Friday, November. 11, 2005.<\/font><\/b> Michael Scherer, Salon.com’s Washington correspondent, reported today on a hearing conducted Thursday by the Senate’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. A writer named Pamela Paul testified, quoted as having said the following: “‘If they [some married men] go to their wives, well, just practically speaking, they have to make sure they have done all of the chores around the house they were supposed to do. They need to have a half-an-hour conversation about what they did that day,’ said Paul. This courtship could take up to an hour and a half. By contrast, she said, it takes ‘five minutes to go online.'”<\/p>\n I’m taking a cue from James Lileks, who avoids certain words and phrases so his Web site can stay G-rated, so her subject will not found here. (Lileks does create racy commentary cleverly, but that’s not the plan for this Brick.) Paul has written a few books, the most recent of which must be the reason for her being called to Washington. So, read its write-up on Amazon.com to fill in the context.<\/p>\n The implications for American society may be vital. I’m not sure how provable in a social-science context her thesis is, but it warrants more debate as well as serious research and study. Or to avoid the labor, we might just say, that is the way it is today, and we’re all managing our lives and relationships as well as ever — which ain’t saying much — so let’s move on.<\/p>\n Postscript. The current online edition of the Washington Post<\/i> book section reviews Paul’s book. So she’s the “it” expert, though the newspaper write-up has some problems with her work. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Not tonight, dear, this is a G-rated spot Friday, November. 11, 2005. Michael Scherer, Salon.com’s Washington correspondent, reported today on a hearing conducted Thursday by the Senate’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. A writer named Pamela Paul testified, quoted as having said the following: “‘If they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":144,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/05\/zzzz-om-zzzz\/","url_meta":{"origin":102,"position":0},"title":"Zzzz, om, zzzz","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Saturday, May 14, 2005: Note to self: There's many ways to meditate, necessary when working an evening shift but want to enjoy the daytimes then need to re-fresh before going in: Meditation is first, because there it is. A 20-45 minute nap accomplishes about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":99,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/11\/what-killed-downtown-and-when\/","url_meta":{"origin":102,"position":1},"title":"What killed downtown? And when?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Nov. 18, 2005: What happened to the Mall? I thought the Mall is what destroyed Downtown, not Wal-Mart. The latest batch of Wal-Mart-bashing ignores the history of American retail. I don't know this history in a scholarly way, only that portion I've lived. So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/10\/proud-of-arrogance\/","url_meta":{"origin":102,"position":2},"title":"Proud of arrogance","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005: Apparently, I spoke out of turn. I didn't mean to cause a stunned silence but rather say something I thought was not out of line, not unusual. I said the same thing to two different audiences, and got this same reaction:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/07\/cant-see-the-lights\/","url_meta":{"origin":102,"position":3},"title":"Can’t see the lights","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, July 5, 2005: For a few weeks, newspaper house ads and broadcast public service announcements have proclaimed that the city of Fayetteville would host a Fourth of July celebration at Baum Stadium of the University of Arkansas. It would succeed the ones held for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/07\/a-block-is-not-a-brick\/","url_meta":{"origin":102,"position":4},"title":"A block is not a brick","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, July 13, 2005. So what I do is just admit my fear. Look at this gap in time: days since the last Brick, feels like a month. Why? A lack of topics as well as a lack of opinions? No. It was the feeling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/12\/next-big-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":102,"position":5},"title":"Next big thing","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Next Big Thing, on down the line The next big thing: Is there some age where there is no Next Big Thing? 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