House acts to save Terri

This website of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee contains the press release on H.R. 1332, the Protection of Incapacitated Persons Act of 2005.

"H.R. 1332 authorizes the removal of cases in State court to U.S. federal court to vindicate the federal rights of incapacitated persons under the U.S. Constitution or any federal law. Such proceedings would be authorized after an incapacitated person has exhausted available State remedies and the relevant papers must be filed in federal court within 30 days after the exhaustion of available State remedies.

“What’s going on in Florida regarding Terri Schiavo is nothing short of inhumane. She’s facing what amounts to a death sentence, ensuring she will slowly starve to death over a matter of weeks. Terri Schiavo - a woman who smiles and cries and who is not on a respirator or any other 24-hour-a-day medical equipment - has committed no crime and she has done nothing wrong. Yet the Florida courts seem bent on setting an extremely dangerous precedent by saying we must stop feeding someone who can’t feed herself. Who’s next - the disabled or those late in life? This legislation is the humane and right thing to not only protect Terri Schiavo, but also to reinforce the law’s commitment to justice and compassion for all, especially the most vulnerable."

918 A lovely Library in Dublin

I've already blogged about this day at 916, however, in checking a link to the Book of Kells that wasn't working right (probably too many hits today), I found this lovely web page for Trinity College Library of The University of Dublin, with a very friendly and attractive newsletter on site.

"Trinity College Library is the largest library in Ireland. Its collections of manuscripts and printed books have been built up since the end of the sixteenth century. In addition to the purchases and donations of almost four centuries, since 1801 the Library has had the right to claim all British and Irish publications under the terms of successive Copyright Acts. The bookstock is now over four million volumes and there are extensive collections of manuscripts, maps and music." [from library web page]

So as I clicked through some of the databases, I came across the "Early English Books Online," but of course, I needed a login and password to use it. EEBO, I learned, was: "Launched in 1999 as a joint effort between the University of Michigan, Oxford University and ProQuest Information and Learning, the partnership allows participating libraries to help shape this full-text archive. Partnership is open to libraries that purchase Early English Books Online (EEBO)."

Once I saw the word "ProQuest" I was pretty sure I could get into this by switching to the Ohio State University Libraries web page (which is not pretty or easy to use like Trinity), so I did. And if you have some connection to a major library, or even visit one, you'll be able to see this marvelous resource, including the facsimiles of both the most famous and most obscure works in pre-1700 English (including North America) language, literature and culture. I chose the author William Tyndale to search (77 entries).

From the EEBO webpage: "Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.

From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this incomparable collection now contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Libraries possessing this collection find they are able to fulfill the most exhaustive research requirements of graduate scholars - from their desktop! - in many subject areas, including: English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science."

Although I'm a confirmed "book person," I am many times overwhelmed by the richness of resources on the internet that time, space and money would never allow me to see otherwise.

917 The economics of health

We had a low budget wedding and received modest, but useful gifts--many of which I’m still using after 45 years. Like the butcher knife I used on the corned beef slab to make it fit in the crock pot this morning; the turquoise color nesting Pyrex bowls I use everyday to either mix, serve or store food; and the white metal bathroom scales I haven’t stepped on in the last four weeks. I looked through Google’s images to see if I could post what this little treasure looks like with all its 1950s sleek, aerodynamic design, but couldn’t find one. I remember the couple who gave it to us, but not their names. Indianapolis. The husbands worked together as draftsmen for a coal company. She was a hair dresser. They were about 45-ish, so have probably gone to their rewards now. This metal scale has followed me through lots of dress sizes over the years, and depending on what that is, may accumulate dust for months at a time.

However, today in a WSJ article about new household appliances and gadgets I noticed the "HoMedic Total Body Fat Analyzer Scale." It sells for about $140 and will tell you where the fat is on your upper and lower body (currently I use a mirror for that), and what your optimum levels are (I've had this body for 65 years and I think I know that answer). It measures how much body water you have, skeletal muscle mass, and the calories you can have to maintain the weight you want.

In 2003, the most recent date I could find for comparison, $10.00 in 1960 would be $62.16 using the Consumer Price Index; $50.21 using the GDP deflator; $76.13 using the unskilled wage; $129.77 using the GDP per capita ; and $208.66 using the relative share of GDP Relative value. Relative value

In 2004 the adjusted dollar cost for a gallon of gasoline was the same as the 1960 price ($1.79), but it would take 20 new cars to equal the pollution of one 1960 car (which we didn’t have in 1960 so we were polluting even more). But I digress--the price of gasoline in 1960 really doesn't have a thing to do with this story. So I’m thinking I could probably buy the $140 scale, and go with the GDP per capita figure (adjusted a little for 2005), and completely justify it in my mind as the replacement for a 1960 scale. Still, the 1960 scale was a gift, costing us nothing (because the wedding was in Illinois, they didn't attend). Maybe I’ll just keep it and use the mirror and tape measure and start walking to the coffee shop.

916 Happy St. Patrick's Day

The best book you'll ever read about Ireland is "How the Irish Saved Civilization." But the best card is the one I saw last week at the St. Pat's dinner at our friends' home. The main cartoon showed a weary man behind the wheel of a car with a bunch of snakes stuffed in the back seat some leaning out the windows. The caption said something like, "Why St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland." The snakes were saying things like "I gotta pee," "Are we there yet?" "He's touching me," "I want the window." All the parents howled. Even after all these years how well we remember those car trips with kids in the back seat.

"Cahill tells of how the Roman and Irish worlds met in a young Roman kidnapped from his British home by Irish marauders. Born Miliucc, he would spend six years in slavery, escape, and return as a Christian missionary. That missionary had learned much about the Irish people during his time as a slave and, blessed with a gentle faith and a wonder of the world around him, would make Ireland the only land converted to Christianity without violence. The Irish in turn would come to love their St. Patrick and approached Christianity with energy and fervor. A form of Christianity evolved that allowed the Irish to maintain some of the Celtic traditions that were an integral part of their world.

As Christianity settled in, monasteries were established throughout Ireland. The monks became passionate scribes not only of the Scriptures but also of other classical texts that were as risk of being lost after the fall of the Roman Empire. Celtic art forms were among the traditions that survived into the Irish Christian era and would lead to the development of spectacular illuminated manuscripts at the monks' hands. The Book of Kells is one well-known example of the monks' phenomenal artistry. "

When I went into the kitchen to feed the cat this morning, on the counter was a card, a small gift and a huge St. Pat's day pin from my husband. And what did you get your spouse? (Confession: I always forget, and didn't even have a card.)

915 Kerry blames the media--just not the right ones

Now John Kerry is blaming the media for his failures last fall. Says they are biased toward Bush. That’s so absurd it is laughable--just pathetic. Every book store and library I stepped into was loaded with anti-Bush material. The mainstream media went out of their way to report negatively about Bush and ignored the charges of the Swiftboat Veterans when they surfaced in March 2004. Even when their book was on the best seller list, it wasn’t reviewed in the major sources. It seemed half the country knew about the Swiftboat Vets but ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN were afraid of Kerry--or hated Bush too much.

So Kerry isn’t pointing fingers at the MSM, because he can’t. According to Howard Kurtz in WaPo,

"'We learned,' Kerry continued, 'that the mainstream media, over the course of the last year, did a pretty good job of discerning. But there's a subculture and a sub-media that talks and keeps things going for entertainment purposes rather than for the flow of information. And that has a profound impact and undermines what we call the mainstream media of the country. And so the decision-making ability of the American electorate has been profoundly impacted as a consequence of that. The question is, what are we going to do about it?'"

A sub-media that keeps things going for entertainment purposes? Wouldn't this include "Hardball" and "Crossfire" as well as O'Reilly? Al Franken as well as Rush Limbaugh? Cable networks going wild over Scott Peterson and the Jacko trial? For some reason, Kerry exonerates the mainstream media for some of the same sins he sees in other parts of the news/info world.”

Yes, it does look like bias--but not against Kerry. Fortunately, says John O’Neill, in a recent interview, Kerry threatened stations after the first ad appeared in August (the Vets had hoped their March story would keep him from being nominated so the Democrats would have time to select someone else--many weren’t Republicans).

“The threats against the station managers led to extensive publicity, particularly on the "Hannity and Colmes]" show and then on other FOX News shows. Then it spread to CNN and to MSNBC. More than 1,400,000 people downloaded that first ad, and it swept through the Internet. It also allowed thousands and thousands of people to start donating money to us at our Web site.

Three weeks after it was put up, half of all the people in the United States had heard about that ad and about us and yet there had never been a story about us on ABC, NBC, or CBS or in the New York Times.”

Some good has come out of the torturous months and threats the Swiftboat Vets endured. O’Neill says:

“It haunts all of us that the first Vietnam veteran nominated for President would be John Kerry--the very last person most veterans would pick for high office. But it is ironic that his run for the White House may have finally initiated some less fictionalized thinking about the war.”

914 Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

This hymn in 4/4 time with 4 flats is almost 120 years old. Written by Elisha A. Hoffman based on a passage in Deuteronomy 33:27, it can be slow and nasal, or toe tapping, hand clapping and sprightly, “what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms.” I came across it today because it was the March 16 selection in the book “Amazing Grace; 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions” (Kregel, 1990).

I don’t recall ever hearing this hymn in my home church in Mt. Morris, Illinois--we rarely sang anything with a strong beat, a waltz tune, or revivalist vigor--and you could almost do a slow jitterbug to this one. So I will forever associate it with a tiny church in Flat Creek, Kentucky, (near Manchester) where my sister Carol served with Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) in the summer of 1956. The only service I attended in the little church included this hymn, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” but they sang it like a mournful dirge. The small, poor congregation, who leaned not only on God but each other, the nasal harmony, and the heat of that summer have always stayed with me reminding me of Carol when I hear it.

The Church of the Brethren is a small, Anabaptist denomination founded in 1708 in Germany, and is often linked with the Quakers and Mennonites because of its pacifism and service. After WWII the church started a volunteer service program in 1948 with one or two year service opportunities preceded by a training program. Initially, it attracted mostly young people, but in the 60s began drawing more older and retired adults. Click here for history and service information about BVS.

My parents, brother and I had traveled to Flat Creek to visit Carol in the mountains where she lived with another volunteer and a “house mother” who sort of acted as a chaperone and helped with the domestic duties and a garden while the young women taught Sunday School and Bible School, provided recreational programs for the children and programming for adults. The mission also had a minister, but I’m not sure where he lived or if he may have served several churches. We went in July, so we may have driven down to be with her on her birthday.

I don’t know what the area looks like today, but getting there by automobile was quite a challenge in 1956. The unpaved roads seemed to be teetering on the edge, and if you met someone coming the other way. . . well, someone would have to give. The houses on the hillsides seemed to be built on stilts and cars and trucks on blocks shared the yards with chickens and dogs. To get to one of the little mission churches they served (may have been a home rather than a church building), Carol rode there on horseback. Since she’d never shown any interest in my horse, I found the sight of my older sister riding bareback almost more amazing than anything else I saw that week. I also encountered young girls my age who were already married, and some with babies--I was 15. We grew up in rural Illinois, but rural Kentucky in the mountains in the 1950s could have been another country--even the language didn’t sound like anything I’d heard.

We talk about kids growing up fast today because of the media influences, but after Mother's death in 2000 I brought home and re-read her letters to my parents she’d written that year and was just stunned by what the church expected of those very young men and women, many away from home for the first time, and most without even college or work experience. Today’s young adults of that age are in a time warp trapped in fantasy, make-believe and gaming compared to those teens of the mid-50s who were experiencing real life.

Training Unit photo. BVS unit 28

The training period was 8 or 9 weeks in New Windsor, Maryland, on the site of a former Brethren college. While she was still in her training, there was terrible flooding in Pennsylvania, and these kids were pulled from classes to go out and help clean up the disaster, which included finding a dead baby (mentioned in one of her letters). She served as a community surveyor in a suburb of Denver while living in the basement of the pastor’s house (and I believe babysitting was part of that job, too). She was also a guinea pig at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland before being sent to Kentucky. After Carol’s year in BVS she enrolled at Goshen College in Indiana and became an RN. Some years later she earned a master’s degree. She died of a diabetic stroke in 1996.

Looking back at her life that year and her subsequent years of ill health, I think Carol truly must have been “leaning on the everlasting arms.”

913 English and Alcohol

When I took the English test and got a score that said I was more knowledgable than 99% of the people in my age group, I thought WOW. But when I took the alcohol knowledge test and it also said I knew more than 99% in my age group, I figured it just wasn't running the numbers for my age group because not enough people were taking the test. I answered the alcohol questions randomly because I know nothing about alcohol and only have an occasional glass of house wine. I've never even tasted beer, so I left one of the beer questions blank which offer that option. Still scored pretty high. So I guess that's why I curved so high in English. Darn.

Update: The link to the test for Mr. Cloud.

912 LeetSpeek

If you’ve wondered why you see so many numbers, capital letters and screwed up spelling in some teens-on-line-chat, you’ve probably been reading “leet.” Take a look at this site, “A Parent’s Primer to Computer Slang” by Microsoft to decipher what those bilingual kids are talking about. If you come across pr0n (porn) or h4x (hacks), it may mean something bad is going on.
Tip from In Season Librarian

911 Worst Neighbor Award

When we were in Florida in February 2003 I recall reading in the local Longboat Key paper about the battles with street lights and dog feces. Now Florida Cracker has the follow-up to one of the stories I might have read.

"[Psychologist] Holli Bodner had a yearlong feud with Jean Pierre Villar about street lights and dog poop before committing him to a mental health center in April 2003." Tampa Bay 10 News

I debated about skipping this number because of all the false hits it will bring to this site, but it is also the date of our anniversary. So if you've wandered in here expecting something else, my apologies, but enjoy your visit.

The Blogger posting mechanism is really messed up and is double and triple posting entries.

910 Tara Parker Pope

Tara Parker Pope writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal on health, and she answers questions from readers. She also contributes occasionally to career articles. She has also written a book on the cigarette industry. I know nothing about her--I just think her name is fabulous and wonderful. Because she writes about health issues, I’m guessing she gets a ton of mail telling her that she is wrong, crazy or in cahoots with the evil pharmaceutical industry or conversely, the alternative medicine wackos. This entry is not about that. I just like her name. With a name like Tara Parker Pope, she should be in a sit-com or on stage, so I’ve written a poem about her.

Tara Parker Pope--
such a lovely name;
sing it, play it,
hang it on a rope.

Tara Parker Pope.
she of Wall Street fame;
read her, write her,
She will help you cope.

909 Mending is a sacred rite

Several weeks ago a button popped off my husband’s sport coat as he was getting ready to walk out the door to usher at church. He rushed upstairs to grab another jacket, leaving the button on the kitchen counter, where is sat until yesterday. About three days ago he brought the button-missing coat down stairs and hung it wordlessly in the hall, where it stayed for a day. I finally moved the poor thing to the dining room and laid the button on top. That put it within 5 ft. of my mother’s sewing cabinet. I think I was secretly hoping a needle and thread would appear and do the job. Meanwhile, the cat has discovered it and thinks the button should be on the floor.

Today I was looking through the photocopy of my mother’s commonplace book which she compiled between 1946 and 1999, although I think some things were published earlier, just not pasted in (poems about the war, for instance). Reading one poem about mending made me pause and wonder if young wives and mothers mend these days.

Women Mending by Nelle Graves McGill

All women at their mending wear a look
As legible as any open book;
And by the way in which they bend above
Each garment, show their wisdom and their love.

A girl just mends her dress to make it do--
Impatiently--till she has something new.
A young wife darns an unaccustomed sock,
With proud, expectant eyes which seek the clock.

A mother sews a tiny button in place
On baby’s gown, a glory on her face;
Or patches up a rent in son’s best breeches
As if she’d reinforce the youth by switches.

But grandma’s fingers touch a boy’s torn cap
As if it were his head upon her lap;
Her tremulous hands are light above the seam
Of grandpa’s coat, as though she darned a dream--
Most frail and beautiful--to make it last
Until his need, and hers, of dreams be past.

Old women know that women must repair
Life’s worn habiliments, to keep life fair;
They know that mending is a sacred rite,
To be performed with prayer, while God gives light.

I checked Google to see if Mrs. McGill might have a collection of verses. I didn’t find anything, but she is in my anthology of “Contemporary American Women Poets" (1935). However, I did find an obituary for her daughter Monna who died two years ago at age 93. She’d been a radio and stage actress in New York, had worked in Kansas City, and then returned to her hometown to live with her parents (probably to care for them) and worked as an editor and correspondent. She published short stories, poetry and essays.

I’m sure there is a story in there somewhere, but I need to go pray over a button while there is light.

908 Using Loose and Lose

Are you lost? Losing your way with the words "loose" (lus) and "lose" (luz)? “She had to loosen her slacks, so she dieted to lose weight and then her slacks were loose.” “Loose morals caused him to lose his way.”

lose, lost, losing--a verb
loose, looser, loosest--an adjective
loosen, loosened, loosening--a verb

“People who study errors in language make a systematic distinction between inadvertent errors -- in the case at hand, slips of the pen or typos -- and another type of mistake, which arises from imperfect command of the conventions at work in the larger community of language users -- in the case at hand, "spelling errors" in the sense of errors involving the conventions of spelling. Writing or typing "teh" for "the" is an inadvertent error, and a very common one. Writing or typing "loose" for the present tense or base form /luz/ of the verb whose past tense is spelled "lost" is, I maintain, almost always something else; people who spell this way, and there are a great many of them, almost always intend that spelling (while those who spell "teh" surely do not intend that spelling).”

Read the whole article by Arnold Zwicky at Language Log.

907 When dependency means a death sentence

“Terri Schiavo’s death is not imminent. She is not on a ventilator, dialysis, or other life sustaining equipment. She is not awaiting a transplant or other major surgery. She is not in pain. She has two parents and siblings who love and care for her. She has access to good health care. If given basic care and food and water her life will continue in more or less its present state. The very fact that her present state is pretty miserable is precisely why some think she should die. . . .Those advocating Terri Schiavo’s death, including her husband, are not making their case on medical grounds, but on Terri’s radical condition of dependency and low quality of life. “ Father Michael Black

First seen at Jordan's site.

906 The Democrats' resistence to private accounts

Why have the Democrats been so virulently opposed to salvaging Social Security with private accounts, I've wondered. It didn't make sense. It could save our safety net. It could help the poor. In the late 90s they were saying SS was broken and broke. (Of course, they were also reporting that Iraq had WMD in those days.) Maybe it is just hatred of anything Bush?

I think John Zogby has really put his finger on it in an editorial essay in today's Wall Street Journal (Mar. 15, 2005) Zogby's polling firm has analyzed the 2004 election from every possible angle, and turned up some interesting information about Democrats who are also part of the self described investor class.

It is possible that if George W. Bush is successful in creating a larger investor class, a group that goes across all the demographics of female, Hispanic, Black, middle-class, etc., the Democrats will lose their base.

The investor class is self-identified as 46% of the total vote in 2004, and their world view tends to be conservative, middle-class, modest, and saving for the kids' college. And if they are Democrats, many of them voted for Bush.

"Like the New Deal, the president's "ownership society" is a compelling new vision and veritable redefinition of a society less dependent on government largess, of a middle class more independent and more capable of securing financial security on its own."

That would be bad news for the Democrats who need a large group of poor, disadvantaged and minority constituents to maintain their base. There will be many more theories and ideas thrown out for consideration to save Social Security, but this one by Zogby answered a nagging question for me.

905 No Late Fees

Scribbling Lizard (Gekko) is really determined to find out the true story behind the "no late fee" advert at Blockbuster. So, she clicked, and clicked, and clicked on their website until she finally found something definitive about just how they get those videos back with no incentive.

"If you still have a movie or game seven (7) days after the due date shown on your receipt, we will convert your rental to a sale. The movie or game will be sold to you at the selling price in effect at the time of rental, which is either the retail price, or, when available, at the previously-rented selling price, less the initial rental fee you paid."

Gekko muses and does the math: "So you do get a late fee, after all. The fee amounts to somewhere around $15 - $25. They've simply extended the late fee period from the due date, to seven days following the due date. Seven days times their previous $3 a day late fee charge was $21. Hmmmm. And they pretty much say "You just bought yourself a movie or a game, fella." Cool. Unless the movie was a piece of crap.

Well, thank goodness they have that covered! If you don't want the movie, you can return it, and get credited the sale charge."

Nice investigating, Gek.

I think libraries do something similar. If you keep it too long, you own it.

904 Blog People’s Revenge

“Bloggers are showing American Library Association (ALA) president-elect Michael Gorman that revenge is apparently a dish best served digital. Bloggers, librarians included, are responding in great numbers—and in rather prickly fashion—to Gorman’s recent LJ Backtalk piece “Revenge of the Blog People.” The piece has drawn over 1000 responses to its posting on popular technology webzine Slashdot.org, and emails were pouring in to LJ’s editorial department.”

March 13, 2005 LJ article

Slash dot link to the original item February 25, 2005.

903 Everybody talking 'bout heaven ain't goin' there

So according to the last entry, I'm going to "cat lady heaven" because I treat a small mammal with fur and whiskers and a crooked tail well. It's a cute quiz, and fortunately I already know I'm going to heaven, but not because of my cat, and not because of anything I've done right.

Actually, I'm not sure of the preposition to use, whether heaven is up, over, in, around or through. Scripture is rather vague about that. In an odd turn of events, the earth, the country, the towns that we know so well are what is transitory, and the Christian's real citizenship is in heaven. (Keep that in mind flag-wavers.) Space and time is something we only need on earth, so I suppose the preposition really doesn't matter--heaven is where God dwells and "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." (Rev. 21:3,4) In order for heaven to have no tears and sorrow, maybe you'll need to have your cat or dog--I'm sure it can be arranged.

902 A quiz for cat lovers

Going to Cat Lady Heaven: Your cats are pampered
and treated like the perfect creatures that
they are. There is definitely a spot reserved
for you in Kitty Heaven :)

What kind of Cat Parent are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Hip Liz, on the other hand . . .

901 The Secret Life of Sororities

The Yale Review of Books (undergrad publication) has an interesting review of Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins (Hyperion). Robbins is a Bush hater who has distinguished herself with Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power and now looks for more intriguing secrets among our campus Greeks. Review by Rebecca Adler here.

I was never even remotely interested in pledging a sorority when I was in college. As much as I liked my friends in my high school clique, that was enough for me by age 18. I’m thinking Robbins might have thought differently--perhaps was hankering for a Kappa or Chi-O pin, and was rejected. I wore my “independent” status like a badge at the university. Quite to my surprise though, when I got to know them I really liked and admired the sorority women in my classes--they were smart, helpful, hard working, and had lovely personalities. It was the exclusivity I didn’t admire about these clubs. But according to Robbins, that may be the least of the worries, as she chronicles date rape, binge drinking, silly and barbaric hazing routines and mixes in some disturbing statistics. We don’t know if the same thing is going on in the indy dorms and apartments around campus, because that wasn’t her research project, and also, she only followed four women. Not a huge sample when you consider the size of the sisterhood.

In the end, the reviewer turns the magnifying glass on the author and writes: “Robbins falls short of her original open-minded intention, that of examining an unknown culture through a year's immersion. Throughout her account, Robbins maintains a steady downward gaze with an upturned nose, causing Pledged to morph from a sensationalized account of college life into an accusatory diatribe against the power and stupidity of Greek life. After reading through Robbins's ranting, the reader wants to shove her off her privileged soapbox, to suffer humiliation like the pledges she spent so much time with and wasted a whole book destroying.”

900 Parents of Teens, check this out

There’s no way to know if high school romances have changed that much since you and I were young, Maggie, because no one investigated it with sophisticated mapping until recently. But if you’ve got teen-agers who are dating, you might want to take a look at this research and review the facts of life and STDs with them.

“For the first time, sociologists have mapped the romantic and sexual relationships of an entire high school over 18 months, providing evidence that these adolescent networks may be structured differently than researchers previously thought.”

“James Moody, co-author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State University, said this network could be compared to rural phone lines, running from a long main trunk line to individual houses. As a comparison, many adult sexual networks are more like an airline hub system where many points are connected to a small number of hubs.” Report of his study here.

Click on this link, and you’ll see there were only 63 monogamous couples in the whole school! Everyone less was more or less, sexually linked. A to B, B to C (and therefore C to A), and B to D (and therefore D to A, B and C, and so forth) Pink dots are female; blue are male. Isn’t that cute?

Because the OSU research announcements go to my spam dump which I only read occasionally, I happened to see this at Collision Detection. Don’t know when it first appeared, so my apologies if you've all seen this.

Update: Math was my weak link. I think I've changed the number of this 4 times.