The Father - Daughter Relationship

Via FiveThirtyEight: Having Daughters Rather Than Sons Makes You More Liberal

The authors' key finding is that support for policies designed to address gender equity is greater among parents with daughters. This result emerges particularly strongly for fathers.

Are You A Good Wife?

I gave Megan a pre-dating quiz that she barely passed but this is a real gem via BoingBoing- 1939 Marital Rating Scale For Wives

News Quake - This Time The Settling Woman

Last year sushi was in the hipster news, now it is the single woman and marriage. It appears to have started with Lori Gottlieb's 'Marry Him!' in the March, 2008 Atlantic.

Then it got on NPR's All Things Considered, Slate.com had a story about the evolutionary advantage for women who cheat, and The Claremont Institure posted A review of Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age, by Kay S. Hymowitz and The Future of Marriage, by David Blankenhorn.

And while women may like to settle for a guy who doesn't do everything for them what they may not realize about guys is as ALL's song 'Net' says, "the truth is that I feel better being miserable without than happy with someone else", so ladies, you have to watch out for that.

I have a long-held belief that many college seniors marry each other out of fear of being alone in the world post-college.

I also think that relationships are like stoves and you need to decide if you want to cook with electricity or gas? An electric cook-top is a practical partner but it heats unevenly and slowly; it doesn't get hot enough for some techniques; and when the electricity is out after a storm you can't cook. On the other hand there are many ways to generate electricity and it is a renewable resource. But there's always a flame with a natural gas range; it gets hot enough and is versatile enough for any kind of cooking; and even when the electricity is out there's still a spark. But it is also easy to burn yourself, you have to watch for flare-ups, and eventually natural gas will be depleted.

A dual-fuel model would be ideal for a lot of people.

Can You Be An Environmentalist And A Divorcee?

You always hear about you can't be an environmentalist unless you're a boring vegetarian. Add this to the list - at National Geographic -
Divorce Is Hard on Environment, Study Says

"A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household," said Jianguo Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University whose analysis of the environmental impact of divorce appears in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

2007 - The Scariest Halloween Yet

Or the end of suburbia as some call it.

America's Big, Fat Housing Inventory: The supply of homes for sale is at a nine-year high, and housing inventories across the U.S. are swelling dangerously

Next Stop: $100 Oil?
Some analysts say record highs are only the beginning. Traders betting on rising global demand could push prices up further

Oil prices jump after inventories fall (right now oil is $93.38/barrel)

The scenario is simple and is happening now. Crude oil production has topped out at 85 million barrels of oil per day while demand growth continues -> Gasoline prices continue to rise -> American consumers get squeezed by paying for their commute to work -> At some point commuting becomes too expensive so families look to move closer to their employer -> There's already a housing glut so these houses don't sell while families who can afford it move into the cities creating an urban housing crisis as there will be more demand than supply -> Businesses go out of business due to energy costs -> America's farmers and urban dwellers get by but suburbanites become isolated without jobs and unable to sell their homes. Sad...

This may be the beginning of The Mega-Nubble. Marketwatch - Global megabubble?

And I'm not the only person thinking about all the scary things today.

This Chart Will Scare You
...let me show you a chart that will really scare the bejeezus out of you …

Eleanor At The Dinner Table

Eleanor And Her Pictures

In glorious QuickTime:
http://web.mac.com/neebish/iWeb/Eleanor/EleanorPointingToAtlasAndLauryn.MOV

Eleanor In The Bath

Flash is a lowest common denominator video file format. Use QuickTime or iTunes to download/view high quality versions of these videos here:

http://web.mac.com/neebish/iWeb/Eleanor/EleanorSayingByToBath.MOV
http://web.mac.com/neebish/iWeb/Eleanor/EleanorSingingTheDuckSong.mov

Family Updates

The whole family is featured at MLUI.org - Young People Speak Up for Granny Flats

And Eleanor currently has her picture on the front page of the Michigan Land Use Institute as a link to the above story.



Megan received a nice send-off from Jim Lively - Good Regional Planners Are Hard to Find

And Brandon got the "Hooray For Everything" award - G&F recognizes Brandon Scurlock with 'Peer Recognition Award'