Some observations from today’s lunchtime reading of the papers:
- From the “Oh, It’s In” Department: The NY Times has an interesting article about how the fashion markets are increasingly addressing larger young women’s fashion needs, including new large-size lines at Topshop, Target, Forever 21, and other retailers. The article notes, however, that there is a backlash against fashionable and good-looking large-size clothes from those who think that America is too fat. Evidently, by only supplying larger women with ugly clothes, they will see the light and lose weight. Right. In other fashion news, the LA Times has an article about how to dress, and how not to dress, for a job interview. It seems that dressing for interviews is a skill that somehow never seems to be taught. This is clearly evident in Brooksville FL, where they’ve had to issue rules to employees to wear deodorant and underwear.
- From the “They’re Just Like Us” Department: The SJ Mercury News (registration probably required) has an interesting article on a census study of gay couples vs. hetero. couples. Guess what? They are almost identical. These couples are about 50 years old on average, and about four in 10 have kids living at home. The average couple pulls down a little over $90,000 a year and four in five own their home.
- From the “That Smells Delicious” Department: The NY Times has an interesting article on a new approach to dieting: aromatherapy pens that signal the satiety center of the brain. Of course, you could always just take Zicam and remove your sense of smell. But that has other risks.
- From the “What’s in a Name?” Department: C’mon. You knew it would happen. People have started squatting on Facebook names. Part of the problem is that companies can only grab names for their fan pages when they have 1,000 fans… and can only grab one name for the page. This seems to happen with any service that gives unique names. Look at how many people grabbed accounts at Dreamwidth when it went full beta, just to grab their names. Will we never learn from history? This is one reason why both the Internet and Usenet has multi-level name spaces, not a single flat one.
