This whole study seems incredibly vague and unscientific. There are a myriad explanations for the supposed male/female happiness gap which have nothing to do with the much-ballyhooed "pay gap" (as if!) or any other feminist rallying cry.

Simple one: survivorship bias. Men are much more likely to commit suicide (not attempt, but actually succeed) than women. They are also more likely to die in accidents and daredevilry, to drop out of society, and to become incarcerated. This thins the herd of many of the most dysfunctional and unhappiness-prone males, with the remaining, more well-adjusted males being happier than the average. You can see that comparing this group of survivors to the group of accessible-to-study females, which includes a lot of dysfunctional women who manage to remain in society better than their male counterparts could, could easily yield these results.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, annoys me more than seeing people bolster their annoying political stands with utterly uninformative "studies" like this one.

if you can fake that, you've got it made.

Intruiged by the mentions of the NYT profile of his home, I looked up the article. Quotes therefrom follow:

"His home is a great Georgian pile atop the swankiest neighborhood in town, with 13-foot ceilings, seven bedrooms and a circular staircase of such beauty and scale that had Rhett Butler been a Midwestern boy he would have found it quite suitable for hauling Scarlett up the stairs. . . .

"The house is so grand that Mr. Keillor and his wife, Jenny Lind Nilsson, a violinist in the Minnesota Opera orchestra, feared their friends might consider them pretentious for buying it. Ultimately, the beauty and spaciousness of the house, which was built in 1914 by the French architect Emmanuel Masqueray, persuaded them. . . .

"The St. Paul house was purchased in 1998, for $710,000. They will continue to maintain a Manhattan apartment; they are purchasing a two-bedroom on Central Park West that they sold in 1993. . . .

"We've always stayed invested in New York real estate, so the money we sold it for, we put into the next apartment; we're riding the tide with all the rest of you," Mr. Keillor says.

"The specifics: Mr. Keillor bought it for $800,000 in 1987, sold it for $1.5 million in 1993, and is buying it back for $3.5 million."

I certainly don’t agree with all or even most of what he/she says, but there are occasionally good points buried there amid the eyepopping rhetoric. It’s worth a few seconds of my downtime to peruse his/her comments. Or at least the first couple of Brightstar's comments in any given thread.

Come to think of it, I don’t see a lot that would qualify as trolling here at Salon, maybe because the comments aren’t really a conversation so much as people throwing their opinions out there. Simply having an extreme opinion doesn’t make you a troll.

I only bring this up because I consider postings about who is and isn’t allowed to have an opinion in a forum like this to be tiresome and boring. In fact, I consider this entire post I have written to be tiresome and boring, since I have entirely avoided the underlying subject matter in order to vent about something that bugs me in some other posters’ comments. Sorry.

Because it's unreasonable to suppose that you can completely extirpate this poisonous feeling, at least aim it at someone outside your family. Remind yourself that the people close to you are your allies. Tell yourself "We’re on the same team!" Family is far more important than any wordly pursuit. Better you should abandon your career than lose your sister over your insecurities. But I don't think you have to do either.

Remind yourself that there isn't a fixed amount of fame and fortune in the world. Or if there is, your sister's paltry share does not preclude your own future success. In fact, it sounds like you have a valuable connection – someone who can introduce you to the right people, give you great advice, help you avoid mistakes. She has a valuable resouce in you, too – your expertise, your honesty, your willingness to have her back when she can't trust anyone else. You're on the same team. Rejoice in her success, and your own might follow.