Art

Stuff I’ve Read Lately

The Broom of the System
David Foster Wallace
I read this for my book group, so I’m not going say much about it before we meet to talk about it, because the first rule of book group is “don’t talk about the book before book group.” But as far as David Foster Wallace goes, I wasn’t all that impressed.

The Sticklepath Strangler (Medieval West Country Mystery)
by Michael Jecks
I picked up this paperback mystery based on the cover, which was really kind of fun and looked somewhat like the Bayeux Tapestry. I learned my lesson about not judging a book by the cover, because the book itself wasn’t great. It’s a murder mystery set in a medieval village, and while the idea of that is interesting, the plot dragged on too long and the murders were pretty gruesomely described, which I think might have contributed to some of my nightmares after surgery. Not the best book to read in the hospital.

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
by Paul Jordan
I remember reading about the Seven Wonders when I was a kid, so I ordered this book recently to learn more about them. I didn’t realize that it was the Greeks that determined which architectural feats were classified as “the seven wonders” and that their choices were based on their limited knowledge; other great architectural and artistic achievements (like the great wall of china) would probably have made the cut had the Greeks known about them. The book covers each “wonder” and what we know about it today, including recent archeological excavations of some of the sites.

Misfortune
by Wesley Stace
A pleasant historical fiction novel about a boy who is rescued as a baby from a trash heap by a rich lord, and who is raised as the lord’s next heir — as a girl. An odd, charming novel that was a nice light read.

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Veronica Mars

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Just finished watching the season finale of Veronica Mars — and I have to admit I didn’t piece the whole thing together before the end, although all the elements were there and I should have figured it out. I did predict that Aaron Echolls was the one who had the cameras in the boat house, but I didn’t manage to put that together with Lilly. I’m bothered that they didn’t wrap up what happened with Weevil and Logan’s confrontation. And I predict that it’s Wallace that showed up at her door at the end.
I love the way they treat story arcs in this show — they write them in the same way Joss Whedon did in Buffy. They have stories arcs that last for a single episode, stories that span several episodes, and stories that stretch over the entire season, all of which mesh together well with the shorter arcs advancing the larger ones. It’s a formula that two of my other favorite shows, Lost and Desperate Housewives also use, and when the writing is good it keeps me riveted to the show. I wish more shows were written this way.

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Bash a Fag For Jesus

Shoot, yesterday was the National Day of Silence, and I missed blogging about it. This is a project where high school students, to protest the harrassment and bullying that gay and lesbian teenagers experience at school every day, choose to go through their day without speaking. Started in 1998, it’s swelled into a nationally recognized event.
Now, though, anti-gay Christian Terrorists are targeting the day by calling the day “Bash a Fag For Jesus” (oh, wait, I guess they’re really calling it a “Day of Truth” but my title is more accurate) where they target kids who are participating in the day by wearing T-shirts and handing out gay-bashing flyers.

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More about our shallow culture

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Wow.

A researcher at the University of Alberta has shown that parents are more likely to give better care and pay closer attention to good-looking children compared to unattractive ones. Dr. Andrew Harrell presented his findings recently at the Warren E. Kalbach Population Conference in Edmonton, Alberta.
Harrell’s findings are based on an observational study of children and shopping cart safety. With the approval of management at 14 different supermarkets, Harrell’s team of researchers observed parents and their two to five-year-old children for 10 minutes each, noting if the child was buckled into the grocery-cart seat, and how often the child wandered more than 10 feet away. The researchers independently graded each child on a scale of one to 10 on attractiveness.

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Our Shallow Culture

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A study on how appearance affects pays scale:

A study by economists Daniel Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle uses survey data to examine the impact that appearance has on a person’s earnings. In each survey, the interviewer who asked the questions also rated the respondents’ physical appearance. Respondents were classified into one of the following groups: below average, average and above average.
Hamermesh and Biddle found that the “plainness penalty” is 9 percent and that the “beauty premium” is 5 percent after controlling for other variables, such as education and experience. In other words, a person with below-average looks tended to earn 9 percent less per hour, and an above-average person tended to earn 5 percent more per hour than an average-looking person. For the median male in 1996 working full-time, the respective penalty and premium amounted to approximately $2,600 and $1,400 annually. The corresponding penalty and premium for the median female worker are $2,000 and $1,100.
Economists Susan Averett and Sanders Korenman studied the effects of obesity on wages, using a sample consisting of individuals aged 16-24 in 1981 who were 23-31 in 1988. They showed that women who were obese according to their Body Mass Index (BMI) in both 1981 and 1988 earned 17 percent lower wages on average than women within their recommended BMI range… When comparing by race, the authors found a wage penalty for obesity among white women but no significant penalty for black women. Among white men, they found a much lower wage penalty for obesity than for their white female counterparts. A small positive relationship was actually found between obese black men and wages.

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