Thursday morning roundup

Not a good idea to take women's votes for granted.

The toll of the recession on families.

Gail Collins was once banned from Nebraska.

I've already posted articles on Jonathan Safran Foer's new book and commented on vegetarian issues, so here I'll focus on the fact that I don't give my cat gifts. That's just the kind of empty gesture in which RM excels. The pet doesn't care; you're doing it for yourself. Gracie's ecstatic with a laser pointer and rubber bands. Then again, I don't eat (non-marine) animals.

The New Yorker's excellent piece on Gaza.

Tom Philpott makes an interesting point about the services we tend to outsource.

DC area residents excel at fruit and vegetable consumption. I find the national statistics on this unfortunate and scary, especially in conjunction with recent findings on the mental health impact of processed foods.