Books: Greg Melville wrote a diverting travelogue with a message concerning his trip cross country in a car powered by vegetable oil, Greasy Rider. He also including some "errands" he made via a side bet with his "wingman" Iggy, including lessons on geothermal being used at Fort Knox, Google's very kewl environmentally friendly headquarters and how even Walmart might be seeing the light on how this all is fiscally responsible in the long run. After all, if some schlub can do this, what can the nation as a whole do, if they put their mind to it?
Craziness: The women who just had octuplets very well might have had a fertility treatment done out of the country, since given her situation (she already had six kids!), she shouldn't have needed to had so many embryos inserted, if proper protocol was followed. Who knows. Saw a reference of her wanting two million for her story. As if, especially after taxes, that would actually be a lot of money in her situation!
As the mom of twins, I can testify that the human body was not zoned for multiple use ...
- AOL News piece
We should be careful, however, in using extreme exceptions (even six at once is very rare) in setting policies or when discussing the matters at hand. Still. Given what is needed to care for so many, resources that are hard to come by and even if they are can be used elsewhere, high multiples in fertility treatments is just a bad move. Even without the quite possible health problems. We glorify children a bit too much in this culture, and the time, energy, and hardship that goes into fertility treatments shows it.
Fashion: A bit of fashion dos and don'ts with which, fwiw, a professional woman I forwarded it to mostly agreed:
"Look professional, not fashionable; be careful with perfume; always wear a heel of some sort — maximum 2 inches; always wear some sort of makeup -- even if it’s just lipstick." Shoes and skirt must be the same color. No-no's include ankle chains — "professional, but not the one you want to be associated with;" white high heels; overstuffed handbags; an overload of rings, and double-pierced ears.
Yes, those ankle chains always did seem a bit slutty! Are heels really necessary? One of my sisters, admittedly not an office worker, would kill herself if she wore heels. The shoes/skirt thing is interesting. Isn't black a match, either way? And, wouldn't this limit skirt color overall, given most colors for shoes wouldn't be professional? The rings etc. stuff is fine as far as it goes, and men would have similar concerns really. I'm just glad our species don't require men to be the flashy ones.
Legal News: Meanwhile, here's an alternate reality response from Michael Phelps on his pot faux pas and a quick honoring of free speech hero Irving Feiner, who has recently died.