The 80s Were Awesome, Remember?

When I was a kid, I had such a crush on Billy Idol. But I never understood quite what this song was about. Now, thanks to 'Literal Video Version' on FunnyorDie.com, I get it.

White Wedding: Literal Video Version - watch more funny videos

Speaking of Congress...

Obviously, it's weird that our Senators and Representatives were tweeting during Obama's address. I wouldn't try texting during a work meeting, let alone a televised speech by the President. But whatev.

My question is why were so few people following Earl Blumenauer, Democratic Rep from Oregon? He's so cool. He has a bow tie! And a bike pin! What's not to love?

Obama in the Air

Is it just me, or was there a whiff of hope in the air today? I was taking a walk, right around 4pm... It was a little warm outside, there was a slight breeze, I was thinking about the speech to Congress last night. It felt a little like Spring. And then I thought, "Maybe everything WILL be just fine."

Looks like I have company, although some couldn't disagree more.

Working Girls

Item 1: Josh Patner of Slate.com describes this latest Fashion Week as "heroic" and "fierce". Lots of big, 80's-style shoulderpads, trench coats, figure-hiding geometric shapes.

Item 2: With the most recent round of layoffs, women are about to outnumber men in the workplace for the first time. Ever.

Let's be glad those shoulders are broad, because they're supporting a lot of families right now.

OMG, Is She 4 Real?

Because I love her. I saw this video almost a year ago, but just randomly found it again. When life gets rough (um, today?), repeat after me: Whatevah.

Bristol Palin on FOX

Bristol Palin is not the most articulate teenager I've seen, but she seems like a pretty sweet girl doing her best. In this Greta Van Susteren interview (video), Bristol, now 18 and engaged, says she'd like to be an advocate for preventing teen pregnancy.

Much has been made of the seemingly memorized remarks about concentrating on her education, about her boyfriend Levi, and especially about her admitting that abstinence is not realistic -- but really, we already knew all that stuff. The interesting part, I think, is this sentiment:

"I think everyone should just wait ten years."

She must have said it six times in the interview, looking rather rueful. If we can make any good of this whole Palin mess, can we just send Bristol from school to school teaching kids to put off the babymaking?

Facebook How-To

I'm really late to the Facebook game (I just joined a few weeks ago. I know, I know, I'm a dinosaur.) But my biggest worry was how to keep my home/work/high school lives separate. Frankly, I don't want old photos from prom visible to my coworkers.

So file this article under things-I-meant-to-figure-out-but-hadn't-yet-so-thank-you-so-much-for-spelling-it-out-for-me.

How to Friend Mom, Dad and the Boss on Facebook -- Safely.
Thanks, New York Times.

Ginger Baby

My daughter's a redhead, so I'm obsessed. How awesome is this sweet girl?
Thanks to UK's Mail Online, which has lots of photos of other unusually-follicled children.

Look! Over There!

Childhood studies always need to be taken with a grain of salt, but this one seems pretty common sense. University of Chicago researchers determined that parents who gesture more have children with bigger vocabularies. As a parent of a 17-month-old toddler, I can attest that figuring out how to communicate with a non-speaker involves hand gestures, exaggeraged facial expressions, even mime and commedia dell'arte. Thank god for my clown training. It's rewarding when you can both agree that "splash splash" involves waving your arms up and down in front of you and refers to any body of water.

That reminds me of a scene on the subway the other day. A Chinese-speaking woman was sitting with her daughter, the same age as mine, on her lap. The little girl pointed suddenly and exclaimed, "Bow! Bow!" I looked to where the girl was pointing, but couldn't figure out what she meant. I figured it must be Chinese. The mother looked around, confused, then looked her daughter in the face. "Bao?" "Boo?"

Oh well. We try.

A Little Friday Fun

I love this guy.

This Breaks My Heart

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Hat tip to this woman's work.

Doing Our Part For the Economy

I loved Chuck Todd's question to President Obama in the February 9 press conference:
"...if your plan works the way you want it to work, it's going to increase consumer spending. But isn't consumer spending or overspending how we got into this mess? And if people get money back into their pockets, do you not want them saving it or paying down debt first before they start spending money into the economy?"

Thank you, Chuck! I've been trying to figure this one out, too.

I don't carry any credit card debt anymore, but it was a pretty herculean task to get rid of it, and I know most Americans carry thousands of dollars of debt on multiple cards. We've also been hearing that personal savings have just picked up after being nearly nonexistent for years. So why would we go spend more money instead of paying down our debt? Don't we need some breathing room to weather a layoff or an illness?

David Leonhardt at the New York Times finally answers these questions in a way that makes sense to me: investment spending. And now that I think of it, I AM doing my part -- I'm buying a house. So if I get a $15,000 tax credit, I'll put some toward debt, some toward savings, and some toward buying an energy-efficient fridge.

But I'm still going to cross my fingers I don't get laid off.

Keep 'Em Home? Nah.

No need to feel guilty. Even doctors take their sick kids to daycare.

Andrew Wakefield Should Be Tried

Remember Doctor Andrew Wakefield, who made the controversial connection between autism and vaccines? The Sunday Times has now reported that he manipulated his data.

As the article describes, these bogus results have led to a ten-year decrease in vaccinated children in the UK. Personally, my pediatrician warned me that my Brooklyn neighborhood no longer enjoys herd immunity, because so many parents are opting out. Since no vaccination is 100% effective, my daughter could get measles if we had an outbreak.

From the Sunday Times: "Last week official figures showed that 1,348 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales were reported last year, compared with 56 in 1998. Two children have died of the disease." Those deaths should be directly attributed to Wakefield, who is defending himself from the allegations.

I hope we can end the vaccination debate once and for all and find the true causes of autism. In the meantime, parents -- please -- vaccinate your kids.

Thank you to JeanneSager at Babble.com for her post.

The Youngest Interviewer

Talk about work/life balance! Mika Brzezinski interviewed Virginia Senator Jim Webb about the stimulus package with a baby on her lap.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

My first thought was "Mika had a problem with her childcare today??" But it eventually becomes clear that the baby belongs to Executive Producer Chris Licht. I have to admit, although I'm very interested in what made it and what was cut from the stimulus package, I couldn't take my eyes off the baby.

I wish I could advocate for bringing kids to work, but I'd never get anything done!

Living on Half a Million

Can we all just agree that $500,000 is enough to live on? Even in spendy spendy New York City? Not to be bitter, but I'm not getting a bonus this year, because the company I work for didn't hit its numbers (even though my department did quite well.) And we're not getting merit raises, either. Oh, and there will be layoffs.

My friends are scared they'll lose their jobs. My local storeowners are scared they'll lose their businesses. And some probably will.

So enough with the excuses and justifications. If I'm in agreement with Donald Trump, this debate is over.