My meter reader generally sees me in a towel. It's a big towel, but a towel nonetheless. I hope its a pleasant part of a tough day but I doube he even notices (considering what all he sees).

The UPS guy notices and batts his eyes.

Geraldine Ferraro was far more accomplished than Sarah Palin. But guess who got far and away more press for being a VP candidate?

To be fair, I'm not sure how much of that is Palin being pretty and how much is just that there is so much more press now, in general, than there was when Ferraro was running.

I'd agree, there is much more media now. OTOH, Caribou Barbie wouldn't have gone as far in her various media triumphs if she looked like Ferraro.

I also seem to recall Ferraro was slammed because of her husbands affiliations. But I was about 8 when that all happened, so I could be remembering wrong.

I don't know whether this has anything to do with anything or not, but Ferraro never really had a chance of winning the election and becoming vice-president. Mondale was far behind Reagan and never came close to catching up. While McCain vs. Obama was pretty close for at least several weeks after Palin was selected -- it wasn't until at least late September that Obama took a comfortable lead.

And Palin was comedy gold in a way that Ferraro never was. Maybe looks play into that, but Ferraro never said anything that could be parodied as "I can see Alaska from my house!"

oh lord ... I remember watching the returns when Mondale was running - once the results were pretty much final, the entire country was red except for Minnesota (his home state) and teeny-tiny - you guessed it! - DC.

oh lord ... I remember watching the returns when Mondale was running - once the results were pretty much final, the entire country was red except for Minnesota (his home state) and teeny-tiny - you guessed it! - DC.

Yeah. Even Massachusetts went for Ronnie Raygun. Depressing, really.

Yeah. Even Massachusetts went for Ronnie Raygun.

See. Now I'm earwormed with The revolution will not be televised.

Which is better than the Wonderpets. Mostly.

There is some drilling and banging in my basement. No warning from my landlord.

Oh, Teppy, goddamn, that's a huge mountain of shit to be dealing with. I'm so sorry.

I keep trying to formulate a response to the conversation about gender, and it's such a huge and complex thing that I get tripped up trying to say about a dozen things, some of them contradictory. One thing I will say is that looking pretty and acting nice and friendly are two different things that often reinforce each other: when you act friendly, smile big, etc., I think it creates the perception that you are attractive, especially for women. And if you're feeling attractive, you're more likely to act confident and outgoing, and maybe that's perceived as friendliness. So it can be hard to tell how much of the treatment you're getting in a particular interaction is from one or the other.

I went out for lunch today, and the guy who took my order at the counter smiled at me a lot and was really sweet and friendly, to the point of seeming mildly flirtatious. It was a nice moment, and made me feel good about myself, and feel warmly towards him, when otherwise I might not have really noticed him. Unfortunately, he must have been so distracted by my beauty that he forgot to take note of a couple of specific requests (no ice in my water, no tomatoes in my eggs). So while the interaction may have boosted my self-esteem a bit, materially it wasn't really to my advantage in the end...

Oof, Teppy. I hope the universe lightens up on you VERY GODDAMN SOON.

I'm still waiting for one friend in Japan to check in.

She was just here in NYC but, according to her tweets, she left before the quake. Its a long trip, Yoko may well have been stopped en route and doesn't have access to twitter or facebook yet.