land of blonde

copenhagen is a beautiful city. the last time i was in this part of the world i was 16, and on tour with my orchestra. i forgot how alien it feels to be of the darker persuasion when surrounded by the fairest of the fair.

there are, of course, blonde people everywhere you go, but it is something different when the majority of people around are nearly translucent, hair almost white, eyes of ice. it's beautiful, and yet so foreign to me, dark of hair, eyes, and skin-alien

"first breeding of noodles x amra" is my favorite

alyce

alyce is not stupid
alyce is be
alyce is no timid
alyce is
alyce is someone who was so fat that breathing was difficult
alyce is the nationally recognized manager whose own corporate group
alyce is a graduate of hunter college
alyce is the author of a weekly column on pop culture
alyce is thrust into a new world
alyce is her own inspiration
alyce is a poignant reminder of the intimate
alyce is equally comfortable setting up motivational training programs or teaching schools and organizations how to deal with diversity
alyce is a registered nurse
alyce is complaining that jane the midwife did not take her back as an apprentice
alyce is the best person to work for
alyce is not exempt from the cruelties of either side
alyce is sitting by the keyboard monitoring this dispatch carefully
alyce is the best realty webmaster in the western suburbs
alyce is on sabbatical fall semester and teaches genetics
alyce is delivering a baby
alyce is more to the hatter's style of women
alyce is the property of jennifer p
alyce is a highly sought
alyce is a quilter who lives and works in vermont
alyce is taken in by a midwife
alyce is neither nick’s nor lacroix’s child and neither would be able to sense her
alyce is a student in the college of arts & science
alyce is currently on tour in france http
alyce is currently a faculty member at northern arizona university
alyce is an insignificant
alyce is the director of education for the kwanlin dun first nation located in whitehorse
alyce is knowledgeable and committed to serving buyers and sellers
alyce is a breast cancer survivor
alyce is from our first breeding of noodles x amra
alyce is unable to help a laboring woman deliver her child
alyce is survived by three daughters
alyce is a veteran teacher with the hawaii department of education
alyce is now ch
alyce is now a life member of the african violet society of america and the dixie african violet society
alyce is an avid gardener
alyce is a homeless girl
alyce is taken in by
alyce is one of 18 children between the ages of 7 and 13 who have troubled family situations
alyce is an avid collector of orchids
alyce is a warm
alyce is—is she me or someone i know? alyce is alyce
alyce is an 11 y/o merle dane and moose is a 6 1/2 y/o fawn
alyce is sure there can be no love in an arranged marriage
alyce is a contemporary
alyce is a program assistant and performs varied adminstrative duties using independent judgement related to daily operations
alyce is waiting for bart
alyce is shocked to discover that her true failure to please the midwife was in giving up
alyce is a licensed clinical social worker and has more than ten years of experience working with families and children
alyce is cool toward jerry
alyce is a retired teacher
alyce is not alone
alyce is extremely committed to enhancing the quality of life of people living with cancer through peer support
alyce is very depressed due to this new
alyce is pining for his
alyce is the main character of the story
alyce is your solution
alyce is survived by her husband keith
alyce is a close friend to nick miles and the duboises
alyce is a former associate professor
alyce is a skilled html teacher
alyce is a watercolor and liquid acrylic artist
alyce is such a dynamic woman
alyce is going to show us how to make a simple herb vinegar
alyce is so tired
alyce is the owner of partners in wellness
alyce is a beautiful girl who is as devoted to me as i am to her
alyce is assigned districts 7
alyce is an extremely hard worker and is always on top of everything she does
alyce is the news
alyce is conventionally beautiful and unconventionally brilliant
alyce is homeless and hungry until she gets taken in by a strict midwife
alyce is an investigation into the nature of love and memory
alyce is called over the course of the novel
alyce is now a retired couch potato and loving it
alyce is confirming permission for some photos showing students before she posts the journals
alyce is a poor and homeless girl who finds work with a midwife
alyce is a retired school administrator and fiq travel and protocol coordinator
alyce is taken in by the village midwife
alyce is a family name
alyce is gravely ill and my lady cicely must save her with her medicines
alyce is coming in to cover for her
alyce is up to since she left the big city
alyce is the poorest of the poor
alyce ische
alyce is working hard on various web
alyce is a petaluma resident and previously was president of the independent col
alyce is the 877th most popular female first name in the united
alyce is my mother
alyce is just beautiful
alyce is beach vollyball fun?

Oh Forbes, you kidder you!

so please take a moment to read the below, a very informative article on why "career women" should be avoided when shopping for a bride. take notes guys, there is handy 9-point guide at the end for why you should steer clear.

keep an eye out for stupid, unemployed women, they's the BOMB


Don't Marry Career Women
Guys: A word of advice. Marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career.

Why? Because if many social scientists are to be believed, you run a higher risk of having a rocky marriage. While everyone knows that marriage can be stressful, recent studies have found professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it. A recent study in Social Forces, a research journal, found that women--even those with a "feminist" outlook--are happier when their husband is the primary breadwinner.

Not a happy conclusion, especially given that many men, particularly successful men, are attracted to women with similar goals and aspirations. And why not? After all, your typical career girl is well-educated, ambitious, informed and engaged. All seemingly good things, right? Sure…at least until you get married. Then, to put it bluntly, the more successful she is the more likely she is to grow dissatisfied with you. Sound familiar?

In Pictures: Nine Reasons To Steer Clear Of Career Women

Many factors contribute to a stable marriage, including the marital status of your spouse's parents (folks with divorced parents are significantly more likely to get divorced themselves), age at first marriage, race, religious beliefs and socio-economic status. And, of course, many working women are indeed happily and fruitfully married--it's just that they are less likely to be so than non-working women. And that, statistically speaking, is the rub.

To be clear, we're not talking about a high-school dropout minding a cash register. For our purposes, a "career girl" has a university-level (or higher) education, works more than 35 hours a week outside the home and makes more than $30,000 a year.

If a host of studies are to be believed, marrying these women is asking for trouble. If they quit their jobs and stay home with the kids, they will be unhappy ( Journal of Marriage and Family, 2003). They will be unhappy if they make more money than you do ( Social Forces, 2006). You will be unhappy if they make more money than you do ( Journal of Marriage and Family, 2001). You will be more likely to fall ill ( American Journal of Sociology). Even your house will be dirtier ( Institute for Social Research).

Why? Well, despite the fact that the link between work, women and divorce rates is complex and controversial, much of the reasoning is based on a lot of economic theory and a bit of common sense. In classic economics, a marriage is, at least in part, an exercise in labor specialization. Traditionally men have tended to do "market" or paid work outside the home and women have tended to do "non-market" or household work, including raising children. All of the work must get done by somebody, and this pairing, regardless of who is in the home and who is outside the home, accomplishes that goal. Nobel laureate Gary S. Becker argued that when the labor specialization in a marriage decreases--if, for example, both spouses have careers--the overall value of the marriage is lower for both partners because less of the total needed work is getting done, making life harder for both partners and divorce more likely. And, indeed, empirical studies have concluded just that.

In 2004, John H. Johnson examined data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and concluded that gender has a significant influence on the relationship between work hours and increases in the probability of divorce. Women's work hours consistently increase divorce, whereas increases in men's work hours often have no statistical effect. "I also find that the incidence in divorce is far higher in couples where both spouses are working than in couples where only one spouse is employed," Johnson says. A few other studies, which have focused on employment (as opposed to working hours) have concluded that working outside the home actually increases marital stability, at least when the marriage is a happy one. But even in these studies, wives' employment does correlate positively to divorce rates, when the marriage is of "low marital quality."

The other reason a career can hurt a marriage will be obvious to anyone who has seen their mate run off with a co-worker: When your spouse works outside the home, chances increase they'll meet someone they like more than you. "The work environment provides a host of potential partners," researcher Adrian J. Blow reported in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, "and individuals frequently find themselves spending a great deal of time with these individuals."

There's more: According to a wide-ranging review of the published literature, highly educated people are more likely to have had extra-marital sex (those with graduate degrees are 1.75 more likely to have cheated than those with high school diplomas.) Additionally, individuals who earn more than $30,000 a year are more likely to cheat.

And if the cheating leads to divorce, you're really in trouble. Divorce has been positively correlated with higher rates of alcoholism, clinical depression and suicide. Other studies have associated divorce with increased rates of cancer, stroke, and sexually-transmitted disease. Plus divorce is financially devastating. According to one recent study on "Marriage and Divorce's Impact on Wealth," published in The Journal of Sociology, divorced people see their overall net worth drop an average of 77%.

So why not just stay single? Because, academically speaking, a solid marriage has a host of benefits beyond just individual "happiness." There are broader social and health implications as well. According to a 2004 paper entitled "What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage?" marriage is positively associated with "better outcomes for children under most circumstances," higher earnings for adult men, and "being married and being in a satisfying marriage are positively associated with health and negatively associated with mortality." In other words, a good marriage is associated with a higher income, a longer, healthier life and better-adjusted kids.

A word of caution, though: As with any social scientific study, it's important not to confuse correlation with causation. In other words, just because married folks are healthier than single people, it doesn't mean that marriage is causing the health gains. It could just be that healthier people are more likely to be married.

9 Reasons to steer clear
1. You are less likely to get married to her.
So say Lee A. Lillard and Linda J. Waite of the University of Michigan's Michigan Retirement Research Center. In a paper, "Marriage, Divorce and the Work and Earnings Careers of Spouses", published in April, 2000, they found that for white women, higher earnings, more hours of employment and higher wages while single all reduce the chances of marriage. "This suggests that (1) success in the labor market makes it harder for women to make a marital match, (2) women with relatively high wages and earnings search less intensively for a match, or (3) successful women have higher standards for an acceptable match than women who work less and earn less." Some research suggests the opposite is true for black women.

2. If you do marry, you are more likely to get divorced.
In 2004, John H. Johnson examined data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and concluded that gender has a significant influence on the relationship between work hours and increases in the probability of divorce. Women's work hours consistently increase divorce, whereas increases in men's work hours often have no statistical effect. "I also find that the incidence in divorce is far higher in couples where both spouses are working than in couples where only one spouse is employed," Johnson said. A few other studies, which have focused on employment (as opposed to working hours) have concluded that working outside the home actually increases marital stability, at least when the marriage is a happy one. But even in these studies, wives' employment does correlate positively to divorce rates, when the marriage is of "low marital quality."

3. She is more likely to cheat on you.
According to a wide-ranging review of the published literature, highly educated people are more likely to have had extra-marital sex (those with graduate degrees are 1.75 more likely to have cheated than those with high school diplomas.) One April, 2005 study, by Adrian J. Blow for the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy summed it up: "If a woman has more education than her partner, she is more likely to have a sexual relationship outside of her primary relationship; if her husband has more education, she is less likely to engage in infidelity." Additionally individuals who earn more than $30,000 a year are more likely to cheat. "In a more general sense, it appears that employment has significantly influenced infidelity over the years," Blow said. "The work environment provides a host of potential partners, and individuals frequently find themselves spending a great deal of time with these individuals."

4. You are much less likely to have kids.
According to the National Marriage Project, the incidence of childlessness is growing across the socioeconomic scale. In 2004, 20% of women over 40 remained childless. Thirty years ago that figure was 10%. But the problem--and it is a problem because the vast majority of women desire children--is much more extreme for career women. According to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist and the author of Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children, only 51% of ultra-achieving women (those earning more than $100,000 a year) have had children by age 40. Among comparable men, the figure was 81%. A third of less successful working women (earning either $55,000 or $65,000) were also childless at age 40.

5. If you do have kids, your wife is more likely to be unhappy.
A 2003 study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family concluded that wealthier couples with children suffer a drop in marital satisfaction three times as great as their less affluent peers. One of the study's co-authors publicly speculated that the reason is that wealthier women are used to "a professional life, a fun, active, entertaining life."

6. Your house will be dirtier.
In 2005, two University of Michigan scientists concluded that if your wife has a job earning more than $15 an hour (roughly $30,000 a year), she will do 1.9 hours less housework a week. Of course, this can be solved if the husband picks up a broom.

7. You'll be unhappy if she makes more than you.
You aren't going to like it if she makes more than you do: "Married men's well-being is significantly lower when married women's proportional contributions to the total family income are increased."

8. She will be unhappy if she makes more than you.
According to the authors of a controversial 2006 study: "American wives, even wives who hold more feminist views about working women and the division of household tasks, are typically happier when their husband earns 68% or more of the household income." Reason? "Husbands who are successful breadwinners probably give their wives the opportunity to make more choices about work and family--e.g., working part-time, staying home, or pursuing a meaningful but not particularly remunerative job."

9. You are more likely to fall ill.
A 2001 study found that having a wife who works less than 40 hours a week has no impact on your health, but having a wife who works more than 40 hours a week has "substantial, statistically significant, negative effects on changes in her husband's health over that time span." The author of another study summarizes that "wives working longer hours not do not have adequate time to monitor their husband's health and healthy behavior, to manage their husband's emotional well-being or buffer his workplace stress."

are you sure?

a few months ago i was wandering around the work neighborhood with a work colleague, who was in the market for a watch for her father, good daughter that she is.

on our way back to the office, we happened past Kenneth Cole, and decided that his store would probably have a selection of watches worthy of pa's day. we went in and proceeded up the stairs, found a nice selection of watches and chose 2 that dad might like. while the purchase was occurring, i noticed some nice-looking suede flip-flops that i instantly coveted. being in the men's department, i asked "Do you have these flip-flops in a narrower size?"

sadly, but not surprisingly, the answer was no.

we proceeded downstairs to exit the store, but of course my eye was caught by more shoes, this time in the women's department where my question was an altogether different one, "excuse me, do you carry size 12?" i asked, expecting a "no" possibly a strange look, nothing more, nothing less.

"women's?" the salesman queried

"yes" i replied, wondering if i looked particularly male that day.

"are you the size 12?" he queried again, particular emphasis on the "YOU"

"yes" i replied, becoming a bit confused, but still awaiting the standard "sorry! no size 12's here!" response i was accustomed to.

"are you sure?" he asked me, with a slight tilt of the head.

many thoughts ran through my head. was i wearing shoes on my feet? was he just fucking with me? how do i respond to such a question?

perhaps the look of confusion on my face led him to believe that i wasn't sure, perhaps this was his maniacal plan all along, but i realized he was indeed not fucking with me when he pulled out the metal foot measurer gadget, the Brannock Device that i had not seen in well-nigh 15 years. not since the day my foot finally topped out, and i breathed a small sigh of relief that my boat feet seemed to have stopped expanding.

he put the Device down on the floor and looked up at me expectantly.

"are you kidding?" i asked, still not convinced that we were going to go down this road, that the knowledge of my own giant foot size was in question.

"let's just give it a shot" he said, and looked at me skeptically, as if for years i had been perpetrating a lie, and here he was to put a stop to it.

i did what anyone would do. i took my bigger foot out (the left one) and slapped that baby down in the Brannock. "it's on" i breathed to myself, "it's go time"

"wow" he said quietly as he moved the width and length bars into place, "12 and a half, triple narrow"

i suppressed the desire to gloat, i simply said "yes, i know"

he stood up from his one-knee bend, and pointed to a button-adorned ballet flat "i have that in a size 11" he said expectantly

i was taken aback. "you just measured my foot" i said

"it has a wide toe box" he said, looking straight into my eyes

"i'm a twelve and a half!" i pleaded, leaving off the "triple narrow" hoping to get some kind of recognition as to the ludricrous nature of this conversation, in fact this entire interaction

"it fit one of my customer's who is an 11 and a half" he said in complete seriousness.

i couldn't take it any more, i felt stunned and confused "yeah, i'll come back" i said and turned to walk out the door.

my bystander coworker said "what the hell just happened?" as she followed me out