Can anybody imagine a worse name for peanut butter, given that it already looks like it’s been eaten before?

Babies are so different. My niece Klubnikis is not in the least cuddly. Even as an infant she knew how to make it very clear that she didn’t want to be kissed and hugged. But her little brother loves to snuggle and adores being kissed. 

Klara is very cuddly, too. And that’s really great. 

Whenever I as much as touch or look with more than a passing interest at another baby, Klara screams and wails. But when I grab her little cousin and kiss him and twirl him around, she totally loves that. She’s not jealous of him at all. 

It’s such a joy to observe these two babies together. They are almost the same age and are already fast friends. 

I find the whole ridiculous noise surrounding Ivanka Trump’s assumption of the First Lady duties to be shameful and pathetic. The whole institution of First Ladyism is idiotic and outdated. And to force a woman into doing this unpaid work just because she happens to be married to a certain man is deranged. Why not let a daughter, a sister, a cousin, etc do it instead if she wants to? Or a son, a brother, a grandpa, if it comes to it and if people can’t let go of this institution altogether. 

And yes, of course, I’m against intertwining family business and the presidency. That’s not what I’m talking about in this post. This post is about the unhinged whining about how “she shouldn’t be doing this work if she’s not a wife. What is she sleeping with him?” This is beyond pathetic. You are not entitled to the free work of anybody’s wife if she doesn’t feel like providing it. 

When Canada’s Justin Trudeau welcomed Syrian refugees with great pomp and the clear subtext of “Look how morally superior we are to Americans,”  he didn’t publicize his intention to farm out the costs of this major photo-op to private individuals. Only a few of the refugees were to receive sufficient governmental aid. The rest were to be sponsored by private citizens who’d pledge $1,000 a month to support a refugee family. 

Refugees were greeted with such enthusiasm and fanfare that they couldn’t help imagining a very different life than what actually awaited them in Canada. The eager sponsors of the first few months would go on TV and experience momentary stardom as they pledged their life savings to help the newcomers. But once the novelty wore off, they realized that  $1,000 a month was quite a lot of money, especially with Canadian dollar in free fall and Trudeau’s rich-boy economic measures squeezing workers quite badly. 

Sponsors started disappearing and leaving the refugee families stranded. One can’t blame them because private charity can never address complex social issues. Only a government can do that. Shifting governmental duties onto the shoulders of private individuals is not a good idea. 

Sociability is difficult not because it’s hard to socialize but because I never know if my sociability switch will turn on at any given time. When I approach people or people approach me, there are two possible scenarios:

1. Sociability switch flips, and I become the most charming, gregarious, exciting person ever.
2. Sociability switch decides to remain inactive and I feel intolerable boredom. I can try to conceal it but the boredom is overwhelming. 

The bad part is that I can’t predict when each scenario will unfold. I don’t suffer from not knowing how to engage with people or how to make small talk. I’m actually great at it because I don’t understand the concept of worrying what people think about me. What I do suffer from is frequent and uncontrollable attacks of not wanting to engage. 

It feels very weird when in the middle of a conversation I lose all interest and become extremely bored but not because of anything the other person said or did.

It’s equally disturbing when I open my mouth and all of a sudden this very charming, talkative persona appears. 

Finally I managed to take a selfie that realistically shows that I have a round face. Normally they come out very long-faced, in all senses of the word. 

Both male and female scientists felt that female scientists (light bars) were more objective, intelligent, etc. than male ones (dark bars), although the differences were larger when it was female scientists making the ratings.

And I have no doubt one could easily find or come up with a study that says the exact opposite. All of these studies where people express “feelings” can be manipulated to show any results. The only interesting data we can get from them is what the biases of the people conducting the study are.

Did George Michael also OD? I thought this kind of crazy drug use has been out of fashion among celebrities for the past 20 years. 

I found N and my brother-in-law in the living room sharing dish-washing strategies. The funny thing is that all four of us come from families where it would have never occurred to men to touch “women’s duties” irrespective of how well or whether they fulfilled “male duties.”

This is why I detest the attempts to position the division of housework as a feminist issue. Everybody lives in exactly the domestic arrangement they want. And those who think they don’t simply need to be honest with themselves and ask what benefits they derive from the current arrangement. I hate it when private domestic manipulations are used to empty feminism of all content. The public square is buried under miles of swamps of private concerns.