As a subscriber to NewScientist, I’m prey to its marketing tactics. In my E-mail inbox this week:
‘When you were little, your Mum was always there for you. Now you are grown up, it’s hard to make time for her. How do you show what she means to you?’
A meal in a good seafood restaurant, for one
‘Give her a subscription to New Scientist for Mother’s Day. Share your world with her – what excites you, what fires you up and catches your imagination. It’s all a Mum ever really wants.’
My world? Isn’t it her – everybody’s – world also?
‘Every week your mum will be able to keep up with you with the latest news coverage from around the world and much more…’
Well, she’ll be ahead of me then. Especially if I hand her my pile of unthumbed back copies.
Instead of having her spend the day with a scientist harping on about science, why not use the time talking to her about her world? Because there is more to it than just me. Mother’s are not all the same. Listen to her – it’ll make a nice change. You might learn something.
Lee Turnpenny 
Ah, well, look on the bright side – at least they are thinking that moms can do science, which a 1950s New Scientist marketer might not have. Though the tone of _ Share your world with her – what excites you, what fires you up and catches your imagination. It’s all a Mum ever really wants.’_ seems to imply that “your world” of science is just as odd to Mum as your collection of hairs that you kept in a matchbox when you were four.