<p>um, kinda. 
I do have a (bad) habit of making long posts, and maybe I should know when to cut off, but I kind of wanted to emphasize the ludicrousness of my own helicopter family, and why I really want to “chop” the ties that bind (in more ways than one…figuratively, of course.)</p>
<p>They actually are very backwards about the Internet and are paranoid about me having to apply to schools online, so the whole Ma and Pa Kettle dialogue was a poke at how old-fashioned they are (and really will always be). The “slice of the cleaver” is perhaps a rather graphic feminist statement of how I don’t want to be old-fashioned like June Cleaver or the prototypical 1950s moms (and the Bates thing a very innuendo-ish reference to both Kathy Bates and Norman Bates), and how I’m really very anti-tradition and progressive and all that.</p>
<p>Just to clarify or “unclog” the stream. :-)</p>