What's the comparison with cost of living? Because the median in DC ($42,000) doesn't seem like much there, whereas the median in Arkansas and Montana ($24,800) seems like it would be much closer to an actual living wage in those states.

Illinois is listed in the top third for earnings for women, whereas Ohio is listed in the middle third. I made about 10% more in Illinois than I do now in Ohio--however, due to cost of living (especially housing), I am in MUCH better shape financially in Ohio than I was in Illinois. It would make sense that women (and men) make more in states where there is a higher cost of living, but is it ENOUGH?

I'd like to see these stats coupled with household debt, percentage who own their own homes--and maybe broken out by cities rather than taking the state as a whole. There's a HUGE difference, for instance, in cost of living in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs compared with Springfield, Illinois.

Mine was free when I renewed my contract with Verizon for 2 years.

It takes remarkably good photos, does text and picture messaging, can be used as an MP3 player or web browser if I so desire, and oh yeah--it's a good-sounding telephone! It has excellent battery life. I can actually hold it between my shoulder and ear. I've dropped it a couple of times and nothing has broken (which would be a big worry for me about the iPhone--that and scratching it, as my iPod got scratched almost IMMEDIATELY). When I'm camping in a cornfield in Iowa, usually of the group of people I'm with my Verizon phone is the only one that actually has service

I have no dog in this hunt--I think the new iPhone is really cool, but I wouldn't spend that much money on it, especially if I had to switch to Cingular. (And before I had some anecdotal evidence that it's actually durable--it just looks really fragile to me.)

Please, people. Every computer crashes. Macs MAY crash less than PCs, but that's purely anecdotal. I have a PC dual-booted with Windows 2000 and Gentoo Linux, and the Linux and Windows sides freeze up in about equal measure. I have a Sony Vaio laptop with Windows XP that's fairly new (less than a year old) and so far it has NEVER crashed. Actually, it rocks and I love it.

No viruses either. I think I've had one virus in the years that I've had a home computer. All PCs (because I am cheap, basically--I like Macs too).

Was how it worked in my parents' house too. If I didn't like what was put in front of me for dinner, I was free to either eat leftovers from the night before (if there were any) or go find something else to eat. So it was rare for us to refuse anything. OTOH, my mother tried to give us food we liked (she didn't like us refusing to eat, obviously). That meant homemade spaghetti sauce and chili (both of which I still make), baked chicken, fish cooked in various ways, turkey pie (something else I still make) homemade meatloaf, etc. There was nearly always a protein, a vegetable, and a starch on my plate, and our choices for libation were generally milk (uck--still hate milk) or water. Soda was a special-occasion thing, and we rarely had dessert.

My Mom didn't work for quite some time when we were kids, though, and then only worked part time for a while. Now she's full time and I think my parents tend to eat a lot more convenience food than they used to.

I find it fairly easy to put a little olive oil, lemon and spices on a piece of fish, throw that into the oven with some steak fries or microwave a potato, and steam some broccoli. It's got to be hard, though, to switch kids who are used to highly flavored food to eating something like that.

He immediately said that he looks like a lemur.

Those American Idol judges have to sit through a LOT of crap. Yeah, they're probably extremely well-paid, and I have no idea how many of the people who show up for auditions actually get one--but it's clear that the seriously-deluded-to-borderline-disturbed weirdos who audition make better TV than your average more-or-less-in-tune pleasant sort of guy. So maybe whoever screens lets more weirdos in.

Anyway, my POINT is that I would start to get a little nasty having to sit through the HORRIBLE auditions from people who clearly think that they're all that and a bowl of cheez whiz, and that the judges obviously don't understand their incredible, special talent, blahblahblah...

Ugh. My head would have exploded already. I can't fault the judges for getting a little squirrelly.

They don't show ALL the people who make it--just a selection. They show, instead, the weirdos and the just plain deluded--because those people make better TV. And the judges probably have to sit through even more of those. That's why I said my head would have exploded.

I never watch American Idol past the tryouts and the first few winnowings--I really dislike the style of music that Idol promotes, for the most part--but I freely admit to both enjoying the freakshow and marveling at the (even misplaced) hope out there.

*I* wasn't making fun of anyone. And I had no reason to think that that guy was mentally handicapped.

And I hardly think that asking him if he had borrowed Randy's pants is a major insult.

If you try out for this show, you know (or OUGHT to know) that there is a VERY good chance you will be humiliated on national television. That's what they signed up for. I can't feel too bad for them.