Cuz, let's face it, I suspect I know more about the history and sociology of prostitution than anyone else likely to be reading this.

So, as you may have heard, _SuperFreakonomics_, the new book by Dubner and Levitt, has a very controversial chapter basically arguing that prostitution rocks, and that prostitutes who are unhappy with their job just don't like sex, whereas successful prostitutes are happy cuz they just love having intercourse with strangers all the time. The research methodology has a lot of problems; they focus on two (two!) case studies, Allie and LaSheena - can you guess, dear reader, which is the high-priced escort and which is the desperate streetwalker? Can you think of any reasons besides her lack of enjoyment why LaSheena might be less successful financially than Allie?

I wrote an article this summer which established that, in ancient (elite male-authored) fiction, prostitute-moms all want their daughters to be prostitutes, whereas from the nonfiction legal evidence, prostitute-mothers did everything possible to find conventional, respectable marriages for their daughters. Apparently some things haven't changed.

But that's not actually the subject of my rant. In their blog today, Dubner and Levitt host a Q&A with Sudhir Venkatesh, the sociologist who did the research on prostitution that forms the basis of their chapter. Here's one of his answers:


( Answers: )
Sorry if this was boring to you, but this is actually what I work on, more or less, and it frustrates me to see such naivete parroted in a paper of record.

So, relatively early on, Mac decided that the real point of the Great Dickens Christmas Fair (like a good RenFaire except Dickensian London) was hunting and then stalking the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come, played by someone in the full black hood/cape/facemask getup.

This morning, he wrapped his bright blue Thomas blanket around himself and announced that he was the Ghost of Presents-Yet-To-Come, and ran around the house repeatedly scaring us. He's decided he wants to be the Ghost for Christmas.

I guess it's better than being a Tiny Tim fan? The irony here is that I'm still slightly terrified from my owm childhood of that particular ghost, plus it sets off my phobia of Dark Riders.

Also, he was very sweet and kept Robbie happy for half an hour by pretending to spit, which makes Robbie giggle like mad.

To folks who went to my college - from where was this photo (the Andrew Sullivan daily "view from your window") taken? I have a strong guess, but would like other opinions.

This is mostly intended as a message for my secret Santa writer for the Yuletide Fanfic Exchange, so regular readers can ignore it unless you're interested in my fic preferences.

In the last couple of TV seasons, I've noticed adolescent gay or maybe-gay characters starting to crop up more - Kurt on Glee, Justin on Ugly Betty, Eric on Gossip Girl, etc...(no lesbian girls that I can think of) One common trend is that their sexualities and personalities are almost always presented as fixed parts of their character from an early age - Kurt comments that he's known he was gay since he was 5, for instance.

I am curious about what cultural impact this trend will have. Obviously, it's great to have positive adolescent gay role models in the media, especially ones who meet with acceptance and love from their families. But I feel like there's an implicit suggestion of strongly binary sexualities - either someone knows their sexual orientation from the time they know their gender, or they default to straight, maybe "straight but kisses their own gender occasionally." Now, maybe, in a more accepting and open society, kids are all figuring out their sexual orientations way earlier than they did when I was in high school. I still worry, though, about all the myriad teenagers who don't get the bright-neon-lights announcement at age 5, but then fall in love with someone their own gender at 16, or 28, or 55 - in the new paradigm, are they "less gay"?

It's going to be a fascinating couple of decades to observe in America from the pov of a historian of sexuality, I'll say that much.

I need a better cooking icon. But anyways...
so, the NYT today published an article on "easy holiday desserts," explicitly for folks who are scared of making pies.

Here is the 2nd paragraph from the "Frozen Maple-Mousse Pie with Chocolate Maple Sauce," which I clicked on because it sounded yummy:

"Beat egg whites until frothy. Place all but a tablespoon of remaining maple sugar in a saucepan, add 1/4 cup water, bring to a boil and cook until mixture is 237 degrees on a candy thermometer. Continue beating egg whites until softly peaked. Then, beating all the while, drizzle in all the maple sugar mixture and beat until egg whites are firm and glossy. Beat in 4 tablespoons maple syrup. Refrigerate."

I note that this is only step #2 of a 5-step recipe, including a separate baking of a crust, the separate making and folding of a mousse, and the creation of a sauce, plus the need for 3 separate bowls, one saucepan, and 3 separate things refrigerated for multiple hours.

This is their idea of an _easy_ dessert? Because rolling out a little flour-water-butter paste is impossible, but using a candy thermometer precisely, separating eggs, and purchasing multiple special and difficult ingredients is simple? If I had easy access to maple sugar, I might make this recipe - but I might decide not to on the grounds that it was too complicated. Even some of the other recipes whose preparation is simpler require combinations like stout, coffee, molasses, ginger, and fresh lemon juice; I don't think you could make any of these without buying $10 or more worth of special ingredients.

As previously mentioned, I participated in a West Coast "parlor-style" LARP based on Steven Brust's Dragaera world this last weekend, ably run by pixiecrack and purchasemonkey . There are a lot of obvious differences between this type of LARP and the more immersive run-around-in-the-woods East Coast LARPs that I've been in before, but that's not really what I'm interested in discussing.

( LARP theorizing: )

Claude Levi-Strauss, the father of structuralism, died today at the age of 100. While I'm more of a post-structuralist, a lot of my work rests on his basic theoretical foundation. Reading his obituary, it struck me that they did a bad job of explaining what his theories actually were or why we should care.

So, I've recently been rather enjoying the Victorian detective novels of Anne Perry, who's great at evoking setting and suspense although less good at the mystery part.

Tonight, following a completely different Wikipedia thread, I discovered that, at the age of 16, she and her best friend coldbloodedly bludgeoned her best friend's mother to death in 1954 (the case that P. Jackson's _Heavenly Creatures_ is based on) because the mom was trying to break up their friendship.

I'm really not sure how I feel about this. I want to think, "well, she served her time, (5 years, 50 years ago) and that's that." But reading murder novels written by a killer...that feels very squicky to me.

Don't worry kids, trite paper writing won't stop you from becoming Vice-President!

Term-Paper Trail

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It's honey-baked ham cupcakes with cappucino cream cheese frosting! The ham is used as the wrapper, not a filling, and sort of crisps up around the honey cupcake, and candied pineapple is put on top.

Sounds deliciously wrong, for those who eat such things.

In other food news, why in the world do cupcake liners come in sets of _32_?

And, in local news, most pathetic human interest headline ever/ Containing the quote: "If he's 5'2, I'll still love him."

Mac is feeling much better, thankfully, and cranky about not being allowed to go to the library. (We're keeping him away from all public places no matter what he says.)

So, in consequence, he's getting to watch a bunch more tv today.

CP: Ah, I see. On Clifford, Emily Elizabeth's friends are all about demonstrating diversity. There's the Indian boy, and the girl in a wheelchair, and the blonde girl, and Jenna, the evil girl (complete with pale skin and long dark hair.). Because, after all, evil deserves its representation too?

Me: It reminds me of Sarah Rees Brennan's review of HBP. Dumbledore: "Life is about making choices, Harry. And some people make the choice to be born evil."

In other updates, Robbie is huge! At 4 months, he weighs 18 lbs 5 oz and is 27.6 inches tall. I missed out both times on the small-adorable-easily-hefted baby phases. Even airplane isn't easy now.

So, after mocking and scorning it for years, I decided that I was being snobbish and petty to be so harsh to Stephanie Meyer's _Twilight_ without having ever actually read it. So I checked it out through the library and plowed through it in the last few days. At msarden 's suggestion, I blogged the process to myself, but then Mac deleted the blog, so here is the undead reconstruction, which is basically unspoilery as long as you, like much of America, know the basic plot elements (vampires!). Now I can be harsh with justification!
( Non-spoilery snarky commentary: )



( More spoilery thoughts - if you care: )

May all your stars be bright in the year to come.

Poll #1474946 What should I bake?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: Friends, participants: 26

Every year, I honor the memory of her mom by baking something for her birthday. Conveniently, we're gaming on her birthday, so I will have folks to eat it. What should I make?

As many of you probably have, I've been getting a lot of mail in my inbox lately featuring individual tragic stories demonstrating the need for health care reform. It struck me this morning that almost all of these stories focus on the problem of health care accessibility, rather than health care costs. The bogeyman presented is that you/your child/your parent might desperately need a medical treatment and be denied the chance to get insurance because you are unemployed/have a pre-existing condition/made a typo/fat. 

This is indeed a real problem, and a danger that I am definitely scared about , despite my excellent current insurance. What strikes me, though, is that almost none of the scare-stories focus on the actual cost of health insurance - much higher than in most other nations. "Please, insurance companies," we seem to be begging, "allow us to pay you substantial portions of our earnings so that we might be safe in case of medical catastrophe!" No one seems to be asking whether the system makes sense in the first place - only for the chance to buy in.

Scott Westerfeld's So Yesterday is an unambitious love child of Connie Willis and Cory Doctorow.

National Space Week is cool! To celebrate, the Obama family invited 150 local schoolkids to join them, Sally Ride, and NASA for an evening of planet-gazing through 20 telescopes on the White House South Lawn. Yay popularization of astronomy!

Also, it's the First Dog's birthday. Maybe he'll get some eyes by next birthday...

May it be sweet, savory, and chocolatey, and best of luck for Saturday!

Non-spoilery review: Very vivid sci-fi interpretation of reality tv gone horrifically wrong, with lots of interesting commentary on the nature of "reality" and "characters," marred by somewhat weak interrelationships and a fundamentally reactive heroine and plot, esp. in the 2nd book.

( Spoilery commentary for both books: )