Tuesday, June 24, 2008

What my Desk (Possibly) Says about Me.

by Teresa

An author named Sam Gosling has written a book about his tricks for “snooping” and figuring out things about someone’s personality, by looking at their stuff.
He looks at objects left out on desks and countertops… checks out preset radio stations… examines the contents of medicine cabinets or dresser drawers… and analyzes photos and artwork that’s framed on walls.  From those clues, he says, he can determine details about people including their gender, approximate age, and personalilty type.
(His book’s title: “Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.“)  It might all sound a bit like carnival fortune-telling, but Gosling is an associate professor who says he bases his ideas on the basic principles of psychology.

Well, I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure a few things about me are fairly obvious to anyone who walks by my desk. 
There are photos of children (my son and daughter and niece) in frames, and lots of children’s artwork taped up beside my desk.  It shouldn’t escape anyone’s notice that I’m a mom. 
There are also photos of two coworkers who’ve passed away in recent years (I still miss them). 
Sometimes there’s a framed photo of me with Tom Brokaw (because he is the World’s Greatest Journalist Ever). 
And while my desk overall is wiped quite CLEAN (shared desk + germ phobia = I’m always using Clorox wipes); it’s not too cluttered and not too neat.  Since Gosling says messiness can indicate that someone’s extroverted, and neatness can mean someone’s introverted, I guess the appearance of my desk would suggest I fall somewhere in the middle. 

But, I’m oversimplifying his criteria.  If you’re interested in an entertaining little diversion, check out these pages I’ve found on the internet about Gosling and his ideas.
Click here to get to the NPR page where you can read an excerpt, and hear an interview with the author.  Callers describe their stuff over the phone and he tries to determine what sort of people they are.
Or, click here to read a brief Newsweek article about the book.
And for a profile of Gosling in the Winston-Salem Journal, click here .

Feeling Neighborly?

by Teresa

An Op-Ed piece in the New York Times this week talks about the concept of neighborhoods.  The author writes about what he did when he realized that he hardly knew many of his neighbors.  He went around knocking on doors and—get this—he asked some of them to have sleepovers.
Peter Lovenheim writes: “What would it take, I wondered, to penetrate the barriers between us? I thought about childhood sleepovers and the insight I used to get from waking up inside a friend’s home. Would my neighbors let me sleep over and write about their lives from inside their own houses?“ 
Click here to read the article in the NYT and find out about his experience.

I remember my family knowing virtually everyone, in every house, in my neighborhood growing up.  Of course, that was in a small town in the Midwest… not a city in the Northeast.  It was a much different place, and a much different time. In fact, many of us didn’t even knock on doors (which weren’t ever locked).  Smaller kids came over to our yard to swing on our swingset all the time.  My brother and I rode bikes with the other kids and played outside from morning ‘til night.  At trick-or-treating time, all the grown-ups knew all the children’s names. 

Things aren’t quite the same, of course, in the neighborhood where I live now.  My husband and I have lived there for several years and I’ll have to admit, we still don’t know the first names of everyone on our block.  This is partly because, well, it’s just the way things ARE, these days, I think.  And it’s partly because we both work full time, and we had two babies, so we’ve been quite busy for the past few years!

But luckily, we are good friends with our neighbors on both sides.  One family has a baby daughter who’s going to be a great playmate for my kids when she gets a little older.  The neighbor on the other side has a granddaughter who often stays with her, and she’s a great kid—my children have been playing with her for a couple of years now.  There’s even a dog at each house on either side of us—which has helped our kids learn how to behave around dogs. 
My kids’ school principal lives in our neighborhood too!  They get so excited if they see her outside, and her house was by FAR their favorite stop on trick-or-treating night.
We know some of the other neighbors well enough to stop and chat, but the neighbors on either side are really special.  We’ve shared big events with them (birthday parties, cookouts, baby showers, etc.); they’re great people, and we just enjoy having them around. 

All in all, it may not be the ideal “neighborhood” feeling of my childhood, but I feel pretty happy—and lucky—to have ended up with people we really like, so near to us.  I know many people aren’t as lucky. 
How about you?  Do you know your neighbors?  Are you friends?  Do you get along?

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Food (Allergies) for Thought

by Teresa

I can’t imagine what it must be like, to be a parent whose child has a potentially life-threatening food allergy.
One child in my daughter’s preschool class this year has a peanut allergy, and it made me nervous when I brought in food for the class… even if it the treats had been pre-approved. 
It’s just terrifying to think that one tiny bite of the wrong treat could send a child to the hospital, or worse.
I know there are parents out there who find it annoying that they can’t pack peanut butter sandwiches in their kid’s lunch because of a another child’s food allergy. 
There was a piece in Newsweek this week that expresses what it’s like to be a parent whose child faces danger, from food, every single day of his life. It’s well-written, seems very heartfelt, and I think reading it might help some parents feel a little more sympathetic, and a little less upset, when they can’t send their kids to school with Reese’s peanut butter cups.  Click here to read it.

Children’s Place Pajama Recall

by Teresa

We report quite a few recalls on NBC 10, and I don’t post all of them here, because it’s generally infomation that’s easy for interested parents to find with a quick “Google” search—and our web staff posts a ton of them on turnto10.com, as well.
But there’s one in particular that I want to mention today because I think the item was an especially popular purchase in our area: a pajama set from Children’s Place.  The recall was issued because the screen printing on the top has lead in it! 
Not one but TWO moms here at Channel 10 had to run home and pull these p.j.‘s out of their dresser drawers, to take them back to the store for a full refund (one of them was Kelly!). 
Click here to see the page with all of the information from the CPSC.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Toys from your Childhood: New and Improved?

by Teresa

We all know, as parents, that we’re not supposed to try to force our own interests onto our children.

I will readily admit, however, that I did start giving My Little Pony toys to my daughter, when she was pretty little.
You know, just in case she happened to like them, as I did, when I was younger.
I will even admit, sheepishly, that I went on eBay and bought her a vintage one… an orange pony called “Applejack,“ the same one I had when I was about 10 years old (with shipping, it cost at least twice what it would’ve cost to just buy a modern one in the toy store.  Yes, I paid extra to buy a piece of molded plastic with nylon hair… that was about 25 years old.  It’s the orange one on the left in the photo above.)

Apparently, in a tough economy, toy companies are banking on the fact that other parents are like me… that they’ll want to buy toys for their kids, that remind them, fondly, of the past.  But they are revamping the brands.  Click here to read an article in the New York times about the way Strawberry Shortcake characters, and others, are being updated for today’s kids.  Apparently some toy makers think familiar lines are a safer bet than new toys, in these economic times.

Incidentally, as it turns out, my daughter loves My Little Pony toys. 
But she prefers the new Ponyville line (the tiny ones in front, in the photo). 

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Reports of Oral Sex Epidemic May Have Been Greatly Exaggerated?

by Teresa

Here’s something for parents of teenagers to consider.

Newsweek is reporting on a new study that contradicts the idea that there’s an “epidemic” of teenagers having oral sex. 
The idea was brought into the spotlight, in part, by features on TV talk shows.  The theory was that many teens are deciding to have oral sex instead of intercourse, and that they are doing so with multiple partners, in a more casual way.  The new study contradicts all of those assumptions.

To read the whole article, and an interview with one of the authors of the study, click here and here.