Friday, October 17, 2003 Word Jumbles By Diana Hsieh @ 11:35 PM Some of you may have seen this little tidbit in e-mail a few weeks ago when it was making the rounds: Instructions: Just read the sentence straight through without really thinking about it. Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen't mttaer, the olny thnig thta's iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy. What I find strange about my capacity to quickly read that jumble of letters is that I am horrible at real jumbles, i.e. puzzles where you have to discern the word from totally mixed-up letters. I wonder why fixing the first and last letters makes such a huge cognitive difference. Anyone know? Link / Noodles / Trackback Oh, Blessed Fibula By Diana Hsieh @ 11:23 AM For a long time now, I've done much of my computing work on an old but ultralight Sony Vaio laptop (200MHz CPU, 96MB RAM, 2GB HD, Win98, but only 2.8 lbs), as I don't like being constrained to my desk. So I've long had all philosophy files on the laptop, but I also recently swapped over my e-mail too, as I found that I could keep up with the flood better if I could send out e-mails while watching TV. A while ago, I decided that I would get a new laptop soon. And then I decided that I wanted it sooner. And then I decided that I wanted it now. So on Tuesday, I ordered a refurbished Dell Inspiron 300m (1.2GHz CPU, 632MB RAM, 60GB HD, WinXP, and still just 2.99 lbs). I was expecting it to arrive sometime next week or so. But it arrived today, just 3 days after I ordered it! And wow, am I ever in love. Link / Noodles / Trackback Wednesday, October 15, 2003 Kill Bill By Diana Hsieh @ 6:47 PM I haven't seen Kill Bill yet, but I suspect that this NRO review by philosopher Thomas Hibbs is spot-on. Link / Noodles / Trackback Magic Words By Diana Hsieh @ 11:50 AM Everyone needs a refresher on Magic Words on occasion. So here's the short course from my beloved Miss Manners: "Please": Precedes any request, however trivial or perfunctory. Unauthorized replacements: "Here's what I need" or "I need you to . . ." "Thank you": Follows any granted request, however trivial or perfunctory. (Note to Gentle Reader who argues that he is "not obliged to be profusely grateful for a person's actions or requests in the normal course of their work": No, but you are obliged to say "please" and "thank you" to them.) "You're welcome": Response to "thank you." Unauthorized replacements: "No problem" and "Thank you." (Note to Gentle Reader who argues that "we need to assure customers that there is not anything that cannot be done to assist them": Yes, there probably is, but you can create that impression by saying "Certainly, I'd be happy to" when the request is made, and then by cheerfully fulfilling it.) "No, thank you": Negative response to offers, typically of refreshments. Unauthorized replacement: "I'm fine." "Yes, please": Positive response to offers. Unauthorized replacement: "Okay." "Excuse me": Preface to interrupting or otherwise inconveniencing someone. Unauthorized replacements: "Hey," "I'm just going to sneak by you here," "Coming through!" "Let me just steal that" and "Well, excuse you." (Note to numerous Gentle Readers who point out that "Excuse me" is often the immediate prelude to grabbing and shoving: Deplorably true, but would you really be happier with the unannounced rude action?) "I'm sorry": Response to complaints about mistakes made by oneself or one's place of employment. Unauthorized replacements: "I'm sorry you feel that way," "I can see you're upset," "I wasn't here that day" and "Okay, here's what you have to do." "That's quite all right": Response to an apology. Can be said graciously if the apology is satisfactory or coldly if it is not. Unauthorized replacement: "Well, you ought to be." "Sir, Madam, Ma'am, Miss": Courtesy titles to people whose names are not known to the speaker. Unauthorized replacement: "You guys." Response to the argument that such titles makes one "feel old": Perhaps you are, but whatever your age, you can't alter it by being rude to people who treat you with dignity. Link / Noodles / Trackback Tuesday, October 14, 2003 Myths of Marriage By Diana Hsieh @ 4:24 PM Paul forwarded me this article debunking ten common myths about marriage a few days ago. Thanks, oh husband of mine, but where is the debunking of the myth about the need to engage in retaliatory wife-tickling? For me, the most interesting research about marriage concerns the "benefits gap" between cohabitation and marriage. In particular, I suspect that cohabitation makes abandoning a relationship both too easy and too hard. Cohabitation makes abandonment too easy for couples that probably ought to be married, in that a person can leave without the sense of personal failure that (at least ought to) accompany a divorce and without the push from friends and family to "try to make the marriage work." Often that internal and external pressure can prevent a couple from giving up on a good relationship too soon. Cohabitation also makes abandonment too hard for couples that probably ought to only be dating, in that their lives become too deeply intertwined to easily break up if a relationship goes sour. Leaving a bad relationship is often hard to do, but cohabitation makes such a change even more difficult with the need to move, to divide up stuff, and so on. So a cohabitator might thus be more likely to stay with the wrong person than someone merely dating. Both of these considerations might be reasons why the psychological data overwhelming shows that "those who live together before marriage have less satisfying marriages and a considerably higher chance of eventually breaking up." In short, cohabitation attempts to split the difference between marriage and dating; the couple wants to enjoy the benefits of marriage without the burden of commitment or the need to be very selective about one's partner. But marriage without commitment and selectivity isn't a recipe for bliss, but for personal turmoil and disaster. Yet some people (including people I know) keep trying -- over and over and over again. When will they learn the true nature of the problem? Link / Noodles / Trackback Oh, Chilly! By Diana Hsieh @ 2:58 PM Okay, I admit it: My family has a somewhat twisted sense of humor. This picture was forwarded from my aunt (who lives in Denmark) to my mother to me. Brrrrr! Link / Noodles / Trackback Sunday, October 12, 2003 The Psychology of Prostitution By Diana Hsieh @ 1:26 PM Josh Zader pointed me to these fascinating comments by Heidi Fleiss on prostitution. She talks about the government's legal pursuit of her, how she got into the madam business, and advocates the legalization of prostitution. People often presume that prostitutes are somehow psychologically damaged by their trade, but I wonder whether that is true. Certainly streetwalkers are not paragons of mental health, but it is doubtful that prostitution made them that way. And what of the higher-end prostitutes? And some women may be drawn to the profession due to past sexual abuse or somesuch, but even if they are thereby damaged further, prostitution cannot really be blamed for the negative outcome. And some women might simply be dispositionally unsuited for the profession, such that they would be damaged if they entered it. But none of these facts shows that the profession is itself psychologically harmful. It might be positively beneficial for some women in some circumstances -- or at least no more psychologically harmful (and much more lucrative) than alternative professions. Frankly, I suspect that casual sleeping around is far more damaging to a woman than prostitution, given the likely resulting emotional confusion and turmoil. The prostitute can fairly easily create a sort of emotional distance between herself and her clients, largely because she knows exactly why she's sleeping with them: money. The slut, on the other hand, is performing extremely intimate acts with virtual strangers and other unworthies... but why? She is investing her trust in men who have done nothing to deserve it. I think that such a contradiction must prey on the mind over time, gradually diminishing the woman's capacity to make wise judgments about other people. I wonder if there are any good psychological studies on the psychological effects of promiscuity... and comparing those effects in women versus in men. Link / Noodles / Trackback

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