Apt. 11D

Fermat's Last Theorum

Alex Tabarrok points us to a wonderful documentary, called Fermat's Last Theorem made by Simon Singh and John Lynch for the BBC in 1996.

Tabarrok writes, 

And then there is Andrew Wiles, the frail knight who for seven lonely years pursues the proof that has ensorcelled him since childhood. He announces the proof to the world, is featured on the front page of the New York Times and in People Magazine, he has the respect and admiration of his colleagues and then he discovers the proof is wrong.  He works another year trying to fix it but every time he patches one area another fault line opens up. Even speaking of it now you can see and hear his utter despair.  It is not too much to imagine that he was on the verge of a breakdown.  Unforgettable.

It's a Dad's Life

I am clearly amused by suburban rap. Some other of my favorites:

• Oxycontin. Put It In a Cup. It Looks Like Ice Tea. 
• Swagger Wagon
• Mom Jeans

Social Security Shortfalls and Tax Cuts for the Rich

We had a great chat about social security last week. Now, Ezra Klein shares a graph from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

They point out that the shortfall in social security is roughly equal to the amount of revenue that we lose by extending tax provisions to upper-income taxpayers.

UPDATE: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Megan McArdle debate the numbers and the intent of this graph.

War Paths

I've just got off the phone with my insurance company. This would be the 15th phone call in six months. They owe me $600 for therapy services that Ian received a year ago. This insurance company has repeatedly lied to me. They have used every means possible to stall and to confuse. Just a warning. If a check isn't cut and in my mailbox within two weeks, this blogger is going to employ the nuclear option. Lawyers, blog posts, Twitter, interest groups, contacts at major newspapers. Last names will be used. FYI, I have a very high google rank.

A domestic violence incident has hit close to home. What's the best organization -- shelter or hot line or whatever -- that I can highlight in a post?

Obama's War

As if the news about the continuing tanking economy wasn't bad enough, this morning I'm getting an earful about the wars in Iraq and Aftghanistan. And none of it is good.

The NYT has a horrific story about how families are identifying their loved ones among the thousands of nameless dead in Iraq. A slide show of grief. As people read these stories of senseless deaths from the civil war in Iraq, their disgust with the region with increase.

People are already sick of this war. "An August poll by Associated Press-GfK shows that nearly 6 in 10 Americans oppose the Afghanistan war and only 38 percent support the expanded effort there."

There are some doubts about how well Obama is dealing with being a War President. He's had a steep learning curve and domestic problems have been a priority.

The troops are returning home with mental illnesses and missing limbs.

Bob Herbert says that this war is stretching on, because other people's kids are doing the dirty work.

One of the reasons we’re in this state of nonstop warfare is the fact that so few Americans have had any personal stake in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no draft and no direct financial hardship resulting from the wars. So we keep shipping other people’s children off to combat as if they were some sort of commodity, like coal or wheat, with no real regard for the terrible price so many have to pay, physically and psychologically.

Mike Crowley writes about the challenges that Obama will have to address in tonight's speech. "That may be because Afghanistan is looking increasingly like Obama's Iraq — an unpopular war that the President must defend on national-security grounds rejected by many Americans."

Ma'am and Mrs.

Natalie Angier talks about the politics of polite and the division over whether being call "ma'am" is respectful or an insult.

Still, if you’re a woman born any time before the Clinton administration, chances are you’ve been called ma’am on more than one occasion — by solicitous waiters asking whether you were “Done working on that, ma’am?” and hovering store clerks wondering if they can “help you find anything, ma’am,” and traffic cops telling you to “Move your car, ma’am, this isn’t a parking lot,” and the perky, hardworking fellows at the farmers’ market who see you week after week but will always cram so many ma’ams into every transaction that you realize there’s no turning back, you’ve been ma’amed for life.

I'm very much in the ma'am-is-an-insult camp. I mean you might as well call me "grandma" or "wrinkle-face" or "too old to be seen in public." I hate it so much that if a waiter calls me "miss" rather than "ma'am," I'll give him a better tip. 

I also hate Mrs., though not quite as much as ma'am. When kids call me Mrs. McKenna or even worse, Mrs. Husband's Last Name, I grit my teeth and tell them to call me Miss Laura. I'll even accept being called "Jonah's mother" over Mrs. McKenna.

Question of the Day: Is ma'am an insult?

All Hail Strong Women

The New York Times has a fabulous photo-essay of the new brand of strong, female tennis players. Please check out the video.

1940 in Color

Amy P sent me a link to a photo essay in the Denver Post of rural life between 1939-1943. "These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations." Somehow, seeing these people's lives in color makes the poverty more cruel and more relatable. Still, I'll always love this.

Do the Dishes, Boys, and You Might Get Lucky

Jeremy S. sent me a link to a great post on Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog a couple of weeks ago, and I've been remiss for not passing it on sooner.

Oliver Wang, a guest poster, pointed to a interesting study of the sex lives of couples. The researchers examined the impact of work, both paid and unpaid, on sexual frequency. In other words, do people who spend lots of time in the office and then do lots of housework have time to get busy in the bedroom? If you folded the sheets, do you want to mess them up later on? If you scrubbed the toilet, do you want to do any other rubbing later on?

Apparently, yes. The researchers found that couples where both partners did work around the house (not entirely equal, but somewhat equally) saw more action than couples where the woman did most of the housework. They found that the busiest couples who worked the most at home and in the office, the go-getters, somehow found the time for each other.

I'm not sure if these go-getters also had children.

When I was working at a policy research center many years ago, a fellow researcher, Sarah, would occasionally talk about the drama of married life. I wasn't yet married to Steve, so I was curious what the future held. She said that she and her husband had a nickname for his kitchen-cleaning duties at the end of the day. They called it foreplay. 

I'm hesitant to go further in my discussion of this study, because the conclusion is so useful. Do the dishes and you'll get laid. It should be a bumper sticker or something.

However, the researchers were off in explaining why there's a correlation between sex lives and housework. They said that people who were really busy in their work and around the home were hyper organized people who made sure to schedule time for date nights. That's probably partially the case. I also think that if you're busy in your career, you're feeling good about yourself. You're cleaning up, because you have an active social life with people coming over for parties. You're happy. And happy people have sex.

UPDATE: Thanks to Feministing for spreadin' the love this way.

Author Blogs

I have to admit that I haven't read many author blogs. Author blogs seem to be primarily about advertising published works elsewhere. Many writers don't quite get the feel of blogging and don't do it long enough for me to get hooked.

That said, I did enjoy this post by Alexander Chee -- "On Getting Your Name Out There: Author Blogging." 

For Chee, blogging is about building your brand and avoiding the time suck. This is very practical advice, and I'm slowly... very slowly... learning how to transform my hobby into a career.

Also, Chee's blog post pointed me to his wonderful little slide show on Jennifer Egan's website. Reminded me of my son's fascination with gas stations.