On payday, it's still a man's world

These statistics are worse than I imagined. And what kills me is that even though there is no reason coming out of college for women to earn less, they still do (even though they outperform men in the college setting).

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/23/news/economy/gender_gap/index.htm?cnn=yes

Green Grass, Running Water

This week I finished reading Green Grass, Running Water, a novel by Thomas King. I've never read anything quite like this book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in magic realism or native american folklore/texts. King's ability to weave together multiple storylines, both real and surreal, is really amazing.

While writing this I feel like that old spot on Reading Rainbow where the kids hold up their favorite book and give a short report on it. But it's true, take a look, it's in a book :)

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Grass-Running-Water-Thomas/dp/0553373684/ref=cm_syf_dtl_pl_6_rsrsrs0/002-3175872-8708052/002-3175872-8708052

The Cho Show

Here's a good article from Slate about the controversy surrounding the airing of the Cho tapes:

http://www.slate.com/id/2164717/nav/tap1/

no words

When I was watching the coverage of the VA Tech shootings yesterday, I was struck by how difficult it was for newscasters to convey the "seriousness" of these shootings. Inevitably, their descriptions ended up sounding almost trite and cliched (although I know this was not their intention). Shooting, Massacre, Slaughter, Carnage, Mayhem, Havoc, Chaos, Violence. These words do very little to describe the indescribable violence of this event. The newscasters then tried to put the event into context, first labeling it as "one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history" and then, as the number of dead began to rise, "the deadliest massacre in modern U.S. history." Comparisons were made to Columbine and the Luby's Cafeteria shooting in 1991. CNN showed the student cell phone video over and over again. And the newscasters struggled for words. I was almost glad to see them struggling to find the right words; it means that an event like this does not happen often, and when it does, we still have difficulty processing and understanding what has happened.

Here's a link to Slate.com's daily news roundup, which links to many of the major news stories on the events: http://www.slate.com/id/2164357/fr/flyout

And here's an article about how students have turned to the online community to comfort each other: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-web17apr17,1,3926754,full.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

The Thirteenth Tale

I just finished reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. If you devoured Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, then you would love this book. It's sort of a gothic novel within a novel, told by a popular novelist to her gothic-novel-loving biographer. Definitely entertaining. Apparently, Setterfield made a huge splash in the UK when she sold the book for 800,000 pounds. And then it sold for a million in the US. She was discovered in a writing class. Go figure. Perhaps there's hope for all of those creative writers out there.

Here's the official website: http://www.thethirteenthtale.com/

And a link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Thirteenth-Tale-Novel-Diane-Setterfield/dp/0743298020/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-8200658-9479132?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176386939&sr=8-1

Salon.com: "Memo to Bill O'Reilly: More immigrants equals less crime"

http://salon.com/news/feature/2007/04/10/geraldo/

This article addresses the recent screaming match between Rivera and O'Reilly over immigration and crime. Although I am posting this mainly for my Mom (Hi, Mom!), I think that the interview debunks some pretty commonly held myths about immigrants and crime. The article ruffled a few feathers (see the last page), but it probably won't reach many of the people it is aiming to persuade. People just love to blame everything that goes wrong in their lives and in their neighborhoods on "the Mexicans," and one article probably isn't going to change their minds. Just another case of how perception (and prejudice based on perception) differs from reality.

Women in the workplace: the opt-out myth

"The Opt-Out Myth" by E.J. Graff (Columbia Journalism Review): This is one of the first articles that I have read that considers all sides of this debate and, most importantly, uncovers the media's biased reporting of the women in the workplace issue. Definitely worth a read: http://www.cjr.org/issues/2007/2/Graff.asp

Here's an excerpt: By offering a steady diet of common myths and ignoring the relevant facts, newspapers have helped maintain the cultural temperature for what Williams calls “the most family-hostile public policy in the Western world.” On a variety of basic policies—including parental leave, family sick leave, early childhood education, national childcare standards, afterschool programs, and health care that’s not tied to a single all-consuming job—the U.S. lags behind almost every developed nation. How far behind? Out of 168 countries surveyed by Jody Heymann, who teaches at both the Harvard School of Public Health and McGill University, the U.S. is one of only five without mandatory paid maternity leave—along with Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland. And any parent could tell you that it makes no sense to keep running schools on nineteenth century agricultural schedules, taking kids in at 7 a.m. and letting them out at 3 p.m. to milk the cows, when their parents now work until 5 or 6 p.m. Why can’t twenty-first century school schedules match the twenty-first century workday?

The article was referenced in this article on Salon about the book The Feminine Mistake, which the article author describes as "another book telling women they are doing something wrong."

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2007/04/03/feminine_mistake/index.html

"Amazing Girls"

Here's a link to a New York Times article about the pressure on teenage girls to achieve perfection or some version of it so that they can get into a good college, have a good career, make good money, and have a good family. Of course, you can't have all of the things that go with a successful life (money, career, family) unless you get into one of the best colleges.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/us/01girls.html?ex=1176523200&en=79cd42f1c3cffa70&ei=5070

The pressure that these girls are under is enormous, and I don't know who is more to blame for the pressure - the girls or their parents (or society?). There is something deeply disturbing about this article, probably having to do with the contradiction between the girls' intense focus on NOT conforming to societal pressure to be materialistic, thin, and cookie-cutter beautiful and the comprises they make (i.e. buying $250 jeans and saying that being "effortlessly hot" is probably prized over everything else).

This, coupled with the most emailed article in The New York Times "A Great Year for Ivy League Schools, but Not So Good for Applicants to Them," makes me so thankful that I went to college when the application process wasn't so insanely competetive. Then again, applying to grad school has been pretty competetive... Which makes me wonder how the bar will continue to be raised as these kids finish undergrad and move on to grad school. Scary. Somebody stop them!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/education/04colleges.html?em&ex=1176004800&en=1f0bd7218ce4c9f6&ei=5087%0A

Horoscope

My horoscope today (I'm a Leo):

When you're shown the secret of a happy life, it looks suspiciously like an old dying tree. Look past the appearances, and keep going for the gold (The Courier-Journal).

What the &*$% (heck)? Is my horoscope telling me that money is everything? That life is crap? That I should become an Olympian? That even old trees will one day bloom? That it's what's on the inside that counts? That youth isn't everything?

I have no idea, but the astrologers manage to be totally vague as usual.

Richards: "Snorting My Dad Was a Joke"

Ha Ha

Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards insists he never snorted his father's ashes - his recent comments were made in "jest." The Gimme Shelter guitarist can't believe people took him seriously after he told British music magazine Nme he once snorted his dad Bert's ashes mixed with cocaine. He said, "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared. It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive." However, Richard's manager Jane Rose tells MTV.com that the hellraiser's comments were "said in jest. Can't believe anyone took (it) seriously."

From IMDB News: http://imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-04-05/

Jazz Mystery

I learned about the following rare and recently recovered jazz recording in a book I am reading by Michael Connelly, Echo Park. http://www.bluenote.com/detail.asp?SelectionID=10459

Apparently, in January of 2005, jazz archivist Larry Applebaum was digitally transferring the Library of Congress' Voice of America collection when he found some tapes marked “sp. Event 11/29/57 carnegie jazz concert (#1),” with one of the tapes barring the sole marking “T. Monk.” He listened to the tapes and recognized them as a rare, and previously completely unknown, recording of the collaboration between John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk at a concert in Carnegie Hall.

The story of the jazz tapes and Applebaum's opportune discovery of them plays into the background of Connelly's crime mystery in interesting ways (one of the reasons I like Connelly; he always gives you a little more than you expected from a detective novel). The above link from Blue Note records describes the discovery of the tapes and allows you to listen to a couple tracks from the recordings. The story behind the tapes' discovery adds to the mystique behind these recordings. I'm not a huge jazz listener, but I enjoyed listening to these tracks.

Richards: "I Snorted My Dad"

Rolling Stones star Keith Richards has stunned fans by revealing he once snorted his father's ashes, mixed with cocaine. The 63-year-old guitarist, who has long been associated with all manner of substance abuse, has told Britain's Nme his most bizarre drug-taking session came after his father Bert died in 2002. He says, "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared. It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive." Richards accepts he should be one of rock's casualties - but luck and an amazing constitution has kept him alive. He adds, "I've no pretensions about immortality. I'm the same as everyone... just kind of lucky. I was number one on the 'Who's likely to die' list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list."

From IMDB News: http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-04-04/

7th Heaven, We hardly knew ye...

"7th Heaven's Last Season" (CNN)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/03/television.heaven.reut/index.html

Ah, how I will miss those crazy Camdens and their constantly-rotating cast of moochers. How fondly I will reminisce about the semi-retarded twin brothers, the practically perfect in every way, except the Godly way, Lucy Camden. And her hot husband who can't act. Not to forget the rest of the cast who can't act (which includes almost everyone). I always kind of wanted to write an episode for the show. Too late, I guess. Maybe someday there will be a reunion. Mary will participate by phone, of course.

Simpsons Quote

From the TV Gal Column:
"And then I had this dream that my whole family was just cartoon characters and that our success had led to some crazy propaganda network called Fox News." Bart Simpson on "The Simpsons." Thanks to Josh for the quote.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-tvgal-031207-badbehavior,0,7152740.story

One of the most disturbing pictures I've seen of the war so far:

This picture accompanied a story on CNN that cited last week's Tal Afar truck bombing as the deadliest of the war so far.

For some reason, the picture really struck me. Maybe it's the men perched on the side of a truck full of bodies. Or maybe it's the contrast between their morbid mission and the colorful rainbow of material covering the bodies. Even though there's no blood apparent in the picture, it's one of the saddest I've seen of the war.

This kind of puts my droning about office monotony in perspective.

CNN Story: (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/04/02/iraq.main/index.html).

Would you like some cheese with that w(hine)?

Why is moving so bone-crunchingly tiring?

And why is labeling and data entry so boring?

Yes, I know the answers to both, but I just needed to vent.

Happy Monday :)