Ten percent of Europeans were conceived in an Ikea bed.
(Time 2/12/18)
Life expectancy in the US is actually going down.
(Time, 2/12/18)
Centenarians rarely skip breakfast.
(Time 2/26/18)
Princess Margaret’s husband once left her a note detailing “Twenty-Four Reasons Why I Hate You.”
(The New Yorker, 5/21/18)
Writer Anthony Powell divided his readership into “fans” and “shits.”
(The New Yorker, 11/12/18)
One third of Americans believe that the ideal situation for young children is one in which their mother doesn’t work at all. Only 4% say the same of fathers.
(Money, 8/18)
Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, makes $231,000 per minute.
Time 7/30/18
There’s a Japanese company that stages divorce ceremonies which often include a power point presentation illustrating where the marriage went wrong and other illustrative devices. (In one ceremony, the husband, dressed as a human-size wedding bouquet, was attached to a bungee cord and pushed off a cliff by his soon-to-be-ex wife.)
(The New Yorker, 4/30/18)
(Roz Warren is the author of Our Bodies, Our Shelves: Library Humor .)
So … Jeff Bezos makes my annual salary in about … nine seconds.
Clearly I need to start reading more magazines, Roz! These are valuable tidbits of information. I’m feeling good about my longevity, since I never miss a meal – even breakfast.
The life expectancy one is telling, not at all in a good way. It is as efficient a shorthand for evaluating the success of a society as you could want. Ours is not exactly covering itself in glory.