Courtesy of reader Adrian comes a great article on eating disorders titled “Does Too Much Exposure to Thin Models Cause Eating Disorders?”

This perpetuates the idea that looking at skinny models for too long leads to an eating disorder. It doesn’t. Okay, no one has said it explicitly, but nearly every article mentions ED-related deaths, and the impact on young impressionable girls. Images of  thin models may perpetuate the  drive for thinness in those already struggling with an eating disorder, but it certainly doesn’t cause an eating disorder.

Hallelujah. Finally, we are moving to a more intelligent understanding of eating disorders than the traditional “the evil media caused this.”

Eating disorders are a lot more complicated than such simplistic interpretations allow for. In my own case, for example, the conjunction of a historic trauma of mass starvation that impacted the attitude towards food of everybody around me + feelings of hunger I experienced as an infant + the early childhood experience of being force-fed resulted in an eating disorder. At the same time, I have the healthiest body image of anybody I know and wouldn’t register the weight of models even if you spent all day every day showing them to me.

So do you, folks, buy organic food or do you believe it is nothing but a marketing ploy on par with “fat-free” and “100% natural?” As for me, I’m undecided on the subject. The organic section of our grocery store (which used to be very tiny) has grown to about 1/4 of the entire produce section. This must mean that people are seeing something in this whole organic deal. So what’s your approach?

On the photo, you can see the only peas in the world that are worth eating. For some reason, they are called English peas here, although they are a staple in Ukraine. These peas are almost never sold in the Midwest, so I’m ecstatic to have found them. The difference between them and all other peas is that you are not supposed to eat the pod (and whose weird invention is that, anyway?). In these good peas, when you open the pod, there are actual peas, sweet, juicy, plump peas, inside. Whenever I chance to buy them, I always plan to use them for my vegetable soup. That never happens, though, because I eat them all long before the water for the soup boils.

Did you know that the average age of a person in the Fox News audience is 65? And in the CNN audience it is 59?

This is why my students didn’t even understand my question when I asked whether they watched news on TV. I shouldn’t have been surprised given that I don’t watch news (or anything else, for that matter) on TV either.

TV news reporting is dead. And that’s very good news.

There is this really famous journal in my field which is known for sending back very mean and nasty rejections within a couple of days of an article’s submission.

I never wanted to submit anything to them because I didn’t want to deal with the trauma (again). However, my emotional range is very depleted by the pregnancy, and I barely feel anything on any subject. So now might be the best time to submit a paper to this place. Besides, a swift nasty rejection is a lot better than a nasty rejection that you have to wait for during an entire year.

See how I’m trying to talk myself into submitting my article there?