Sunday morning roundup

Stephanie Coontz reviews, questions some of the conclusions of, "The Richer Sex."

Also see this contribution to the 'men are more than walking penises' canon.

Really? Wireless carriers are supposed to be helpful? Because I reported some text spam to AT&T--a message I had to pay for no less--and all they did was offer to change my phone number for a high price and sell me a monthly service to block numbers. I'll now report both the spammer and my carrier to the FTC.

Let's agree that unsolicited statement gifts--whether it's a shaving kit for someone you find too hairy or a charitable donation as a wedding gift to a couple you find too wealthy--are in bad taste.

I love Miss Manners, but I'm not sure why anyone turns to her for dating advice. You also just want to shake this woman and say, there are no guarantees in life, much less dating. No one's going to admit to you on a first date that they're there to trash your finances. No one wants to deal with that and there's no shortcut for screening against it. There are all kinds of people out there.

On that note, people who slam online dating need to realize that it's at least no worse than any other way of meeting people. Bf and I were just talking last week about how our respective friends who'd tried to set us up (with other people) were comically misguided, usually because there criteria were, "they're both single." In one case, one of my friends wanted to set me up with someone because I'm "a talker" and he was pretty quiet, so I would apparently have more time to blab indiscriminately. The point is, by all means let your friends know that you're interested in meeting people; but you may as well also meet people in other ways, too.

Darn it, the Times has figured me out and wants to make me pay for access, so I don't know what they have to say about the parenting-by-nationality debate. It's mostly about how American parents are over-involved.