticated to show. That joining of feelings helps to bring about a daughter’s acceptance of her mother’s wiser judgement in choosing such an important gown. And, perhaps, the gown itself will be a mental note to her date as to her expectations of being treated like
Cinderella.