Apt. 11D

No More Law School Debt!

Students are finally figuring out that they shouldn't waste money on law school. 

You Know What This Room Needs? A Smile!

Really looking forward to the commercials on Sunday.

 

Democrats "Must Haves" and Republican "Must Haves"

I'm still playing around with the topic of political affiliation and marriage. I came across an interesting article on Match.com. They found that Republicans and Democrats have different priorities in the characteristics that they are looking for in partner.

“They are really looking for different things,” says Dr. Fisher. In a nutshell, Republicans want matches from similar backgrounds (i.e., the same religion and/or ethnic group, share the same basic set of values and have similar attitudes about money). Democrats are significantly more likely to claim their “must-haves” for a partner include: being funny, independent, having a similar level of education/communication skills, and being comfortable with his or her sexuality. “This speaks to core values, priorities, and goals in life,” says Dr. Fisher. “And those ‘must-haves’ are not going to change.” 

Housework and the Healthy Marriage

From the Daily News:

A new study of married couples reveals that women are more aroused by the sight of her husband mowing the lawn, taking out the trash, or fixing a flat than performing so-called “woman’s work.”

From Sociological Images:

Most couples would prefer to have an egalitarian split of household chores, but if that becomes impossible, then men and women have different ideas about what the next best solution would be. 

Men’s most common fallback position is to establish a neotraditional division of labor: 70% hope to convince their wives to de-prioritize their careers and focus on homemaking and raising children.  Women?  Faced with a husband who wants them to be a housewife or work part-time, almost three-quarters of women say they would choose divorce and raise their kids alone. 

Apt. 11D activity - reconcile these two studies, please. 

Teenage Land

Our 13-year old started acting like a 13-year old this week. We pulled him out of it and things are back to normal now, but there has been some major league drama in the house for the past five days. I'm just starting to return to my normal self again, but the white streaks in my hair got a little whiter. 

As this drama was unfolding, I had lots of chats with other parents and heard lots of venting about teenage culture. Parenting takes on a whole new dimension when the kids hit these years. It's enough to make one look fondly on the potty training years. When the kids become teenagers, parenting is mostly about fear. 

Last night, I talked with my coffee klatch at the Y, as we watched our little guys swim. They all had older teenage kids and were terrified that their kids were going to get into drugs and alcohol. One mom told us about a party where a bunch of sixth graders were caught drinking. The parents had gone away and left a college kid in charge. The college kids had a party and let the younger kids dip into the booze supply. The cops came, and everyone got into big trouble. 

Another mom said that she was going to lock up her liquor cabinet, because she didn't trust her kid and his friends. She was worried about sending her son to other houses where the parents weren't around enough. 

One woman said that she purposedly kept her daughter into a million clubs and activities, so she didn't have time to get into trouble. 

Parents are also afraid that their kids were watching porn on YouTube. They worry that kids had more access to crap than in the past, because of the Internet.

They worry that their kids are being passively bullied by the mean girls in school. The schools hold millions of anti-bullying assemblies, but they never address the more subtle forms of meanness, such simply being ignored. 

Are these fears irrational? Studies do show that usage of drugs and binge drinking is down from the past, but there is no question that kids are still getting into trouble.

My 13-year olds problems are so minor in comparison. Just the problem of fitting into a new school and typical insecurity issues. What happens when the bigger problems come down the pike? 

Beehive

Stolen from Shorpy. 

In the Woods

Smithsonian Magazine has a fabulous article about a Russian family found in the woods in Siberia in 1978, after decades of isolation. 

The sight that greeted the geologists as they entered the cabin was like something from the middle ages. Jerry-built from whatever materials came to hand, the dwelling was not much more than a burrow—”a low, soot-blackened log kennel that was as cold as a cellar,” with a floor consisting of potato peel and pine-nut shells. Looking around in the dim light, the visitors saw that it consisted of a single room. It was cramped, musty and indescribably filthy, propped up by sagging joists—and, astonishingly, home to a family of five...

What Sign Are You? What's Your Views on Gun Control?

I'm very curious about a new article in the Journal of Politics, which found that political similarities among couples isn't coming from intense conversations over dinner, but from the initial sorting process. Republicans don't date Democrats. Obama voters don't date Tea Party members. 

Could someone with JSTOR clearance send me the article? Thanks.   Thanks, MH.

 

The Island of Misfit Furniture

My sister has a beautiful Stickley entertainment unit. Fine oak. E.J. Audi label. She paid about $3,000 for it a few short years ago. And nobody wants it. 

She listed it on Craig's List for a few hundred dollars, and the only nibble was some weird, Nigerian-style, spammer.

It was built for a fat TV. It has wide shelves for vases and books. Nearly six feet high and wide, it was meant to be a statement piece. The trouble is that nobody wants to make that kind of statement anymore. Today, a TV is supposed to lie flat on a wall like a picture frame with a simple credenza underneath to hide the cable boxes and xBox remotes. 

Partially this change from the statement entertainment unit to the subtle TV has come from technology. They learned how to make a skinny TV. But I also think it has come from a change in how we watch TV. 

Television is no longer a family activity. With access to entertainment on our iPhones, iPads, computers, and other devices, we're consuming entertainment alone.

Growing up, Saturday morning cartoons involved intense political negotiations between my brother, sister and myself. Who got to the TV first helped to determine who was Master of the Channels. Height and weight also figured in. I could assume the role of Master of the Channels simply by sitting on my brother. Waking up my parents to intervene in these complex matters was simply not an option. Bringing in the parents was the atomic bomb of solutions, because there would be mutually assumed destruction. So, I suffered through Land of the Lost with my brother and he had to watch the Brady Bunch. 

Now, if someone doesn't like the offerings on TV, they can simply wander out of the room. Ian doesn't have to sit through Pawn Stars on the History Channel. He just goes to the computer and pulls up some super exciting You Tube videos of walkthroughs of his favorite video games. (Some walkthrough YouTube stars have huge followings and make a nice living at that.) Steve and I are watching old episodes of Downton Abbey on my iPad, which streams Netflix movies better than the TV. 

While I was never the fan of the entertainment center, my sister's misfit furniture makes me a little sad. I'm sad for that such a quality piece of furniture could end up in the trash. I'm also sad that TV watching is no longer a family activity. 

The Dr. Oz Industry

The New Yorker has a fabulous article on Dr. Oz. 

I asked if he would place his confidence in a heart surgeon, no matter how gifted, who operated just once a week, as Oz does. “Well,” he replied, “in general you want a surgeon who lives and breathes his job, somebody who is above all devoted to that.” Again he mentioned Oz’s experience, but when I asked if he would send a patient to Oz for an operation, he looked uncomfortable. “No,” he said. “I wouldn’t. In many respects, Mehmet is now an entertainer. And he’s great at it. People learn a lot, and it can be meaningful in their lives. But that is a different job. In medicine, your baseline need has to be for a level of evidence that can lead to your conclusions. I don’t know how else you do it. Sometimes Mehmet will entertain wacky ideas—particularly if they are wacky and have entertainment value.”