On occasional Fridays, I direct you to some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. I thought I’d lead off with June Thomas’ beautiful explanation for why, despite being a lesbian in a long-term, committed relationship, she doesn’t want to get married.

2. On the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, The Guardian had prominent writers weigh in on the psychology of some of the book’s main characters. I like to think of this post as more aptly sub-titled “Deconstructing Darcy.”

3. And speaking of writing, wise words from Jane Friedman on how long you should keep trying to get published.

4. This Modern Love essay by Julie Goldberg on a love affair that didn’t quite work out really spoke to me.

5. It’s hard to describe how much I loved 20 obsolete English words that should make a comeback. Don’t jargogle it! (Hat tip: Lisa Romeo Writes)

6. Slate just re-published this hilarious essay by John Swansburg on why he hates (adult) birthday parties. And how, John…

7. Finally, over on Londontopia, some gorgeous pictures of London at Night in the 1930′s.

On Fridays, I point you towards some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. This news item is a bit out of date now, but for all you who took delight – or umbrage – at the revelation that some GOP congressmen went skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee last summer whilst on a fact-finding trip to Israel, I encourage you to read Cord Jefferson’s take over on Gawker, appropriately entitled Let My People Get Drunk and Swim Naked In The Ocean.

2. This is riveting: a first-hand account – via Twitter – of what it’s like to sit next to an unruly passenger on an airplane. What’s amazing is how the author manages to make you, as a reader, actually feel nervous as the suspense builds.

3. I loved Cecilia’s honest take over on the Only You blog about how the death of a colleague – and breaking her leg – made her rethink that most fundamental issue in parenting: control.

4. If you’d like a laugh, check out Mitt Romney’s new video blog, on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

5. Finally, do take a moment and check out these one-star reviews of classic literature on The Morning News. Priceless! (Hat tip: Brainiac)

Have a great weekend!

On Friday, I point you towards some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. In case, like me, you’re still missing the Olympics, I give you Mo Farah Running Away From Things.

2. I loved this essay by James Gleick about the rise of autocorrect.

3. From The Huffington Post’s Lisa Belkin, a lovely meditation on parenting.

4. Well, I’ve lived in London for 6 years and I’ve never heard of #5, but otherwise, this BBC America piece on 10 Things Brits Say…And What Americans Think We Mean is right on the money.

5. Finally, if you’re a Tim Minchin fan – and even if you’re not – have a listen to this fabulous interview with the barefooted, piano-playing comedian on BBC Radio 4. He is surprisingly astute about comedy, fame and agnosticism.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I’ve always thought that Fareed Zakaria was a bit too slick.

It’s not that I don’t like him. I share the pundit’s broadly liberal internationalist view towards world affairs. And unlike many wonks (the big exception here being the University of Chicago’s Austan Goolsbee), Zakaria’s actually got a sense of humor, which is always a plus.

But there was always something a bit too cute by half about this good-looking, well-spoken darling of the Center-Left with his million dollar smile.

So it didn’t come as a huge surprise when I learned that Zakaria had become embroiled in a plagiarism scandal that has – temporarily, at least – cost him two of his plum platforms: Time and CNN. On Friday, both news outlets suspended Zakaria while they investigated charges that he had lifted passages from an article by New Yorker writer Jill Lepore on gun control. He has since apologized to Lepore and taken full responsibility for the incident, which he described as a “serious lapse.”

Read the rest of this post on The Washington Post’s She The People website…

Image: Fareed Zakaria at the Newsweek Offices by barthjg via Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Every Wednesday I offer tips for adulthood.

Lately, I’ve been struck by how much the nature of work seems to be changing right now.

Not just because of the seemingly endless recession that’s sapping all of our jobs and igniting political and social change across the globe.

But also because the very definition of work – what it means and how it’s carried out – seems to be in so much flux.

To wit, here are five new trends in the way we conduct work:

1. Offices are a thing of the past. These days, it’s all about the virtual company. Abolishing most – if not all – of a company’s physical space saves a ton of money. It’s also ecologically friendly, productivity-enhancing (no commute!) and tends to make workers happier. As this fascinating case study of Inc. magazine details, there are some hurdles companies need to overcome as they transition to the virtual office (i.e. how to maintain a vibrant organizational culture.) And you definitely don’t want to do it if you have children or other dependents at home while you’re trying to work. But at least for certain jobs, telecommuting  is emerging as an efficient business model, according to the latest research.

2. If you need to set up an office, shared work space is where it’s at. With independent workers now comprising a full 30% of the workforce in the United States, shared office spaces – the term of art is coffice – are proliferating around the globe. (Why do I love this term so much? I think it’s because it reminds me of coffee.) Apparently, coffices have become particularly attractive for female entrepreneurs, as a space in which to network and share ideas.

3. Think in terms of income streams, not jobs. This comes from career coach Ford R. Myers, author of Get The Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring. Some 6.9 million Americans, or 4.8 percent of the U.S. workforce, hold multiple jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But Myers says that this doesn’t necessarily mean that all of these people are working a double shift just to pay the bills. Rather, they are more likely doing part-time contract work, running a side business, or teaching a course – in short, building flexibility into their work life – by thinking in terms of multiple income streams, rather than multiple jobs. Or, as blogger and business communications guru Chris Brogan puts it, work will be more modular in nature.  Sounds good to me.

4. Working fewer hours can make you more productive. Yeah, yeah. I know. We’ve heard it all before. The Four Hour Work Week and all that good stuff. But it turns out that it might be true. According to a recent study in published in Psychological Review, the key to great success is working harder in short bursts of time. Researchers found that across professions, productivity is enhanced when you work in short, highly-focused bursts with no distractions, rather than across long periods of time. As someone who’s always put in long days, this is music to my ears.

5. Internships aren’t just for college kids anymore. Rather, unpaid adult internships are the new normal. This is either exciting vis à vis the whole concept of “second acts.” Or just a horrifying sign of the dire economic straits in which we find ourselves. But it’s a reality. In a country with an unemployment rate hovering steadily just below 10%, more and more college graduates and even middle-aged professionals are willing to work for free in hopes that it will help them land a paying gig. Yikes.

Image: Day 308/365  – Rough Day At The Office by Kevin H. via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Every Friday I point you towards some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. In case you missed this feel-good moment of the century, here’s Paul Simon letting a fan come up on stage and perform one of his songs.

2. Equally inspirational is this commencement speech by NPR science correspondent Robert Krulwich on the future of journalism. If this doesn’t move you to go out and pursue your dreams, nothing will.

3. In other news, for those following the whole Lars Von Trier/Hitler/Cannes saga, this you tube video is priceless.

4. Loved Salon’s virtual tour of the world’s most inviting bookstores.

5. Also loved this sneak peak at book covers that didn’t make it over on the New York Times. (Ummm…Wetlands? Hello?)

6. I’m always drawn to stories about the kindness of strangers. Joan Wickersham has a great tale about drive-by kindness in the Boston Globe.

7. Finally, in the department of random, quirky and fun, read the Guardian’s interview with Director John Waters. Hat tip: Donna Trussell.

Have a great weekend!

Every Wednesday I offer tips for adulthood.

At my son’s school, they periodically teach the children what they call “life skills.”

I’m not exactly sure what they cover in that curriculum. I suspect that it may have more to do with social/emotional development. But I like the term “life skills,” as it captures something practical about what kids need to do to get on in life, as opposed to just learning facts.

When your kids are little, there are plenty of “life skills” milestones. Potty training is, of course, the first giant hurdle. Sleeping through the night on their own is another one, if you go in for that sort of thing.

But as your kids get older, they also need to acquire certain life skills. And if you’re like me, you wake up one day and realize that your ten year-old doesn’t know how to tie his shoes and you think: Yikes!

To that end, and because April in the UK this year was basically one giant, extended holiday, I decided to devote that month to helping my son master some basic life skills.

To wit, here are ten things all ten year-olds should know how to do:

1. Tie their shoes. I can’t say I’m proud of this. But I looked down one day and realized that with the advent of Velcro, my son didn’t know how to tie his shoes. This concern had actually been rummaging around in the recesses of my mind for quite some time. (And apparently, I’m not alone. More five year-olds today can operate a Smart Phone app than can tie their shoes. But it wasn’t until I took my son to his weekly soccer practice and noticed that all of the other boys were wearing lace up cleats (boots) that I realized it was time to pull the trigger. The good news? He mastered it in about 24 hours. (Seeing a friend tie his shoes without even looking down was a big incentive.) The bad news? It’s really hard to explain, especially when you’re facing your kid as it means explaining it backwards. (Here are some useful tips for how to teach this skill.)

2. Ride a bike. Once again, I know that I was way behind on this one. And my advice to anyone else wondering when the optimal time to teach a kid to ride a bike would be: earlier is better than later. I think that when they are lower to the ground the whole thing is less scary and dramatic. But now that he’s mastered this skill, he begs me to take him for bike rides. Next up? Riding our bikes to school. Can’t wait.

3. Cut with a knife and fork. This was another life skill I added to my list once I realized that I was really tired of cutting my son’s meat up for him every time we ate. I’m not sure if I’m alone on this, but I think that learning to cut properly with a knife and fork is actually pretty hard to teach. (And to learn. Lord knows I’ve seen some adults who struggle with this particular challenge.) Here are some handy tips I found on the Internet. I love #10: be patient. Not exactly my son’s forté. (Nor my own.) Sigh.

4. Employ Good Handwriting. Oh, how we have struggled with this one. For the longest time, my son insisted (and not entirely without reason) that in the age of computers, handwriting is totally passé. (Oh and by the way? Those of you who are nostalgic for the lost art of handwriting? The typewriter has gone the way of the horse and buggy as well.) But over the Easter holidays – and with the encouragement (and insistence) of his English teacher – we went back and actually re-learned cursive (joined up) from the ground up. I can’t say it was always smooth sailing. But boy, did he improve. I also realized that my own handwriting is complete rubbish. (Life skills for 45 year-olds, anyone?)

5. Get along with their siblings. Yeah, that’s more of a work in progress. I’ll let you know how it goes…

What am I missing?

Image: tying by vistavision via Flickr under a Creative Commons license

A friend of mine is toilet training her two year-old. My friend has two older children, aged six, so she’s been through this before. And yet – like all traumatic experiences concerning parenting -

The funny thing about parenting is that .

Every Wednesday I offer tips for adulthood.

As an arm-chair scholar of adulthood, I like to collect facts and figures about the different phases of adulthood. Even though I’ve said before that I think the stages of life are defined less by a number than by a feeling, I still think it’s worthwhile to examine what the data are telling us about a given cohort. (Most recently, I did this when I presented five new facts about teenagers.)

In that vein, today’s topic is that much-discussed Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, young adults, under-30s or just “Gen Y.” Gen Y is defined loosely by those people born between 1982 and 1991, which makes them (roughly) between the ages of 18 and 30.

About six months ago, the New York Times Magazine broke a feature story about the “new 20 somethings” who seem to be taking forever to grow up: delaying marriage, changing careers several times, failing to achieve economic independence and other milestones of adulthood. Ever since then, there’s been a lot of interest in this age group – both what’s driving their delayed adulthood and what else we know about this demographic.

Here are five new facts about Generation Y:

1. Living at home longer may not be so bad. While one might be inclined at first blush to condemn Gen Y for failing to get its act together sooner, two new studies suggest that there may be advantages to delayed adulthood. One, from the University of Minnesota, argues that parental assistance in early adulthood actually promotes progress toward autonomy and self-reliance. The researchers found that while almost half of the young adults in their sample received either money for living expenses or lived with their parents (or both) in their mid-20s, only 10-15 percent received financial or housing help when in their early 30s. Moreover, as young adult children took on adult roles such as earning higher incomes or forming families, parental support began to taper regardless of age. Two sociologists from Oregon State additionally found that living at home longer may also foster closer bonds with one’s parents.

2. Millennials care more about parenting than getting married. A 2010 Pew Research survey found that 52% of Millennials say being a good parent is “one of the most important things” in life, while just 30% say the same about having a successful marriage. In other words, there is a 22-percentage-point gap in the way Millennials value parenthood over marriage. When this same question was posed to 18- to 29-year-olds in 1997, the gap was just seven percentage points. Wow. Pew Research surveys also find that Millennials are less likely than adults ages 30 and older to say that a child needs a home with both a father and mother to grow up happily and that single parenthood and unmarried couple parenthood are bad for society. Given that we also know that young men are lagging behind young  women vis a vis jobs, income and graduate degrees, these attitudinal shifts may make a lot of sense: if these smarter, higher-earning young ladies want a kid, they may need to do it on their own.

3. Gen Y is isolationist. The Brookings Institution recently surveyed more than 1,000 young leaders about their views on foreign policy. Among the more striking findings was how solidly isolationist this group was in its foreign policy leanings. A full 58 percent of young leaders say that America is “too involved in global affairs” and should focus more on issues at home rather than things like building a stronger military or reducing poverty in the rest of the world. I found these results to be particularly fascinating in light of a recent study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research,which  found that college students today are 40 percent less empathetic than they were in 1979. According to the findings, today’s students are generally less likely to describe themselves as “soft-hearted” or to have “tender, concerned feelings” for others. They are more likely, meanwhile, to admit that “other people’s misfortunes” usually don’t disturb them. In other words, while this is far the most connected generation vis a vis technology and the like, all that connectedness doesn’t seem to be translating to genuine concern for the world and one another.

4. Generation Y is changing its workplace priorities. While the initial take on Gen Y was that it was coddled, lazy and work-averse, that may turn out to be wrong. It’s true that 40% of 18-29 year olds either lack a job or underemployed. But according to an article in the Miami Herald, those who are working seem to be embracing a new more humble and realistic attitude towards work, one fueled by the hard reality of the recession. In today’s harsh, new economic climate, millennials realize that they can’t make the demands for raises, promotions, time off and training that they might once have done only a few years back. Nor are they reaching for the brass ring; they’re happy to do their best wherever they are on the corporate ladder and recognize that it may take awhile to reach the top. This sea change is consistent with a recent article in the New York times noting that millenials are embracing different kinds of careers these days, often “doing good” in the public sector (where the jobs are) rather than trying to score high-paying, high-powered jobs in the corporate sector.

5. Gen Y is More Confident and Optimistic. Another Pew Study – this one released last year – found that 18-to-29-year-olds remain optimistic, despite a job-killing recession, two wars and the threat of terrorism. In light of all the negative publicity around this generation, I, for one, was quite happy to hear this.

Image: ANC Young Adults Social CG Social 012 by roger_mommaerts via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Over on The Happiness Project today, Gretchen Rubin is grappling with how we use vocabulary to define our goals.

Some people, she notes, prefer to talk about intentions rather than Gretche’s preferred “resolutions.” Others would like to discard the term “Happiness Project” altogether; while embracing the same goals, they want to dissect “life’s journey.” Still others don’t want to talk about happiness at all; they’d rather achieve a state of joy.

It’s an interesting discussion because it gets at the power of words to convey something essential, as well as how personal that vocabulary needs to be to have meaning for each and every one of us.

The post really struck a chord with me because – like Gretchen with happiness – I feel like I ought to have a working definition of “adulthood” on this blog. On my “about” page, I talk about adulthood as a journey, not a destination. And that’s very much how I think about it.

But last week, I was actually handed a definition of adulthood that really resonated and so I wanted to share it.

I came across this definition while viewing a rough cut of the fabulous film, Neverbloomers, by the Canadian filmmaker Sharon Hyman.  Some of you may remember Sharon as my E-BFF whom I met a year or so ago when I happened upon her website and realized that she was a comrade in arms. Sharon is in the process of finalizing her documentary, which is all about what she calls “GrownUphood” (love it!) and what that term means to different people (including herself).

There were lots of things that struck me about this film (which I can’t wait to promote up, down and sideways when it comes out later this year). But for now, I don’t think I spoil anything by revealing that in one scene, Sharon interviews a Rabbi about his views on adulthood. And here’s what he says:

“Being grown up,” he says, “is the ability to fully integrate that which we know, practically.” He then goes on to reference the Kabbalah, which has a Hebrew word for this: daas. According to the Rabbi,”daas”  is usually translated as “to know,” but it also means “to connect.”

So for this rabbi anyway, adulthood is a state in which all the knowledge that we possess connects or “clicks” and becomes an integrated feeling which, in turn, influences our behavior. And the intellectual faculty that allows for such integration is a uniquely adult talent which one only develops later in life.

Not to go all Fiddler On The Roof on you (“The Rabbi has spoken!“) but I love the concept of daas. I feel like it goes to the heart of what we are – all of us – going through as we age: a process of integrating and connecting our knowledge in a way that permeates our feelings and our behavior. At a minimum, I feel that this idea very much encapsulates what this blog is all about.

So that, my friends, is my profound thought for the day, courtesy of Rabbi Moshe New in Montreal whom I’ve never even met.

You see, I told you. I was meant to be Jewish after all.

*****

Here is my very last post for Politics Daily, which, quite sadly, shut down earlier this week. (More on that another time.) It’s a post on Social Networking and Local Government. I enjoyed writing it every bit as much as I’ve enjoyed writing all of my posts there. Vaya con Dios, PD.

Image: Fiddler On The Roof: Tevye and the Fiddler by Thwaites Theatre Photos via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Every Friday I point you towards some recommended reading around the blogosphere:

1. I was delighted to discover the website Letters Of Note, which collects lost letters on just about everything. Check out the entry entitled Buttocks or Crotch and tell me if you aren’t hooked. (Hat Tip: The Happiness Project)

2. Via the ever-amazing Very Short List, I came across Welcome To Pinepoint, an Online scrap-book devoted to documenting someone’s home town that disappeared. Moving, entertaining and just plain Wow.

3. Math geeks, musicians and those of us somewhere in between will love this video featured over at Salon, in which musician Michael John Blake explains how he assigns numbers to notes and chords in order to play Pi up to 31 decimal places.

4. It’s hard to say exactly why the trailer for the French film Panique Au Village is so fantastic, but it is. Watch it.

5. And speaking of the French, a friend posted this Dinosaur Comic strip onto his Facebook Wall, which manages to be at once hilarious, profane *and* poke fun at the French.

6. Can’t wait to run out and buy some of the Royal Mail’s new stamp collection featuring famous wizards and enchanters, previewed here at the Guardian.

7. Oh God, how I miss Stephen Colbert! Here’s an excerpt of his show from Gawker, where he talks about becoming a Jew for Lent. Priceless!

Have a great weekend!