It’s Friday. Time to clear out the bookmarks, and make some news chum stew for your holiday party. Don’t drink too much eggnog.
- From the “Survey Says” Department: Expect to see this one on Wait, Wait: a study has shown that wearing ugly underwear can ruin your day, at least for women. Specifically, the study shows: 27% of women say their mood is affected by wearing an ill-fitting or unattractive pair of undies; 10% of women own 35 or more pairs; 65% buy neural colors, with white being the most popular, followed by black and beige; 46% of women say briefs are the style they wear the most often. But women age 18-34 are more likely to wear the bikini style; 56% of women fold their panties; 27% just toss them in the drawer; 1 in 10 women admit that they will venture out of the house without underwear; Half of women have complaints about the way their underwear fit, with “wedgies” (30%) topping that list, followed by “doesn’t lay flat under clothes” (19%) and “not enough coverage in the rear” (14%). There. Now don’t you feel more informed.
- From the “Go To Sleep” Department: Another recent study has shown that people who get a good night’s sleep are more attractive. Specifically, the study showed that sleep-deprived people appear less healthy, less attractive and more tired compared with when they are well rested. Again, Wait Wait fodder.
- From the “A Weighty Matter” Department: One thing that is probably keeping teens up at night, especially those in AP Chemistry, is the change in the atomic weight of 10 elements. The elements with weight changes are boron, hydrogen, lithium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, sulfur, chlorine and thallium. Several other elements may change soon, including helium, nickel, copper, zinc, selenium, strontium, argon and lead.
- From the “Sleepless Nights” Department: Also keeping kids (and camp and band directors) up is the change in schedule for LA Unified, which is moving to a new schedule, starting classes in mid-August. Van Nuys did this last year. It is a big deal: not only does it put students in classes during the hottest days of summer, it has major impact on kid’s summer activities, such as dates for summer camps and marching band competitions. Those may now need to shift, and will then bump into availability issues for staff on the June end.
- From the “Smaller Spaces” Department: Of course, those not in school may be sleeping less as well, because their cubicles are shrinking. I’m very happy I work where I do: engineers get real offices with real doors. As they said in Datamation a long time ago: O is for office. My office has a wooden door, or else I’d work a whole lot more.
And on that note, I think I need to open my door and get back to lunch.
