People + Coupons = Groupon!

High on everyone's list these days is saving money, so the fact that one of my favorite email lists exists is probably not surprising, but still fantastic: the Groupon.

What in the world, you might ask, is a Groupon? Shortest explanation: a group coupon!

It was started in Chicago in November 2008, and has since spread to Boston, New York, Washington, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with groups launching soon in Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, Dallas, Denver and Houston. Basically, Groupon collects email addresses of people in a metro area where they'd like to get a group going, then once they hit whatever their magic number is, they start soliciting merchants.

The merchants who agree to offer Groupons are guaranteed a certain number of customers who will purchase their offer - a number I believe they set at however many customers they would need to make the offer profitable for them - and one offer is sent out to each city's list every morning. They range from deep discounts at local bars and restaurants to half off (or more!) a scuba lesson, yoga class or salon treatment.

Everyone who wants to buy the day's Groupon does so online, although no one's card is charged until the merchant's "magic number" of participants is reached - a countdown to which is always visible on the site. Once enough Groupons have been bought, it's a done deal and the following morning, you can print your Groupon and head off for some cost-effective fun. (Each Groupon has an expiration date set by the merchant, but most are at least a month after the purchase date, so you don't have to rush to use it.)

Since the first Washington Groupon on May 26th, I've bought two of them - a $30 5-class card for Mind-BodyFitness (worth $75), the Pilates studio I told you about in last week's Food for Thought, and a $25 offer for $50 worth of supplies and time at Color Me Mine, one of those "pick something ceramic and get creative with paint" places.

I've been tempted by a few more - half off a scuba lesson, half off kayak and canoe rentals, a discounted all-day paintball session - but my practical, frugal side kicks in most of the time and says "Really? When (and where?!) are you going to scuba in the near future? You've never been paint-balling and it's out in the middle of nowhere; would you actually go, Miss I-Live-In-Metro-Mecca-DC-So-I-Refuse-to-Buy-a-Car?" Still, it's great to be able to (occasionally!) splurge on things I really want to do, knowing that I'm getting a fantastic deal.

If you live near one of Groupon's current or future cities, I highly recommend signing up and taking advantage of their amazing discounts. It's a great way to get out, try new things and make the most of what your area has to offer!

Food for Thought

Since I don't always have time to write a full blog post, a sad fact that results in far fewer posts than I'd like, I'm beginning a new type of post today called "Food for Thought." Basically, it'll be a few quick blips about things that are on my mind and might be on yours, usually written while I grab a bite to eat between items on my schedule (hence the title). So, here goes!

• A friend of mine introduced me to charity: water this morning (thanks, P.!) and as she put it, "I want to give them all my money!" This is the second charity whose website has made me cry this year (yes, literally - the first being The Girl Effect) and served as a reminder of why I wanted to go into non-profit/NGO work in the first place.
• I'm still loving my TIME Magazine subscription, and read three good articles on this morning's commute: "Moon Walkers," the cover story about the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and a look back at the history of the space program's Apollo missions (the print edition also has nice photos and mini-bios of the Apollo astronauts); "What Price Journalism? What Would You Pay?" that talks about how nothing in journalism is free, including the freebies, and is a different take on the "print journalism is struggling/dying" issue; and "The CIA Is Keeping Secrets. Hello?" written by Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer. The last one is particularly interesting (and the title made me laugh), since it gives a former insider's perspective on CIA secrecy, and makes some great points about hypocrisy in government for appearances' sake, as well as the impracticality of too many checks and balances.
• Have you seen Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince or (500) Days of Summer yet? I want to see both despite the fact that I know the latter will make me cry, and have heard mostly-great reviews so far. And just finished a re-read of Harry Potter VI in preparation for the film! I only have that one in French though, so I may (as usual) be a bit confused...
• New on my list of favorite places in Washington!: Mind-BodyFitness, a Pilates studio near the Convention Center. They offer both mat and reformer workouts, and both seem to be more affordably priced than most yoga and Pilates studios in the area. Mat workout classes start at $18 for a walk-in and drop down to a little more than $12 each with a 15-class card for $185 - or a $300 pass for unlimited classes for three months. It's been awhile since I've done Pilates seriously (plus, I don't want to be so sore that it affects my running), so I'm sticking with the intro class for now, and after two classes - third one tonight! - I love it. Chris is the intro instructor and is great: I could easily do the entire class with my eyes closed, his descriptions of what you should be doing and how are so good. And the switch from the Pilates Method I learned in college to the BASI Pilates the studio uses has been easy.

That's what's on my mind today! What's on yours?

How are blogging and social media affecting print journalism?

There's the obvious answer, given the closing of Denver's Rocky Mountain News in February and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's switch to online-only reporting in March, although I'd argue that has more to do with online news outlets than blogs and social media. But as bloggers and social networking sites become more mainstream, how else are they effecting print journalism?

My mom has subscribed to TIME Magazine for as long as I can remember, and recently took them up on an offer to send a gift subscription along with her renewal - so now I can look forward to an issue of TIME in my mailbox every Saturday (woo hoo!). My mom usually left her copy open on the kitchen counter and made her way through it as she cooked dinner in the evenings or ate lunch on the weekends, and I remember reading pieces of it from time to time as I was growing up. I felt so adult, reading an article out of a news magazine, and learning bits and pieces about what was going on in the world.

I've been receiving TIME in my own mailbox for about a month now, and really enjoy reading it - usually on the Metro, where it doubles as a fan on the stifling station platforms - but I've found myself blinking in surprise a few times over the writers' use of casual language. Writing tone and style are very individual, but there are basic standards that exist for most types of writing. I had to adapt the way I wrote for Honors English my junior year in high school because my teacher didn't like my style, I learned to take a journalistic, reporting tone when I wrote for GW's The Hatchet and had to shake myself out of a formal, academic style after I graduated and started writing email copy for the non-profit I work for.

As a blogger, everything about how and what I write is up to me. I can be as casual as I want, and most bloggers are, using interjections between hyphens or parentheses (I never do that!) and often writing their own opinion - blogging isn't about presenting the facts with a subtle slant.

So I was surprised when I started noticing the same techniques in TIME, in articles of varying lengths, from features to quick blurbs. In four issues I've only noticed it three or four times, but it's been enough to get me thinking about it: is this an effect of the more casual reader-writer relationship encouraged by blogs and social networking? Or is it just a natural evolution of journalism in a society where much of our interaction with others comes in the form of words on a page or screen?

I don't know that I have an opinion on whether this kind of change is good or bad. I lean toward the bad side of neutral, not because I think it does any harm as an occasional thing but because I don't particularly want professional journalists sounding like...well, me. At least not in columns that involve serious reporting rather than a point of view. I want the facts, along with whatever (hopefully minimal) bias is implicit in the news sources I choose to use, so I can make up my own mind about the issues. And then, of course, I'll inflict my opinions on you!

What do you think - what's the source of these snippets of casual intimacy in reporting, and are they okay or should they be a journalism no-no?

"Of course it's all about me!"

This general attitude had me spending most of yesterday alternately lecturing myself on the importance of positivity and wanting to scream not-so-nice things at anyone who crossed my path.

It was one of those days when every cyclist on the trail zoomed past three inches from my elbow with nary a "Left!" to be heard, I got knocked around by people on the Metro twice my size whose mothers certainly taught them better and, about the time I was trying to eat lunch, half a dozen things suddenly appeared in my inbox that had to be done five minutes ago. (At least this time my case of the Mondays fell on the right day of the week.) Some passive-aggressive tendencies and blind-siding rounded out the day, and I arrived home frustrated and cranky. I reminded myself that it was just Monday, and that if I relaxed and got a good night's sleep, things would look better in the morning.

And they did! I ran with great weather and a beautiful sunrise glinting off the Potomac this morning, regardless of the Mercedes turning left that wanted to play chicken with me while I was obeying the little green man in the crosswalk signal at a major intersection. I even got to work a little early, despite exiting the Metro being its usual exercise in being jostled by briefcases on all sides. And I had time before work to respond to a friend's email about her frustration with the total lack of consideration she's been getting during the last few months, from companies of which she's a customer, colleagues and her state government.

Our frustrations, I think, have the same root: people just don't care about people anymore. (Which has the secondary effect of making me want to, in turn, elbow my way to the front of the line and shout at the top of my lungs until I get what I want. So far I'm well-behaved enough not to give in to temptation. Barely.)

Sure, most people still have a small inner circle of family members and friends for whom they would do just about anything, although we probably spend less time with, talking to or thinking about one another than we used to. Outside of that circle, the general public seems to care not one iota about anyone else they may come into contact with beyond the minimum it takes to get what they need for either personal or professional reasons. Everyone wants to feed starving children in India, prevent malaria in Africa and help educate women and children worldwide, but they couldn't care less about the next 30 seconds in the life of the person waiting in line next to them.

As I put it to my beleaguered friend this morning, "Yay, good, let's make sure people around the world aren't starving or dying of preventable/curable diseases, but for crying out loud, let's not step on everyone we walk past on the street while we're doing it!"

Not everyone acts this way - some of my colleagues and many of my friends are drop-everything-and-help-anyone-in-need types. I try to be one too, but I know I'm sometimes guilty of tuning out the people around me. We're all a little narcissistic; it's human nature to be at least slightly more concerned with yourself and your immediate family and/or friends than with individual people you don't know.

My concern (/rant...) is that it seems to have become not only acceptable but, in some places, standard operating procedure in society to run roughshod over everyone you've decided you don't have to care about. And that's not a good lifestyle choice for society, in general, to make. I've always been of the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" school (thanks, Mom!), but it seems like it just doesn't work anymore, as far as having any noticeable effect on society goes.

What do you think, is this actually a trend, or am I crazy? If it is a trend, is it a bad one (...and if I'm just crazy, do you know any good therapists?), or is it just the new normal and not an issue? My opinion on this one is obvious, but I'd like to hear yours.

Lifestyle envy

I have a raging case of lifestyle envy. I'm in the Seattle area on vacation for the second year in a row and last year's thoughts of "Wow, wouldn't it be great to live here?" have not faded - in fact, they've gotten stronger.

I've always loved the Pacific Northwest: the mountains, the coast, the clear air, the national parks, the hiking trails, the general outdoorsy-ness. I spent a lot of family vacations as a kid doused in mosquito repellent and scrambling through forests between Yosemite and Vancouver Island. Between that, the whale watching tours, the omnipresent coffee shops (hot chocolate for me, at the time) with endless delicious pastries and the incredible views, I always had a blast, but Southern California was unquestionably home, so I didn't pay much attention to the natives and how they lived.

Now, at 24, I'm incredibly envious of the way these people, particularly Seattlites, spend their lives. Yeah, the traffic is often terrible and commutes to and from work can be ridiculous. But Rainier National Park is a day trip from anywhere in the area, a plethora of summer fruits grow wild throughout every town in the region, one of my favorite wineries is a car ride away and Vancouver is just a ferry ride across the border.

And then there's Seattle itself, which I could rave about for approximately the next ten years, so I'll skip to my favorites: Pike Place Market, with its deliciously fresh (and local!) foods and unique shops, Beecher's Handmade Cheese, with the best macaroni and cheese on the face of the planet, Tully's Coffee, which is infinitely better than Starbucks and mass-produces compostable cups and sleeves, The Confectional, with its sinfully delicious specialty of cheesecake truffles, which, I believe, are bite-sized pieces of heaven on earth, REI's flagship store, which is the mecca of outdoor types everywhere and boasts a fantastic climbing wall that's visible from the freeway, Northwest Outdoor Center on Lake Union, where you can rent a single, double or triple kayak for as little as an hour or as much as a week, the Center for Wooden Boats, also on Lake Union, where you can rent a sailboat to glide around the lake in, watching the numerous float planes come and go... have I mentioned how much I love this place?

Not only is Seattle a great city, but its residents seem to actually take advantage of all it has to offer, something that Washingtonians are notorious for not doing. They'll work from 5am to 2pm, then jump in the car and head off to paraglide from one of the Issaquah mountains (which they run up on the way); they'll take a stroll through Pioneer Square and stop to spend half an hour sitting outside a coffee shop; they actually shop at Pike Place, rather than relinquishing it to the tourists. Then, they head home to set out their "trash" bins: the largest for recycling, another for compostable waste and the smallest for trash.

Where do I sign up, and when can I start?

Monsieur le Président, reigning theologian?

Yesterday, Nicolas Sarkozy made the first presidential appearance before the French Parliament since the 1800s. Among his topics of choice? The need to ban the burqa in the Fifth Republic.

According to the New York Times, the crowd applauded enthusiastically, but Sarkozy is already being slammed by the French press and many of his constituents. LeMonde.fr posted reactions from its readers yesterday under the (translated) title "In France, liberty for all, except the Muslims!" June 19th's edition featured an opinion piece by Eric Kaminski on the overall topic that's well worth the read if your French is up to it.

As much of a feminist as I am, I'm solidly with LeMonde's readers (and it seems to me, their editorial staff) on this one: whether or not a woman wears a burqa, a niqab, a hijab, a baseball cap, a scarf or no covering at all when she's out buying groceries or having coffee with friends is not the business of the French government.

Here's some food for thought, M. le Président: what does it matter what a woman chooses to wear on the streets of Paris, Toulouse, Marseille or Rennes when there are still places in your country where a woman who wears a skirt - no matter the length - is considered by the local population to be "inviting" rape? What does it matter that some women choose to adhere to the more austere traditions of their faith when women are still burned alive by men who feel they've been "humiliated," like Sohane Benziane, 17 years old when she was killed in 2002, who was sprayed with gasoline and tossed in the trash?

Yes, countless injustices have been committed against women in the name of Islam. Yes, some women in Muslim countries are forced into wearing the burqa by male relatives - thank you, M. Sarkozy, for apparently reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. Yes, the idea that anyone thinks women must cover themselves completely from public view to ensure that only their husbands can admire their beauty is appallingly sexist and frustratingly outdated.

But, M. le Président, you have far more serious issues to address first if you're going to start on a feminist agenda, added to which it's not really a feminist issue (for you, at least) and it's none of your business.

Any type of religious garb is already banned for teachers and students in public schools, as well as for all on-the-job government employees in France, and I have no problem with that because it meshes with the French version of secularism. However, given the way he argued his case, Sarkozy's statement that "the burqa is not welcome in the territory of the French Republic" is a foot-in-mouth moment that rivals, in my mind, his "slip" with "racaille" ("scum") during the 2005 riots.

Sarkozy presented the issue as a feminist one, saying that his desire to ban the burqa is not religious. Given the tensions that already exist between the (primarily Muslim) immigrant population in France and the "native French," he either didn't think that through or - more likely, in my opinion - I'm calling a big, fat B.S. on that statement. Because, guess what? Most French citizens and residents who wear traditional Islamic garb choose to do so. (Curious? Check out the reaction from LeMonde.fr's readers - same link as "reactions from its readers" above and in French. Sorry!) Added to which, if you're going to object to Islamic garb from a feminist perspective, what about the fact that Orthodox Judaism requires married women to cover their hair? It's the same basic principle - why is Sarkozy only objecting to Islam's rendition?

Personally, I find the idea of wearing even a hijab sexist and insulting, but I'm not Muslim and it's not up to me. President Sarkozy seems to find the idea of a niqab or burqa insulting (but not a hijab, Mr. "This-is-a-question-of-feminism?"), but outside public institutions, it's not up to him.

At least, it shouldn't be. Forcing people to disavow their beliefs hasn't done France any good in the past (Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, anyone? Shortly after that is when my ancestors hopped a boat for the New World and is why they ended up fighting alongside the colonials in the Revolutionary War.) and is in fact part of the admittedly-complicated rationale behind their strict secularism.

The French government should absolutely take steps to ensure the safety and freedom of anyone on its soil who is being intimidated and oppressed - by spouses, parents, siblings or anyone else. But that's a separate and much broader issue that in this instance has little to do with either feminism or the right to wear religious garb and much more to do with the messy immigration-racism-religion triangle of tensions that Sarkozy seems to want to circumnavigate.

If I were living in France, M. le Président, I'd ask you to quit grandstanding in an attempt to avoid the real issues and do your job.

Memo to the D.C. Newbie

The D.C. Newbie might become aware of an air of hostility tainting his first experience with the District. It isn't personal, Newbie - logically, those of us who live and work here realize that you couldn't possibly be aware of this city's numerous quirks immediately upon your arrival. It's just that there are so many of you, and a very large minority of your cohorts seem to toss common sense to the wind once inside the Beltway, and it gets a little frustrating.

So as someone who realizes that D.C. customs and common courtesies are not always immediately evident to newcomers, a list of tips and unwritten rules:

1. Washington is not a playground, an amusement park or a museum exhibit. People actually live and work here, and don't appreciate being delayed by people on vacation who don't realize their party of six is inevitably always in the way. (I think this goes for any major city/tourist destination.)
   
2. Unless you actually have somewhere to be at 9am, avoid the Metro at rush hour. Similar to #1, the Metro is not a joy ride, it's how people get to and from work. A lot of people, actually, and it's very, very crowded on weekday mornings and evenings, with people who are prone to crankiness. If you're a tourist, find something within walking distance of your hotel to do until 9:30 or 10am. Trust me, if it's your first time in the area, you'll feel uncomfortably awkward during morning rush hour on the Metro. Especially if you have kids. Infinitely more so if one or more of them are in a stroller. Plus, minimum fare is 30 cents cheaper after 9:30am ($1.35, instead of $1.65).
   
3. Escalators are a mode of transportation, not a reason to be lazy. Yes, in many other cities in the world (L.A., for example), no one walks on escalators. Here, most people do the majority of the time. No one cares if you stand, as long as you do it on the right-hand side - the left-hand side is the "fast lane." If you stand on the left, you're the equivalent of the VW bus doing 30 in the carpool lane, so don't be surprised if someone asks you, impatiently, to move.
4. Same goes for sidewalks. The generous width of the sidewalks is not an invitation to walk five abreast, it's a concession to a city with a large number of pedestrians. Just as many people take the Metro rather than drive to work, many people also walk, so stay to one side here as well.
5. Use the buddy system. Breaking your group up into pairs (with at least one cell phone in each pair, and one person who knows where you're going and more or less how to get there) will save you a lot of frustration. If the large family I ran into post-D.C. United game this Saturday had been using the buddy system, the pairs who were on the platform as the "doors closing" chimes sounded could have jumped into whatever car was nearest them, and those who were still on the escalator could have caught the next train, everyone confident that everyone else would get where they were going within about 10 minutes of one another. (Instead, the two teenagers who got there first spent two or three minutes delaying the train by standing in the doorway, shouting down the platform at the rest of their group to hurry up, delaying the train and cramming their entire extended family into one already-overcrowded car.)
   
6. Don't drive. Not because I think tourists or interns are bad drivers (Washingtonians are terribly rude drivers, so driving skills are relative here anyway!), but because it will stress you out, cost you far more than public transportation and probably take you longer. Parking is expensive, the streets weren't built to handle today's traffic volumes and there are so many one-way streets you'll have to drive twice the actual distance between points A and B. (And when you slow down or stop to ask a convenient pedestrian for directions, four times out of five they won't know what to tell you, because they don't drive and so don't pay attention to which streets are one-way in which direction.)
7. Be aware of where you are. In the summer, I regularly miss trains, open doors and green lights because I have to find a way around groups of tourists and interns who have stopped directly in front of the escalator they've just stepped off, the building they've just left or the curb they've just stepped up on. It's easy to focus on the internal dynamic of your group, but keep an eye on where you are in relation to those around you, too - they'll appreciate it. (I wanted to applaud yesterday for an eight-person family visiting the District who had all stepped back against the wall of a building while one family member bought drinks and hot dogs for everyone from a street vendor, rather than having the whole family crowd both the cart and the sidewalk. Way to go!)
8. Metro car doors are not elevator doors. Okay guys, this one is crucial: the doors on Metro cars will never - ever - spring back if you stick your arm, leg or backpack between them. They're just not built to do that. Yes, if you're very strong you can force a door to stay open by leaning all your weight on it, but once the conductor closes (or tries to) the doors, you forcing one to stay open won't do anything but break it - and that means every single person on the whole train has to get off and wait for the next one. In which case everyone will be very cranky, and very cramped on both the platform and the next train. So either get on or get off, but when the "doors closing" chime sounds, get out of the doorway.
   

Interning in Washington is a rite of passage for many American college students, and can be a fantastic experience. But for interns, there are a few more specific tips:

1. Remember that you're an intern. Interns are great and can be a huge help - but they can also sometimes forget themselves. This is especially true of summer interns on Capitol Hill, who are usually also part tourist, and often leap before they look when it comes to how Washington works. Interns, do a good job at the basics - boring as they are - and keep your eyes open, and you'll get both the good recommendation and the insight into non-profits/law firms/the Hill you were (hopefully) looking for when you applied. Save the rest for when you're a paid employee.
2. Keep your eyes and ears open. (i.e., Talk less, watch more.) Yes, you've written research papers on several of the issues that are important to the organization/firm/Congressman/Senator you're interning for. But you won't know the specifics of how they address those issues, and you certainly won't know the office culture, before you arrive. Rather than making an early faux pas (that will inevitably become what you're remembered for), observe the inner workings of your new digs before jumping in with what you know.
3. Intern badges are interesting only when you're not in Washington. (Hill interns, this one's for you.) Any internship that involves a badge or other form of ID requires you to wear them because it's standard operating procedure for whoever you're working for, not because your boss thinks it makes you look cool. Yes, showing such badges to your out-of-town friends makes for good, concrete proof of your awesome internship in the nation's capital, but wearing it out to the clubs on a Friday or Saturday night just makes you look unprofessional, and announces your (probably unpaid) intern status to everyone you meet.
4. Don't do anything stupid just because you're in Washington. D.C. is actually the worst place to decide to go a little wild, because since it's not a state, every infraction is federal. Fake IDs? Really, really bad idea. Not only will you end up in the federal system for attempting to purchase alcohol underage, but if anyone actually serves you, the establishment could lose its liquor license and the bartender will inevitably be fired and probably charged as well. As a result, Washington bouncers, bartenders and servers are really good at spotting fakes - the hard-nosed ones will turn you over to Metro PD (again, federal offense!); the more laid-back ones will just confiscate your ID and kick you out (or sometimes offer to give it back for somewhere in the neighborhood of $50-$100...and still kick you out). Oh, and your intern badge? Not a valid ID.
   
5. dcinterns.blogspot.com is an invaluable, if snarky, resource. Consider it your ongoing summer reading assignment and make it your mission in life to never see yourself there. (For non-interns, it's just hilarious, especially if you've ever lived or interned in Washington yourself.)

All that said - have a blast in D.C.! It's a great city, despite the extremely swampy summer weather, and the history here is not to be missed. Washingtonians don't always come across as the friendliest of people, but smile, ask politely for any information you need and you'll usually be pleasantly surprised. Oh, and always carry an umbrella - the summer thunderstorms are bone-rattling, and can produce themselves from a clear blue sky in 20 minutes flat.

Fairy tale princesses a bad influence? No way!

Predictably, Disney's latest fairy tale film, The Princess and the Frog, is causing something of a ruckus, this time over the fact that Princess Tiana is African-American (and her prince lighter-skinned, although apparently his exact racial heritage is ambiguous). But Monique Fields, over at the Root, is more inclined to protest the latest Disney character's job description than her skin tone.

On the racial angle, I'm inclined to say "finally" and move on. (Disney is, after all, 45 years behind the Civil Rights Act on this one. And any institution trailing that far behind the federal government, itself notoriously slow, is at least slightly ridiculous.) But protesting the fact that Tiana is a princess because princesses don't make any money, have unrealistic expectations of their future happiness and wear things that sparkle? Hm.

I grew up on fairy tales, and even with as far up in the clouds as my head usually was (and sometimes still is), I never expected to literally grow up to be a princess - in fact, I don't think I ever considered the possibility that it was a real "job." In most democratic countries, I'm pretty sure the socio-political reality is evident enough to make the point in the collective kid consciousness that royalty is something that doesn't exist in their world, even if they remain enchanted with the idea.

What I loved so much about Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas and Mulan (if we're talking strictly Disney, here) was their attitude - and their ability to dream. In my mind, what modern fairy tales do is encourage kids to dream big and never stop, because who knows what might happen? (Need an example? Go listen to "Just Around the River Bend.") And I can't think of a better ideal to impress upon kids at a young age.

Even way back when fairy tales first started being passed down (whenever that was, given that most of them began as oral traditions and weren't written down until several centuries ago), they weren't intended to make kids aspire to be royalty - they were intended to instruct kids on how to successfully make it to adulthood (common sense lessons like "don't talk to strangers who might try to eat you and your grandmother later" included).

I did an independent study course and its 20-page paper on 17th-century fairy tale/folk literature, so I won't get too far into this, but the bottom line is basically: the shiny, sparkly, I'm-a-princess-because-I-want-to-be-spoiled mentality is a late-20th-century perversion of the fairy tale. Largely created and supported by parents. Yeah, if you buy your kid everything she (or he) asks for, and tell her she's special/a princess in a way that implies better than everyone else (or, newsflash, parents: if you act like you're better than everyone else), she's going to be obnoxious and very difficult to handle, regardless of how many Disney princesses she does or doesn't watch traipse across the big screen, or how many pieces of clothing she owns proclaiming her a "Princess."

If, however, your child's love of fairy tales - from translated Perrault to Disney and all the Brothers Grimm in between - stems from the stories themselves and the flights of fancy they inspire, watching tiara-wearing cartoon princesses is not going to make her turn to "superficialities like glitter and makeup...[to] compensate for any deeper flaws some women try to hide" later in life. Instead, it will probably help develop her imagination and her sense of self. One of the things all fairy tales have in common is that the "princess" must make a journey, often physically as well as emotionally, during which her eyes are opened to the world around her and the character traits necessary to help her navigate it. No one wants to grow up to be the spoiled, self-absorbed, utterly charmless stepsister.

And fairy tale princesses are not pushovers - these women know who they are and they rock their individuality! Cinderella probably could've gone all Type A and gotten her stepmother to pick on one of her own daughters instead with a little manipulation, but she stayed true to herself and stuck it out (and was rewarded - hello, fairy tale lesson #1). Belle was mocked by the whole town for her bookworm habits, but she didn't care - and she was the only one brave enough to save her father from the Beast...and then to look past his physical appearance to his personality (and was rewarded - are we noticing a trend?).

Isn't that exactly the sort of thing we want every generation to learn? To be themselves, not to give in to peer pressure and to always do what they know is right? I certainly hope so. (Oh, and Ms. Fields? Your 4-year-old doesn't want to be an entrepreneur because she doesn't know what one is yet. The same probably goes for the lawyer.)

One thing's for sure: I will absolutely read my kids fairy tales and if they enjoy them, I'll happily take them to Disney movies - I'll probably even cry at the sad parts. And rather than relying on multimedia and the fashion industry to form my kids' character, I'll talk to them about what's important, correct them if they start to think they're the center of everyone's universe and not just mine, and encourage them to let their imaginations run wild when it comes to their dreams.

The Cure for a case of the Mondays

Isn't it strange (and kind of awesome) how a half-second interaction with a complete stranger can make or break your day?

I've been having a major case of the Mondays today. (Which hardly seems fair - I mean, come on, it's Friday!) Forgot my lunch at home, which I realized about a block from the office. Which is also about the time I realized the belt of my jacket (very un-June-like weather we're having...) had deserted me at some point during the commute. That, fortunately, I found, three blocks back. Then, late to work after the belt hunt, I found myself locked out of our suite for five minutes as I fought with a key that refused to open its lock and called every extension in the office until I hit the one person who was already in.

Still slightly cranky at lunchtime, I headed out to find something to eat, and looked twice at a woman passing me on the street who looked something like a former boss of mine. It wasn't her, but the woman made eye contact and smiled at me as she passed. Something about her smile was empathetic - maybe my crankiness was evident in my face, since I've been told I'm ridiculously easy to read - and I found myself smiling back, genuinely.

It's the kind of moment that regularly reminds me that I like people, that life and people in general are good, and that I'm happy to be who I am, doing what I am, where I am. I walked back to the office with a much more cheerful spring in my step, smiling at tourists and the janitor who opened the door for me.

I've always believed that your reality is at least somewhat impacted by your attitude. If you see the glass as half empty, you're likely to continue putting yourself in negative situations - or interpreting situations you find yourself in negatively. Negative and positive are opposites, after all, so how can you expect something positive to fall into your lap when you're radiating negativity? And, being something of an eternal optimist, I tend to look for the upside to everything. But sometimes I get in a funk and need a little nudge back in the right direction - that woman's smile was today's.

Of course, now I'm sitting in the hallway in front of my office, writing this post and looking longingly through the glass doors at the keys I can't quite see but know very well are sitting right on top of my desk. Nobody ever locks the front door at lunch, but there are only four of us in the office today, two were already out to lunch when I left and apparently the third left shortly after I did and, being a conscientious employee, locked the door.

So I'm sitting here laughing at myself (only in my head, I wouldn't want to scare the other offices up here who are already a little weirded out by me sitting on the floor in front of the elevators) and perfecting my grape toss-and-catch technique. Because of a stranger's smile, I've decided that, sometimes, general ridiculousness and a lot of laughter is the best way to exorcise a case of the Mondays, whatever the day of the week.

Students at Liberty find none

I apologize, I've been neglecting you all something awful this month! Between a longer to-do list than usual at work and planning for Gina's wedding this weekend (my best friend's getting married!!!), things have been a little crazy.

I promise to get back to something like a normal blogging schedule next week, but I wanted to share an issue that's been driving me nuts personally and professionally since last Friday: Liberty University kicking their chapter of College Democrats off-campus. I just blogged about it over at State of Belief for work, so I'll send you their way to read the full post:

James Madison must be exhausted. The poor guy just can’t catch a break – with all of the government interference in religion (the faith-based initiative-turned-partnership) and religious interference in politics (Propositions 8, 102 and 2), he’s probably been rolling over in his grave nonstop for years...[read the full post here]

And now (well, soon)...back to your regularly-scheduled dose of There Is No Spoon.

Take your workout outside: Part IV

Since I'm running 21 miles this weekend, it seems like a good time for Part IV of this series, focusing on off-the-road tips for current and aspiring long-distance runners. These will help keep your body (and your morale!) in top condition.

1. Get your body the nutrients it needs. As a former obsessive calorie-counter (who still obsesses about it sometimes), I have to tell you that you can't worry about eating too much if you're in serious physical training - especially the first time you're training for a long-distance race. Your metabolism is increasing, you're exercising significantly more and your body needs extra fuel to handle everything you're putting it through. If you don't eat enough, your workouts won't be successful. Period. If you're used to counting calories, use a tool like mapmyrun.com to track how much you're burning, so you know how many extra calories you need to eat. There are all kinds of complicated formulas for figuring out the perfect ratio of carbs to protein to fat for runners, but I just listen to my body. I carbo-load the night before a long run, usually with an obscene amount of (whole grain) pasta. By the time I get out of the shower afterward, I'm usually craving either a cheese omelette or a burger, which is my body's way of telling me it needs protein to rebuild the muscles I spent the last few hours tearing up. When I get hungry again, it's usually for something carb-y, because my body's realizing that I pretty much depleted those stores, but I try to toss in some type of protein too. I'm eating less this time around than I did the first, but still significantly more than I was in January, when 20-degree weather kept me inside most days.
2. Sleep tight! One of the keys to a good run is a good night's sleep beforehand. Running 14 miles on Saturday isn't going to be much fun if Friday happy hour lasts till midnight. (Not to sound like your mother, but alcohol in general is not the runner's friend in large quantities - it's dehydrating, and you're not going to run well if you're hungover.) Everyone's needs are different when it comes to sleep - I function best on seven or eight hours to begin with, so when I'm training hard I try to get eight or nine hours a night. My social life suffers, but my body is much happier!
   
3. Psych yourself up to avoid psyching yourself out. New distances are daunting, and no matter how ready your body is for them, a mental freak-out can trash a workout before you make it past mile 1. There are certain numbers that just sound scary (10 and 20 were the worst for me, the first time around), even if they're only a mile or two more than you've done before, so it's best to prep yourself mentally to keep your head from getting in your body's way. Something I started doing at about eight miles last year - and continue to do now at 16+ - was to mentally review my route a couple of times a day for a day or two before a long run. As mentioned in Part III, I generally map my routes at mapmyrun.com before I run them. That gives me a visual, and since the site lets you view maps in street view, satellite view or a combination of both, you can pick the visual that helps you most. I like "hybrid view" - the combo of street and satellite - and use it to remind myself where both on-street turns and physical landmarks will be. That way I can say, "Okay, when I cross that path to the marina parking lot, I'll be at six miles. When I hit the end of the airport fence, that's nine. That water fountain by the memorial is 12," etc. Keeping a general outline of your run in your head - whether it's in the style of an actual map or turn-by-turn directions - can keep your brain focused and let your body do what it already knows it can.
4. Listen to your body. Even for avid gym-goers, an intense outdoor regimen will put more strain on your body than it's used to, and you need to learn to listen to its cries for help in all areas. The most basic of those is fuel, as mentioned in #1. Then there's physical stress and injury. I can't imagine a training program ever being 100% discomfort-free, but if you pay attention to the low-grade aches and pains, they're less likely to become full-blown problems or injuries. If something hurts, figure out why. Most of the time you can probably do it on your own with basic rest, refueling, stretching, icing/heating and poking around on the web for information. But if it's been a week and nothing is helping, see a doctor - one who specializes in sports medicine is probably the most helpful if you're sure the issue is directly related to your training. Sometimes, a symptom you think is normal turns out to be a chronic problem (keep reading for an example) and you need to take unexpected steps to reverse it.
5. Give your body a break. My average weekday involves 10 or more escalators, which I generally pound up and down as fast as I can, one to two miles of walking, which I tend to speed-walk since they're part of my commute, and some 9.5-pound weight lifting when Nala decides to dash out the door every time I come in. Kitty-lifting aside, all of that adds up when you're running 35+ miles per week for months on end, and there are days that I leave for work feeling like I'm all but hobbling, my legs are so tired. I'm not a particularly patient person, but since I try to do #3, above, I make myself stand still on escalators (on the righthand side only, in D.C.!) when my legs are screaming at me to give them a break and pull my walking pace back to more of a stroll. And although it doesn't seem like much, it helps, and my shins especially thank me for the difference.
   

Okay, the example promised in #3: I coasted through most of my first round of training, both mentally and physically. Yeah, I was sore off and on. Yeah, I had some miles when variations of "Why am I doing this?" played on a loop in my head. Yeah, I spent (post-long run) Saturday afternoons collapsed on the floor, reading, watching movies, icing my knees and shins and stuffing my face in my quest to reach a net calorie count of at least "zero" for the day. And yeah, my social life was close to non-existent for a few months. But for the most part, it was pretty easy going.

Until last September, when I'd been training continuously for six months, and my calves started cramping up when I wasn't running. I'm not prone to muscle cramps in my legs, but I assumed it was just because I was reaching the peak of my training, and my body was tired and more than ready for the tapering-off portion of Operation: Run a Marathon. But when I woke up crying in the middle of the night (yeah, really - and I kind of wanted to scream, too) from a particularly painful spasm in my left calf that just wouldn't let go, I stopped thinking it was normal or would "just fade." I poked around on running message boards, WebMD and my best friend's knowledge of animal nutrition (more of veterinary medicine applies to people than you might think!) and figured out that I probably had a potassium deficiency.

Too much potassium can kill you (I'm sure that's been featured on at least one crime-scene drama), so supplements are hard to come by and a bad idea anyway. I researched potassium-rich foods, then stocked up on spinach, bananas, potatoes - it's the skin that's really rich in potassium - and the low-sodium V8 my boss' wife's doctor had recommended when she had a similar problem. And it worked! A few days after starting my effort to flood my system with potassium, the cramps eased up, then disappeared, and I was able to run my 23-miler, my longest training run, pain-free.

I'm back at the most intense month of training (this time for Rock 'n' Roll Seattle), and once again, my calves started getting tight after workouts, but this time I knew what to do. I'm stocked up on spinach and potatoes, alternate between orange juice (450mg of potassium per 8 ounces!) and low-sodium V8 (it's disgusting, but it works) and snack on raisins most afternoons. And guess what? I haven't woken up in pain even once!

The bottom line for successful long-distance training is to be smart, be safe, stay up-beat and keep your eyes on the finish line. Because when you get there? Baby, it's worth every step.

Wanna go Dutch?

In the interest of intercultural education, I wanted to share a great article from the New York Times Magazine that not only gives an American take on Amsterdam and life in the Netherlands, but that also presents social welfare from a very different perspective than the "They're trying to make us all socialists!"-type paranoia emanating from most conservative politicians and pundits throughout the last few months. From contributing writer Russell Shorto, "Going Dutch: How I Learned to Love the European Welfare State" is a study in contrasts - mostly those between the Dutch perspective on what it means to be a member of society, and the American.

There are two main questions Shorto answered from both the Dutch and the American perspective in his article, whether he intended to or not:

1. What about quality of life?
2. What about everybody else?

Number 1 is a question taken very seriously by citizens of welfare states, with mandatory vacation minimums and a culture that isn't centered around work. The monetary price the Dutch pay for a society that considers this question is one that would make any American jaw drop in sheer terror: the income tax in the Netherlands is 52%.

Shorto opens with his horror upon hearing this number, and after briefly trying to calculate whether or not I could pay my rent and still afford to eat on 48% of my current salary, I was in complete sympathy with him.

Actually, Shorto continues, it's not so bad. (What?!) Because income tax is one of the only taxes the Dutch pay. Social security is included rather than tacked on, state and local taxes don't exist, real estate taxes are much lower, etc. Not only that, but you get a heck of a lot of that 52% back in installments for various things from the government (not to mention the virtually free health care): child benefits, textbook accommodations, government-subsidized housing that carries none of the stigma it does in the U.S., vacation money. Wait, vacation money? Yup. Shorto says:

In late May of last year an unexpected $4,265 arrived in my account: vakantiegeld. Vacation money. This money materializes in the bank accounts of virtually everyone in the country just before the summer holidays; you get from your employer an amount totaling 8 percent of your annual salary, which is meant to cover plane tickets, surfing lessons, tapas: vacations. And we aren’t talking about a mere “paid vacation” — this is on top of the salary you continue to receive during the weeks you’re off skydiving or snorkeling. And by law every employer is required to give a minimum of four weeks’ vacation. For that matter, even if you are unemployed you still receive a base amount of vakantiegeld from the government, the reasoning being that if you can’t go on vacation, you’ll get depressed and despondent and you’ll never get a job.

And that's exactly the sort of quality-of-life issue that American society essentially ignores, expecting everyone to create the type of life that suits them best for themselves. The thing is, we don't. We can't, if we want to first make a good impression, then move up, in our chosen fields. I'm not saying I think the government should pay me to go lie on a beach, but in the U.S., the reward for time put in and a job well done is more work. And that kind of live-to-work attitude is a problem.

People with lower salaries may feel less obliged to stay at their desks after standard office hours than those making six or seven figures after bonuses, but the pressure to work increasingly harder in order to continue to prove oneself is society-wide in white-collar jobs. Being a workaholic is fine - if it's what you want to do. When it becomes so much the norm that no one blinks when junior staffers who barely make enough money to eat regularly work through lunch, check work email from home and have stress levels that are through the roof, something is seriously out of whack.

According to Shorto, the professional mentality that goes along with enforced vacation time and not checking email from home on the weekends isn't lax in comparison to ours - instead, the time away from the office (and all office-associated issues) seems to keep people noticeably more fresh, focused and productive when they're actually in the office. Food for thought, don't you think?

Next up, number 2, "What about everybody else?"

The vacation pay example given by Shorto is the sort of thing that Americans love to rail against in social welfare systems, saying it's ridiculous, encourages laziness and forces the hard workers to pay the "idle poor" to sit around and be unemployed. We're a work-oriented culture of do-it-yourselfers (Can you think of another country where the translated equivalent of "DIY" would make any sense at all?), and we hate thinking our hard work is helping someone else get ahead when we never feel like it's gotten us far enough ahead to relax.

But does it really matter who else the money generated by our work is helping, as long as we have what we need (and some of what we want)? Yeah, it grates against the American work ethic and sense of fair-play. Then again, how fair is it that affordable insurance, and therefore basic health care, is inaccessible to somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million Americans (that's more than six times the population of New York City, by the way)? Or that the vast majority of our public schools don't even begin to adequately educate our children, and the cost of a decent education has been sky-rocketing for decades? If we had a solid education system and health care that worked, I sincerely doubt I'd spend much time worrying about how many single mothers were receiving welfare benefits from my taxes.

Socially, the American system becomes more inadequate every year, which is laughable for a society that's widely considered the epitome of a developed country. We don't need to turn socialist - the Netherlands has a long history of capitalism (the Dutch East India Company, anyone?) - to support our citizens with effective social welfare programs that address basic rights and needs. Welfare, at its most elemental level, is intended to make sure that people are faring well. And isn't it one of the most fundamental responsibilities of a government to take care of its people?

So what about quality of life? Well, I'd like a better one on several levels, with universal health care, public education and Social Security leading the pack. And what about everyone else? I see no reason my work and income can't benefit society in general as long as my family and I aren't lacking for anything ourselves.

No, we shouldn't adopt the Netherlands' or France's or the United Kingdom's social welfare system as a whole - we're a different country, with a government that functions differently and a population that needs different things. But I think the country that showed the modern world how to make the democratic republic work can figure out how to establish a safety net of social welfare programs for its citizens without compromising its national character. Don't you?