Links | Kontrary by Rebecca Thorman – Careers, Business, and Life Advice

Modern Manners

by Rebecca Thorman on November 03Comments Off

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Paying the bill is something I’ve debated at length with Ryan – not the act of paying it, but how to do it. For instance when I first started dating him, I never knew if he was picking up the bill because when it came, he would just let it sit there. And while I always offered to pay or split the bill, he would always brush me aside and end up paying it. Mystifying.

Later, I asked him about why he let the bill sit on the table and he argued that by paying right away when the bill arrived, we had to leave shortly thereafter.

More on Anxiety…

by Rebecca Thorman on October 29Comments Off

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I was frankly surprised at the response on my anxiety post. I didn’t expect so many people to understand where I was coming from… so thank you. Here’s some great follow-up posts to mine:

When did I become incapable of spontaneity? I used to be capable of it, pretty sure about that. In fact, I used to be really darn good at it! But recently, anything “off plan”, whether it’s a food item on a menu, a trip somewhere, or even a drink with the girls, has become a chore, another thing on the list, something that requires its own mini plan of how to get there and enjoy it.

How do you measure up?

by Rebecca Thorman on October 26Comments Off

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We’ve all heard that how tall you are at work can help and being overweight can hinder you. But did you also know that being short is a big part of the mix as well? The New York Times reports:

The shorter you are in America, the more likely your chances to develop coronary heart disease, diabetes or stroke... A decrease in a man’s height to the 25th percentile from the 75th — roughly to 5 feet 8 inches from 6 feet— is associated with, on average, a dip in earnings of 6 to 10 percent…

And like obese people, short people are less likely to finish college than those of average weight.

Your passion is lost on others

by Rebecca Thorman on October 23Comments Off

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13-year old Tavi posted this excerpt from a Washington Post piece on her blog:

It’s always a bit discombobulating when people raise their voices in anger because they’ve gotten wind that designers are making and selling $25,000 dresses. After all, it’s not as if the existence of a dress that costs as much as a car negates the availability of cute $25 frocks at Target. And it isn’t as though edicts have been issued that all women must now dress like one of the superheroes on Balenciaga’s runway.

For personal and sometimes tortured reasons — I can’t have it so no one else can!

Ignore Fox News?

by Rebecca Thorman on October 22Comments Off

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Journalism is taking hits in more places than one. Not only has its validity and usefulness been questioned by the entire blogosphere, but increasingly, its integrity has taken a beating as well. Nowhere do the shiners show up more than upon the face of Fox News, whose incredibly biased coverage on President Obama has raised red flags, all the way up to the White House.

Slate Magazine shared their take this past weekend:

Any news organization that took its responsibilities seriously would take pains to cover presidential criticism fairly. It would regard doing so as itself a test of integrity and take pains not to load the dice in its own favor.

No-nonsense advice from Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz

by Rebecca Thorman on October 21Comments Off

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Ever since Carol Bartz became CEO of Yahoo, I’ve been watching her closely. I love that she’s a woman leading a tech company, I love that she’s outspoken, and despite all her detractors, I think she’s going to do amazing things for Yahoo. Every interview she does is awesome, and I particularly liked these quotes from a recent piece in the New York Times:

When people come to me and say, “I can’t work for so-and-so anymore,” I say, “Well, what have you learned from so-and-so?” People want to take a bad situation and say, “Oh, it’s bad.” No, no. You have to deal with what you’re dealt.

Midwest women marry early

by Rebecca Thorman on October 20Comments Off

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In some more research related to my post on feeling pressure to marry early, Pew Demographics reveals some fascinating statistics in their infographic on marriage and divorce. For starters, the numbers back up my assertion that Midwest women marry earlier; a Wisconsin’s woman median age of first marriage at 26 is a full two years earlier than a New York’s woman median age of first marriage at 28.

And in another intriguing twist, it seems that the rate of divorce seems to increase in States where couples marry sooner and is lower in States where couples hold off a couple years, with some interesting exceptions.