It takes a man to wear that

Here’s a mom’s description of the hilarious reactions her son’s Halloween costume provoked:

“We walk down the hall to where his classroom is. And that’s where things went wrong. Two mothers went wide-eyed and made faces as if they smelled decomp. And I realize that my son is seeing the same thing I am. So I say, “Doesn’t he look great?” And Mom A says in disgust, “Did he ask to be that?!” I say that he sure did as Halloween is the time of year that you can be whatever it is that you want to be. They continue with their nosy, probing questions as to how that was an option and didn’t I try to talk him out of it. Mom B mostly just stood there in shock  and dismay. And then Mom C approaches. She had been in the main room, saw us walk in, and followed us down the hall to let me know her thoughts. And they were that I should never have ‘allowed’ this and thank God it wasn’t next year when he was in Kindergarten since I would have had to put my foot down and ‘forbidden’ it.”

Click here to see the little guy’s shocking shockingly cute outfit and the rest of the article. I empathize, because I loved dressing up as a cowboy when I was a litte* girl, complete with hat, plaid shirt and a little fringed leather vest and corresponding chaps. I don’t know whether it was because of the costume or despite of it, but I grew into a person who definitely tends towards the good old left side of the Kinsey scale.

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Californian Girls

Italian Heritage Parade on Columbus Day, San Francisco. And look at those smiles:

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This is why I love YouTube:

“After tramping 70km through Nki National Park in the congo basin rainforest in Cameroon, we stayed the night at the Baka pygmy village on the outskirts of the park. One of villagers, Pierre, was our guide. The next day they performed some traditional music for me. They were infatuated with the videos i took. It was an amazing experience…..To get to this village (…) required a two day squishy hot bus trip then a 5 hour drive in a landrover. We had to hire someone just to chainsaw through the trees that constantly fall across the small road.”

Also:

Posted in Aus Aller Welt, gives me hope, Jodeldiplom, L'art pour l'art. Comments Off on This is why I love YouTube:

Who’s the Boss?

In my neighborhood’s elementary school yard, a little boy surrounded by other kids shouts excitedly: “OK and now, everyone yell – I AM A LEADER!” – Only one little girl yells back: “I AM NOT A LEADER!”

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Evidence

Why do so many Americans believe in God? Maybe because they have butternut squash:

Oh yes, butternut.

Butternut squash tastes like butter, nuts, squash, like sugar and spice and everything nice. Should you ever meet a person who does not smile when encountering the radiant yellow and hypnotic smell of a freshly cooked butternut squash, avoid them, for they are surely possessed by an evil demon. Butternut squash is the culinary equivalent of baby bunnies.

Another piece of evidence for a higher being:

Oh, sugar snap peas! (Who comes up with those names – ?) Those crunchy sweet little babies make me want to burn Qur’ans. Um, not really, but you get the idea:

Schlüssel Kilian, Fraunhoferstraße

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African Poverty is Falling…Much Faster than You Think!

Ich habe keine Ahnung, wie dieser Artikel unter Ökonomen oder Entwicklungsexperten aufgenommen wird, aber ich fand ihn jedenfalls ganz interessant:

“The conventional wisdom that Africa is not reducing poverty is wrong. (…) We show that:
(1) African poverty is falling and is falling rapidly.
(2) If present trends continue, the poverty Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people with incomes less than one dollar a day will be achieved on time.
(3) The growth spurt that began in 1995 decreased African income inequality instead of increasing it.
(4) African poverty reduction is remarkably general: it cannot be explained by a large country, or even by a single set of countries possessing some beneficial geographical or historical characteristic.”

(African Poverty is Falling…Much Faster than You Think!,
Maxim Pinkovskiy and Xavier Sala‐i‐Martin, NBER Working Paper Nr. 157752010)

Die FAZ hat hier drüber berichtet, erklärt einen Abschnitt der Studie für fragwürdig und meint etwas vage: “Die anderen Ergebnisse, die Hoffnung für Afrika wecken, dürften in der Realität gründen.” Eine etwas detaillierter Besprechung gibt es von Martin Ravallion, dem Direktor der Development Research Group bei der Weltbank: Is African Poverty Falling?