Browse by Tags

• Prostitutes Stand to Gain from Crappy Economy

  Guess who stands stand to benefit from corporate men’s decreased salaries and hence decreased morale? That's right--the world's oldest professionals. It makes a lot of sense once you think about it. According to Slate, high-end prostitutes see plummeting stocks as a windfall. Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 04:30 PM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Slate, friends, economy, hookers, sex workers, high-end prostitutes, good for prostitutes, therapists, prostitute, crappy economy

• Which Netflix Movie Have You Had the Longest?

  The online magazine Slate wants to know which Netflix movie you've kept the longest. Oh, man, now I have to face my demons? Because what I thought would deliver my family from overdue fines at the public library and Blockbuster has actually been something of a burden on my psyche.   Read More... Posted Sep 01 2008, 02:04 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Slate, which netflix movie have you kept the longest, netflix, reader survey

• Back Away From The Breast and No One Gets Hurt

  Not since Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" has a work of satire been so brilliantly crafted. While a recent essay in response to the Bush administration's push to protect all people who want to save fetuses before they are even implanted stops just short of suggesting we eat the poors' babies, it is still a work of delicious genius.   Read More... Posted Aug 08 2008, 11:30 AM by Adrienne Martini with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: ethics, Slate, abortion, breast feeding, Pro-choice, morals, pro-life, Saletan, Michael O. Leavitt

• They Say: Delaying Kindergarten For One Hurts Us All

  Soon, school will start again. And, soon, a small legion of 5-year olds will watch their also 5-year old friends start kindergarten without them. While there may be a few minutes of angst by the 5-year old who isn't walking through the schoolhouse doors, no harm will have been done. Right?   Read More... Posted Aug 04 2008, 09:30 AM by Adrienne Martini with | with 13 comment(s) Filed under: Slate, delayed kindergarten, redshirt, benefit, cost, Bazelon

• Family Dinners Good For Parents, Too

  Research has shown that family dinners do wonderful things for kids. No one is 100 percent certain why gathering at a table with regularity is beneficial but it is still good to know. Now there is evidence that encouraging parents to have family meals for the sake of their offspring is also good for the parents, too.   Read More... Posted Jul 14 2008, 02:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: kids, food, eating, Slate, emily bazelon, family dinner

• Strollerderby Playdate: How Do You Feel About American Girl?

  I just sat in on an interesting round table among some of the women writers of Slate on what they think about the whole American Girl phenomenon.   Me - I'm torn.  Read More... Posted Jul 10 2008, 08:29 AM by Amy S.F. Lutz with | with 13 comment(s) Filed under: Slate, american girl, Kit Kittredge, role models for girls

• What Pregnancy Looks Like

  We see pictures of pregnant women all the time -- mainly celebrities, often airbrushed, only in the best couture. But normal is always more interesting than perfect. Which is why it's fun looking at Slate's great slideshow featuring pregnant women around the world in the past 60 years.   This also reminds me ...   Read More... Posted Jul 03 2008, 10:01 AM by Madeline Holler with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Slate, maternity clothes, slideshow, what pregnancy looks like, weight gain restrictions

• Political Nanny: Boobs for Obama and (Un)Covering the Body Politic

  The good news: this year's election -- and the Internet -- have attracted gobs of new voters and political supporters. The quirky news: selfsame election and Internet have spawned some rather unconventional (or maybe conventional, but never before so easily disseminated) ways of expressing enthusiasm for one candidate or another. Hence ...   Read More... Posted Jul 02 2008, 05:01 PM by Madeline Holler with | with no comments Filed under: Slate, barack obama, body art, political nanny, John McCain, boobsforbarack, campaigns and the body politic, shine.yahoo

• The Right and Wrong Way to Use Timeouts

  Timeouts seem self-explanatory: your kid acts out; you make him go to his room or sit on a chair in the corner, by force if necessary; the worst the offense, the longer the timeout, right? Wrong, wrong, wrong, says renowned child psychiatrist Alan E. Kazdin, writing for Slate. While timeouts can be effective, relying too heavily on the timeout as a method of punishment will do nothing to change your child’s problematic behavior. In fact, excessive timeouts worsen bad behavior—which means you give more and longer timeouts, which means your child acts out more, which means your home becomes a battlefield. Read More... Posted Jul 02 2008, 12:17 PM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: spanking, Slate, punishment, corporal punishment, alan e. kazdin, withholding attention, kids acting out, timeout from reinforcement, positive reinforcement, punishing bad behavior, timeouts

• If You Like Bar Fights, Don't Read This

  My oldest kid would give herself time outs. We briefly thought that we should consider taking her to a kiddie shrink for this. We didn't because, to quote the old joke, we needed the eggs. It was just so useful to have her sit herself down when she was about to hit or bite or stomp off in a snit. Her younger brother, however, is the complete opposite. Getting him into time-out is like wrestling an alligator.  According to an expert, that's because we're doing it wrong.   Read More... Posted Jun 30 2008, 12:01 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: discipline, time out, Slate, justice, they say, Kazdin

• Greenhouse: Harnessing the Awesome Power of Boobs

  We know boobs are powerful. In my younger days I never had to wait for a drink while at the bar (my less endowed friends would have me make the drink runs) and now, well, I have two pudgy, well-nourished babies to my credit. But the idea that boobs can actually generate power? Like, electricity? That never occurred to me, until I saw this article from Slate blogged all over the place today. Writer Adrienne So spoke with a sports bra expert, nanotechnology guy and someone who made  a backpack that uses kinetic energy to power itself to see if the bouncy-bouncy of reasonably good sized breasts during vigorous exercise could generate enough power to, say, keep your iPod charged through a workout. It's possible, just not easy, it turns out. Read More... Posted Jun 25 2008, 10:02 AM by Amy Kuras with | with no comments Filed under: ipod, Slate, breasts, greenhouse, boob power, electricity, sports bra, D-cups

• Transgender Man's Baby is Coming Soon, But What About the Birth Certificate?

  As the mother of two children with edited birth certificates, I am all about altering this official document when one of the parental categories just doesn't apply.  But in the case of Thomas Beatie and his wife they both apply, just not to the right person.    So what's a pregnant man to do?  Read More... Posted Jun 21 2008, 04:00 PM by Erin White with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: adoption, Slate, surrogacy, lesbian and gay families, transgender pregnancy, Thomas Beatie, birth certificate

• Panic at the Soccer Field

  How can you help your kid over a full-blow case of panic, the sort of state where he loses his mind over something that he has the power to fix? If you are one of the lucky few who has offspring who don't come completely unglued every now and again, please skip ahead to the next post. And know that I think you're lying.   Read More... Posted May 19 2008, 02:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: Slate, soccer, snacks, kid panic, parental panic

• What's Up With No Cell Phones in Kids Books?

  On about our 20th reading of Llama Llama Red Pajama, it struck me that Mama Llama was doing dishes while talking on a slimline, wall-mounted, spiral corded phone, and I wondered if my kid even knew what that was. I asked, she shrugged her shoulders, which could have meant "no" or could have meant "I'm not a trained monkey ... keep reading!" Later, I flipped back to see when it was published, 2005. Christ, even my in-laws had upgraded to a cordless by then. That's when I started seeing dated technology in everything we read.   Read More... Posted May 14 2008, 03:01 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: children's literature, cell phones, Slate, Goodnight Moon, kids literature, outdate technology, llama llama red pajama

• Pressure-treated Lawn Ornaments

  My yard is about the size of an SUV. There is a great playground/woodsy creek not two blocks from my house. The kids and I make a habit of wandering down there, when our part of the world isn't covered with enough snow to bury my 2 year old.       Read More... Posted May 07 2008, 10:00 AM by Adrienne Martini with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Slate, lawns, suburbs, Vanderbilt, playscapes

• Political Nanny: Democrat's Deathwatch

  Tight race? Impossible race? Destructive race? No race? The Democratic primary that won't end apparently WILL end at some point. Some meanies (or are they realists?) over at Slate created a widget that will update daily the odds of Hillary Clinton winning the race. The image shows her on a sinking ship. Needless to say, it's hardly a widget that will show up on her campaign's website. Read More... Posted Apr 07 2008, 04:37 PM by Madeline Holler with | with no comments Filed under: Slate, hillary clinton, barack obama, hillary deathwatch, widgets

• 'Opt-Out' Enemy to Spitzer's Wife: Told You So!

  Linda Hirshman, enemy of the "opt-out revolution" and smart feminist who's got that special way of making lots of women (especially mothers) feel like total shit about themselves, has reached out to shamed (and now former) N.Y. Governor Eliot Spitzer's wife with this sentiment: too bad, told you so, would have happened sooner or later. Read More... Posted Mar 12 2008, 03:02 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Slate, Linda Hirshman, american prospect, eliot spitzer, silda wall spitzer, cheating spouses, opt-out revolution

• Dispatch from the Parent Wars: Who is Right?

  Take a look at this picture.  Slim lines, sweaty and taut, probably post-coital.  Perhaps Mom and Dad after fighting about who needs to pick up Billy from daycare?  Likely not...   Everyone knows the only people fighting about parenting philosophies are mommies. Not parents (and certainly not parents who look like this).  Mommy Wars imply that the only people fighting and disagreeing about raising chilluns are women, when in fact the real war is between parents.   Read More... Posted Mar 03 2008, 07:05 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: parents, Babble, mommy wars, fighting, strollerderby, Slate, parent wars, sexy parents

• My Breasts Are My Business

  Over here at the 'derby, we've talked plenty of smack about how it's impossible to escape the sancti-mommies. It starts from the moment folks find out that you're pregnant and never really ends until you're dead.  You'd think you'd at least get a reprieve while you're recovering from the actual birth. You'd be wrong.   Read More... Posted Feb 14 2008, 03:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: mommy wars, breastfeeding, Slate, sancti-mommy, Dear Prudence

• Teaching Kids to Share -- Their Money

  Raising a little philanthropist sounds so great in theory. But in practice? I can't quite figure out how to get it going.  I could do what parents did when I was growing up, which was to tell their kids exactly how much of their allowance to turn over to the church. But where's the lesson? The lifelong habit? We don't want charitable giving to be motivated from guilt, right? And where should the money go? Do kids get the concept of others in need? Emily Bazelon, a writer for Slate, watched her sons get involved in charity -- one of them raising money to save an ophaned elephant in Kenya that had fallen down a well. She asks whether it wouldn't have been more relevant to raise money on behalf of orphans -- actual human ones -- in their hometown, Washington, D.C.   Read More... Posted Feb 12 2008, 01:38 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Slate, charities, philanthropy, emily bazelon, teaching kids about money

• Pingu!

  Around my house, we love a certain claymated penguin, who we discovered as an extra on a Fraggle Rock DVD. Yes, my husband and I have decided that our kids will only watch shows from the early '80s. Soon, they'll be ready for John Hughes's oeuvre. What a great and magical day that will be.   Read More... Posted Feb 04 2008, 04:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: kids television, Slate, fraggle rocks, Dana stevens, pingu

• Man Gets Vasectomy, Tells Us About It

  In Slate there was an essay on one guy's vasectomy. I could probably summarize it with, "Having a vasectomy is an awkward and scary experience." I get that. I mean, who wants one of their most beloved parts operated on? And the essayist, Michael Lewis, states he had the snip snip for his wife, who had already dealt with three pregnancies, labors, and deliveries, plus "changed most of the diapers, gotten up most of the mornings, and, on top of it all, given me the leisure to write many articles complaining about the inconveniences of fatherhood." Nice lady. So dude, I want you to know that I totally sympathize with your discomfort at having your balls shaved by a nurse and your squeamishness over the cutting of the man-parts. But there is this tiny little voice in my head... Read More... Posted Jan 20 2008, 01:37 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Sex, gender, infertility, Slate, vasectomy, sperm, childbirth, labor and delivery, men and women

• Baby Exploitation and Election 2008

  It's parenting that borders on questionable. It's the kind of thing you do with your kid where you're just asking for trouble. It's shallow, it's risky, it's exploitation of your own flesh and blood. And I love it! A freelance writer and filmmaker from New Hampshire took his itty-bitty daughter all around the Granite State during the heyday of primary election campaigning. He had one goal in mind: getting baby Dahlia photographed with each of the presidential candidates (except Mike Gravel, who he says freaks him out. Understood.)  The result is a fantastic ... Read More... Posted Jan 09 2008, 04:28 PM by Madeline Holler with | with no comments Filed under: newborn, newborns, bad parenting, Slate, absurdity in politics, 2008 Campaign, activities with kids, kids and parents, newborn babies, babydaddy, exploitatioln of children, cameras, campaign, Bad Parent, baby-daddy, election, new hampshire, campaign trail, babies at work

• Political Nanny's Playground: Fox Pundit Starts Shoving Match

  An angry, antsy and entitled Bill O’Reilly caused a scene Saturday afternoon during a New Hampshire campaign rally when, attempting to speak face-to-face with Barack Obama, he shoved ... Read More... Posted Jan 07 2008, 03:31 PM by Madeline Holler with | with no comments Filed under: Slate, barack obama, manny, political nanny, new hampshire, campaign trail, conservative, primaries, pundits, liberal, Bill O'Reilly, rally, progressive, NYTimes

• Straight To IVF, Do Not Pass Go

  When I was trying my damndest to get knocked up and it wasn't happening, I got to go see the fertility specialist. I sat down and we reviewed my charts and my tests and my not-being-pregnant-ness, and he make murmuring sounds. Then he put down his pen and looked me straight in the eyes and said, "You may need to go straight to IVF." "Wha?" I stammered. "Well, when we don't know what's wrong, sometimes the easiest way is just to do IVF," he replied. Turns out he was just ahead of the curve.  Slate has a bit on how IVF is the surest and quickest way sometimes for the infertile to conceive. For a while it has been considered a last resort... Read More... Posted Nov 22 2007, 12:08 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: twins, IVF, infertility, Slate, Conception, multiples, insurance companies, physicians