Apt. 11D

Spreadin' Love

Suso's fabulous house in Spain.

Jon Stewart on fake populism. 

All the single babies. 

I think this is my favorite scene from the first season of Mad Men.

Among the many vices in American politics, Friedman points to the blogosphere " that at its best enriches our debates, adding new checks on the establishment, and at its worst coarsens our debates to a whole new level, giving a new power to anonymous slanderers to send lies around the world." And at its most useless just sends out links to baby videos on YouTube.

Two more classic videos: Getting It in the Can and the 10 Hot Dog Problem. (via Chris Lawrence.)

Pesto!

My kitchen smells so good! I'm harvesting the basil and making tubs of pesto this afternoon. This is side yard crop; I have more in the backyard. Pesto freezes really well in ice cube trays. You can melt a few cubes for pasta or just put one cube in a marinara sauce. Tonight I'm going to smear it over chicken breasts and grill them.

Entitlement and the Rapist

Roman Polanski was finally arrested for raping a 13 year old girl 31 years ago. He's getting support from very surprising sources, including Woody Allen.

I love The View's Sherri Shepherd's tweet today,

"Whew...long day at The View...two shows today...hot debate over the Statutory Rapist Polanski. 45 year old man plies a 13yr old w/drugs & Liquor and anally & orally penetrates her w/o her consent is a RAPIST," she tweeted. "We hunt down 75 year old Nazis. We must protect our children."

I'm glad that I've seen the names on the petition. Now I know who the creeps are in Hollywood and can boycott their films.

Question of the Day -- Longer School Day

We briefly talked about Obama's proposal for a longer school day a few days ago. 

I told Jonah about this idea yesterday. He mouth dropped open in horror. He said nothing, but you could see that he was rethinking his very vocal support for Obama during the last election.

Question of the Day: Do you like the idea of a longer school day? Do you think that it would make your kids smarter? Would the benefits outweigh the necessarily increases in taxes?

Making Tracks

We made tracks this morning. The stated goal was to make tracks large enough to be seen from space.

Laughing At Others' Misfortunes

Leslie Bennetts writes that SAHM have dug themselves in a financial hole. They have no chance of finding work after taking off time to raise their kids, and it's especially tough during a recession. She points to one wretch of a woman who failed to attend Bennetts book party two years ago and is suffering now that her husband left her. It's almost breath-taking in its nastiness.

Guess what The New York Times has just discovered? Women who quit their careers to stay home can face financial challenges if a recession hits and their husbands lose their jobs! And—gasp!—when these women try to re-enter the labor force after a timeout, it’s hard for them to find work, and they earn far less than they did when they left!

Elizabeth had a great review of her book a couple years ago. It's nice to see that Bennetts hasn't mellowed at all.

In the Daily Beast, Bennetts argues that staying at home with kids is dangerous. It leaves you without any safety net, if your husband loses his job or if he takes off with the secretary. This is hardly a news flash. Ann Crittenden discussed these risks with a lot more compassion and subtlety than Bennett.

Crittenden says yes this is true, but it shouldn't be. Women can protect themselves with post-nups, and the business world has to change to hire women with more gaps on their resume. In fact, there is some evidence that they are doing so. 

Interestingly, Elizabeth Warren argued that two-income families were actually more vulnerable during recessions than one-income families. When both individuals work, they spend it all. Warren argues, they feel pressured to buy the expensive house in a good school district. If one loses their job, they are screwed. In contrast, if the primary bread earner loses his/her job in one-income family, the at-home partner can run out to get a job to cover the expenses until the higher earner gets back on his/her feet. One lesson is that if you have two incomes, try to live on one and bank the other.

The New York Times article doesn't seem to back up Bennetts' point very well. It shows that women are getting jobs after taking off many years. They are able to return back to professional jobs, maybe not making as much as they had before, but they were able to support their families. By this point, the children were teenagers and were more self-sufficient. The out-of-work husband presumably picked up the slack at home. I don't see any points scored for Bennetts here.

I'm not sure which family arrangement is the most financially secure. There are too many variables to consider. And financial security has to be balanced by other considerations.

I'm just pleased that I didn't have to scrounge for daycare today, as the kids had the day off from school for the holidays.

Spreadin' Love

Steve and I often plot our future trek through Europe with the boys. I would love to go to Basque country just for the food. Garlic and tomato rubbed on bread is so damn good.

We, as a family, are bereft of executive skills. Yesterday, I left my purse in a restaurant and showed up late an hour and 20 minutes late to a kiddie birthday party. While it's cool that schools are teaching kids to become more organized and better planners, this pre-school sounds like a disaster. No one education philosophy should ever take over a school. I also don't want to see a world of tidy, organized bores.

No college president should make $500,000 and get a mansion.

Roomba art.

Thanks to the charter school system, we've been able to measure that a longer school year increases school performance. However, most kids only get 180 days of instruction in the US, while the children in Japan and Germany spend 240 days in a classroom. Obama is now speaking up in favor of increasing the year.

Weekend Journal

We weren't at all sad that Jonah's soccer game was rained out this afternoon. After a splendid couple of days catching up with old friends and family, we had the gift of an afternoon with no plans. 

Red Tears

A Blog Storm Heads Up

Last week, Penelope Trunk tweeted that she was relieved that she had a miscarriage, so she didn't have to get an abortion. I was surprised that someone whose online reputation was about being a business professional would tweet that. I did wonder for a while if that TMI was brave, stupid, or smart. But the message itself wasn't terribly surprising or shocking. That tweet caused quite a stir, and the feminist blogosphere is about to tackle it. Trunk explains everything.

I particularly liked her last paragraph:

I think what really upsets people is the topic. We are not used to talking about the female experience, and especially not in the context of work. But so what? We can start now. The female experience is part of work. What we talk about when we talk about work defines how we integrate work into our lives. If work is going to support our lives, then we need to talk about how our lives interact with work. We need to be honest about the interaction if we hope to be honest about our work.