I See What You Meme

Peggy Orenstein's latest book has been all the buzz these days.  In Cinderella Ate My Daughter , she waxes poetic about how the Princess Industrial Complex (apparently a term she coined) corrupted her daughter.  After two years caring for her daughter at home, she sends her to preschool.  Within a week, she learns the names of all the Disney Princesses from her peers.  Despite her best intentions, the outside world proceeds to fill her daughter's head with princess dreams. The waitress at the diner brings her princess pancakes .  The dentist has a princess chair .     Orenstein is frustrated by all of this emphasis on girly images.  Her argument is that fixation on presumed gender roles at such a young age creates an ongoing distorted view of beauty, feminism, and sexuality.  Ok, Peggy.  I hear your argument.  I get it.  On a certain level, I understand it and relate to it.  I was raised by a feminist.  I wasn't allowed to play with Barbie dolls (or at least have my own

5 Things I Learned This Week: #1. Artificial intelligence will soon take over the world, as evidenced by Watson the Champion Supercomputer on Jeopardy.  Apparently we should set our calendars for 2045.  This is the date humans become irrelevant, immortal, or both.  Not sure what the Mayan calendar has to say about this.  #2. Artificiality (in all its forms) seems to be where it's at. If you can't compete on a cerebral level, try a corporeal one. Case in point: Camille Grammar's new gig on CNN and The Kardashian-palooza that was (apparently) 2010.  Further proof that Joan Rivers has just been a woman ahead of her time.     #3. Two fascinating men descended upon the Capital of the Confederacy this weekend.  World renowned Picasso exhibit premiered at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Anderson Cooper spoke at the Richmond Forum.  I'm not sure about Cooper's taste in women but apparently Picasso dug the curvy chicks. Extra eyeballs and displaced nostrils we

An open letter to my husband in preparation for Valentines Day: As your socially conscious, politically correct, tree-hugging, liberal wife, I have some gift guidelines for this upcoming holiday that continually celebrates conspicuous consumption over sentiment. No jewelry.   Any kiss from me will not begin with Kay and if you  go to Jared I may kick you out of the house for at least a week.  I don't need the thought of aiding and abetting civil war in African countries through  conflict diamonds  on my conscience.    No cut flowers.   Not only will the flowers die within a week but the flower industry is rife with unfair labor practices.    Don't buy a card because it will only end up in a landfill after it clutters my already cluttered house for an undetermined period of time while I pretend to appreciate its sentimentality.     I used to think chocolate was the key to my heart but apparently it has become a pawn for civil war on the Ivory Coast.  Besides, my W

For those of you not aware, after my last blog I jumped on the proverbial bandwagon and joined Twitter .  For anyone interested, you can follow me at @seewhatyoumeme.  Apparently, Don Draper now follows me on Twitter.  That, my friends, is worth the price of admission.  So far, I'm diggin' the tweetin'.  The different news feed format takes some getting used to when you've been accustomed to Facebook but now I'm learning a whole new vocabulary.  Hashtags.  Retweets. Tiny urls.  Enough to make your head spin.  It's all a necessary step in my plot for world domination.  More about Twitter in a minute.  But first... ...speaking of Facebook, we watched The Social Network on Saturday night. I found the whole story incredibly compelling and the spitfire dialogue hearkened Aaron Sorkin faves The West Wing , Sports Night , and Studio 60 .  Yes, I know.  Studio 60 was cancelled after 1 season.  I still liked it.   Say what you will about his personal life but Sorkin

I heard an interesting story on NPR during my evening commute.  The reporter posits: "Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are helping people keep in touch with friends and family. But just how social are those networks? Are Internet communities simply "real-world" cliques moved online?" Quite honestly, I never pondered that Facebook was anything more than a digital clique.  Looking at my own cadre of friends on Facebook, I saw some interesting patterns.  I have 653 friends.  [Yes.  I know.  Those of you with more friends are thinking, "Oh how sad." and those of you with fewer friends are just jealous. It's all relative.]   For point of information, the average Facebook user has about 125 friends.  I appear to be ahead of the curve.  After my dear husband (453 mutual friends), the person with whom I share the most mutual friends  is a girl that went to my high school. We have 53 mutual friends. Interestingly, we were not the best of fri

So I've had a bit of writer's block this week.  I've started two or three blog posts and moved them (possibly forever) to draft status. I'm feeling uninspired.  Maybe you can help me.  If you want to throw out a topic, I'll research it, talk it out, give you my point of view.  We can discuss. I don't want to leave you hanging so I thought I would take a cue from one of my favorite Internet pastimes*: Funny Graphs   If you Google this term and look at the images, you will have hours (and I do mean HOURS) of fun at your fingertips.  I mean, these are very important pieces of information.  Every high school math and science student should be able to quantify.... What Sir Mix-A-Lot likes:   Who loves Mrs. Robinson: Or the likely composition of rain: To that end, I thought it might interest you to view a few graphs that document my life.  All data is represented accurately.  I'm sure of it.  Really.  Do you doubt me? Graph #1: A typical day for