Category: People & Human Interest

1. HER DIARY

Tonight I thought he was acting weird.

We had made plans to meet at a bar to have a drink. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment. Conversation wasn’t flowing so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed but he kept quiet and absent. I asked him what was wrong; he said nothing. I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had nothing to do with me and not to worry.

On the way home I told him that I loved him, he simply smiled and kept driving. I can’t explain his behavior. I don’t know why he didn’t say I love you too. When we got home I felt as if I had lost him, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there and watched T.V. He seemed distant and absent.

Finally, I decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later he came to bed, and to my surprise he responded to my caress and we made love, but I still felt that he was distracted and his thoughts were somewhere else.

He fell asleep – I cried. I don’t know what to do. I’m almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.

2. HIS DIARY

I shot the worst round of golf in my life today, but at least I got laid.

Found at Andrew Tobias – Money and Other Subjects in 2006.

Once upon a time NewMexiKen was driving across Wyoming. Just about dead center of the state we pulled into a store-bar-gas station for fuel. When I went in to pay (not all rural service stations take credit cards at the pump), a couple of cowboys were in the store talking to each other and the guy working there. The cowboys looked the type — hat, boots, jeans, slender.

“Did ya’ get your elk?” one asked the other.

“Nah, did you?”

“Yeah. What you been doin’?”

“Runnin’ cattle for McCormick.”

And so the conversation went as I paid for the gas and left. And I thought to myself, there’s 100 million guys and gals working in cubicles who surely fantasize from time-to-time about being a cowboy or elk hunting in Wyoming, but I bet there isn’t one cowboy who ever wanted to work in a cubicle.

And so, with that thought, and even though I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad didn’t want their babies to grow up to be cowboys — or cowgirls — I give you my sister Debby’s report on her day Friday.

---

Yesterday I got to experience what it’s really like doing ranch work in northwestern Nebraska.  I was asked to help on a cattle drive, so I took a personal day from rounding up 7th and 8th grade boys at recess to go out and round up about 180 head of black angus cattle.
 
It was February 8, and the morning was in the low 20’s with frigid winds approaching 20 mph.  In other words, BRRRRRRRRRRR!!  We saddled up the horses and drove them to the ranch where we were to round up the herd.  We left the horses in a corral there, moved the truck and trailer to the ranch where we would eventually end up, then drove another vehicle back to the starting point where we mounted up and started to move ’em out.

Continue reading The adventures of Cowgirl Deb

A fascinating look at neighborhood dynamics, teenage angst and MySpace —
Behind the online hoax that led to a girl’s suicide.

What’s the saddest comic you’ve ever read?

Link via The Edge of the American West.

“LOS OJOS— Felipe Piña has the same doublewide, the same girlfriend and the same job, even though he now has millions of dollars in the bank after winning the $29.5 million Powerball jackpot in May.”

The Albuquerque Journal ($)

It appears that with the announcement that Britney Spears’s 16-year-old sister Lynne is pregnant their mom’s parenting book has been shelved. (People.com)

Many NewMexiKen readers are, of course, Functional Ambivalent readers. But, if not, click that link and read what Tom has posted today.

Long-time NewMexiKen reader Annette has written an exceptionally fine piece for the blog Feeling Listless.

I urge you to read it.

Man #1: What is going on here?

Man #2: They are filming the new Sex in the City movie with Sarah Jessica Parker. They have the entrance to the subway blocked off.

Man #1: Wonderful. I wouldn’t even know what Sarah Jessica Parker looks like.

Woman nearby: Hi. I’m Sarah Jessica Parker.

Man #1: Nice to meet you. Can I go home now?

Sarah Jessica Parker: Sure, go ahead.

–Outside 6 train entrance

Overheard in New York

NewMexiKen reader Bob sent along the following:

Since you covered IQ testing yesterday here is a Newsweek article regarding how poorly standard IQ tests reflect an autistic child’s intelligence.

Comments by a mom with an autistic child to this article:

Basically, it says that scientists have found that standard IQ tests consistently show autistic children as being of low intelligence, but that if a different form of test is used which relies on pattern determination rather than verbal responses, the test results go up into the normal or high range. There’s no such difference between the two tests for neurotypical kids, but for the autistic kids it’s tremendous – something like 60 points in some instances. The author goes on to wonder how many autistic kids have been written off due to failure to detect “blazing intelligence”.

Also relevant is Isaac Asimov’s essay on IQ tests.

I didn’t write And Now An Anachronistic Word From An Old, Crotchety Guy, but I might have.

Though I like the new look at Duke City Fix.

William Saletan challenges the politically correct conventional wisdom. I recommend you go read the entire thing (the first in a series), but here are a couple of his most provocative statements.

Among white Americans, the average IQ is 103. Among Asian-Americans, it’s 106. Among Jewish Americans, it’s 113. Among Latino Americans, it’s 89. Among African-Americans, it’s 85. Around the world, studies find the same general pattern: whites 100, East Asians 106, sub-Sarahan Africans 70. One IQ table shows 113 in Hong Kong, 110 in Japan, 100 in Britain, and 67 in South Africa. White populations in Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States score closer to each other than to the worldwide black average. It’s been that way for at least a century.

Remember, these are averages, and all groups overlap. You can’t deduce an individual’s intelligence from her ethnicity.

In fact, there’s a mountain of evidence that differential evolution has left each population with a balance of traits that could be advantageous or disadvantageous, depending on circumstances. The list of differences is long and intricate. On average, compared to whites, blacks mature more quickly in the womb, are born earlier, and develop teeth, strength, and dexterity earlier. They sit, crawl, walk, and dress themselves earlier. They reach sexual maturity faster, and they have better eyesight. On each of these measures, East Asians lag whites and blacks. In exchange, East Asians get longer lives and bigger brains.

Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s husband, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, has found a new romance, and his happiness is a relief to his wife, an Arizona TV report reveals.

The report, which quoted the couple’s oldest son, Scott O’Connor, focused on Alzheimer’s patients who forget their spouses and fall in love with someone else. Experts say the scenario is somewhat common.

USATODAY.com

Straight out of that wonderful movie, Away from Her.

Guy #1: I haven’t seen you in a while. What have you been up to?

Guy #2: Well, I’m in the process of switching web hosts, and it’s going to be saving me a few bucks a month. I just need to decide what Linux distribution to use. What about you?

Guy #1: I got married and we had a baby.

Guy #2: That’s cool.

–Office, Midtown

Overheard in New York

Veronica, official daughter-in-law of NewMexiKen, reports:

We took Sofie to see the national tour of Go Diego Go Live! at the Paramount Theater in Oakland. We had great seats, and the theater is gorgeous. Surprisingly, the show was pretty lame and rough around the edges.

First problem, Diego, the star, looked to be about 40 years old. Seriously. The guy was balding, which is fine if you’re a 40 year old guy, but not fine if you are supposed to be portraying A CHILD. Then, there were all the missed sound/lighting cues, which left the actors, after recognizing that whatever was supposed to happen didn’t, saying things like: “Let’s try that again” or “Ok, kids, how about trying that one more time.” Diego and Dora even got stuck in the boat during their river rafting scene — it was not intentional. And then, there was the guy who played “Click, the Camera.” He was wearing a big, boxy camera costume and all you could see was his face, which looked unbelievably miserable. He delivered his lines (“Say Click, Take a Pic”) with about as much enthusiasm as the guy at the checkout line who asks you if you want paper or plastic.

So, as I sat there, and watched the show and picked it apart, I looked over at Sofie. She who was sitting on her daddy’s lap, smiling ear to ear, singing along and bouncing to the beat. That made me really happy. She didn’t even notice all of the stuff that bothered me. And then I thought about how, when you’re Sofie’s age, the dancing camera really is just a dancing camera. All of that “suspension of disbelief” stuff we do to get by as adults, when you’re really young, you just don’t even go there. Pretty soon, though, she’ll see through the dancing camera costume to the guy wearing the costume. And by the time she’s my age, she’ll also start thinking about his whole life (did he study musical theater in school? did he audition for Diego but not get the part? does he secretly hate Diego? does he have a day job? is this his day job? does he perform on cruise ships?), and basically, wondering how is it that he got to the point where he is playing the part of a dancing camera in Go Diego Go. Made me realize that I just need to take a page from my four-year-old’s book: sit back and chill out.

The mamba-dancing coconut trees, however, were pretty awesome.

And why is she with Michael Douglas’s father?

1. Bill Gates or Steve Jobs
2. David Letterman or Jay Leno
3. Lt. Van Buren or Jack McCoy
4. Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio
5. George Washington or Abraham Lincoln
6. Cary Grant or Clark Gable
7. John McCain or Hillary Clinton
8. Elvis Presley or Bob Dylan
9. Ernest Hemingway or John Steinbeck
10. Katharine Hepburn or Meryl Streep
11. Adam or Noah
12. Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan

Got any other pairs?

Reposted from 2005.

Surely you’ve all seen this, but if not —

Deal or no deal? An online exchange between a woman looking for a husband who earns more than $500,000 a year and a mystery Wall Street banker, who assessed her potential for romance as a business deal, has cause quite an Internet stir.

The anonymous 25-year-old woman recently posted an ad on the free online New York community Web site Craigslist, http://newyork.craigslist.org/, appealing for advice on how to find a wealthy husband.

“I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don’t think I’m overreaching at all,” the woman, who described herself as “spectacularly beautiful” and “superficial,” wrote.

Get the rest of the story and the banker’s assessment at Yahoo! News. It ain’t pretty.

Update: Andrew Tobias has the whole thing. Scroll down to Dating Tips.

Annette takes a longer look at a topic NewMexiKen introduced last week — Why Are Women So Unhappy? — and the result is an interesting essay as Annette wonders whether Happy is a Yuppie Word.

I’d much rather be liberated than happy. I’d rather have what I have now, even if it means gi-normous amounts of anxiety, than go back to a time where women had fewer options in life. I guess what I’m saying is, happiness is overrated.

Go read what else Annette has to say.

“Happiness among American men and women reaches its estimated minimum at approximately ages 49 and 45 respectively.”

National Bureau of Economic Research

Link via Paul Krugman.

Standing behind a woman in a checkout line this afternoon, I notice as she punches a speed dial number on her cell phone, then tells the person who answers, “She’s in surgery. Say lots of prayers. Say lots of prayers.”

NewMexiKen isn’t big on the prayer thing, but I feel some empathy for the woman’s anxiety and, to myself, wish well to both the woman and the patient she is so obviously concerned about.

The line moves up.

“How are you?” the cashier asks.

“Fine,” says the woman. “Well, except my dog is having surgery.”

NewMexiKen realizes how people feel about their dogs and their gods. But isn’t praying — that is, soliciting God’s favor — loathsomely self-centered when it’s your pet?