Archive for October, 2011

Finding Mr. Right in a World of 7 Billion People

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on October 31, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

In case you’ve missed the headlines, the global population hit 7 billion sometime today – yes, today. Somehow, we can estimate the number of living people in the world with this degree of accuracy. I find this amazing since the repair guy coming Thursday morning can only say he’ll be by sometime between 9:30 and more »

Read Full Post »

Protecting Your Marriage’s Blind Side

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on October 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »

We are a Bears family. For proof of this fact, simply ask our almost-five-year-old son who our family’s favorite team is. He will declare, “The Bears!” Note, that there is no need to mention which sport or distinguish between college and professional. There are billboards throughout Chicago declaring, “One city. One team.” The advertising wizards more »

Read Full Post »

Why Ziploc Won’t be Sponsoring this Blog

Posted in Fighting, Housework, tagged on October 19, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Ziploc: Guaranteeing freshness for your left overs and arguments in my kitchen.  Product placements are hard to avoid in film and television these days, but some of the most awkward I’ve seen are on The Biggest Loser, where the contestants and trainers repeatedly break from food prep to smile at the camera and say: “I just love more »

Read Full Post »

Are You Grounded or Stuck?

Posted in Advice & Tips, Happiness, tagged on October 18, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Yep. This doesn’t look good. (Borrowed photo from here.) Last weekend Cliff and I were at our church’s annual retreat, which is (frankly) usually most memorable for the apple orchard trip on Saturday afternoon, and the “after party” on Saturday night. But this year I walked away with a little gem of wisdom that I’ve more »

Read Full Post »

Seven Year Itch Letters: How China is Fighting High Divorce Rates

Posted in Divorce, tagged on October 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

A few weeks ago I mentioned Mexico City’s proposed attempt to lower divorce rates: set an expiration date for all new marriages. (Here’s my post about the proposal, and here’s a link to Colbert’s “wag of the finger” to Mexico City.) So now China is weighing in with their own attempt at lowering the divorce more »

Read Full Post »

Cut the Bastard People Some Slack

Posted in Advice & Tips, Communication, Fighting, tagged on October 11, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Headlines should get people’s attention, right?  Perhaps you recognize the phrase “Bastard People” from the mockumentary classic, Waiting for Guffman. We watch it about once a year here in the Johnson household, and always guffaw at the scene where aspiring theater director Corky St. Clair (pictured in the movie poster) delivers a mournful soliloquy when he learns more »

Read Full Post »

Similar To Me

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on October 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

I have been interviewing candidates for a job this week. Given that I work within talent acquisition, my team is pretty highly aware of the complexities involved in hiring. Your average hiring manager has to constantly think through whether their assessments are influenced by applicants’ attractiveness (beauty bias), success within irrelevant areas (halo effect) or more »

Read Full Post »

If You’re Not Happy and You Know It, Read This Blog

Posted in Happiness on October 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Does this make you happy? You can order the mousepad at this link.  Happiness is something I can’t seem to escape – the topic, I mean. Not the state of being. It’s been given to me as a reason to marry someone: “He makes me so happy.” And a reason to divorce someone: “I can’t more »

Read Full Post »

Mexico City Considers Setting a Two Year Expiration Date for Marriages

Posted in Divorce on October 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Mexico City lawmakers have proposed a change to the city’s civil code to set a two year expiration date to new marriages. As Reuters put it, “‘Til 2013 do us part.”The idea is to help couples avoid the heartbreak of a lengthy divorce process by building separation into the marriage contract:  The minimum marriage contract more »

Read Full Post »