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HOUSTON (AP) — Houston Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon was suspended indefinitely by the team Wednesday for insubordination after reportedly grabbing General Manager Ed Wade by the neck and throwing him to the ground.
1.Full Grown Men
(2006, David Munro, NR)
The candy-colored “Full Grown Men” wants to be a kind of anti-“Wizard of Oz” for a culture inundated with toys and toons.
2.Sex and the City
(2008, Michael Patrick King, R)
A little Botox goes a long way in “Sex and the City,” but a little decent writing would have gone even further.
3.The Love Guru
(2008, Marco Schnabel, PG-13)
“The Love Guru” is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again.
4.Get Smart
(2008, Peter Segal, PG-13)
“Get Smart” is made up of feeble and funny jokes, brand actors and enough special effects to give you some bang for your summertime buck.
5.Kung Fu Panda
(2008, Mark Randolph Osborne, John Wayne Stevenson, PG)
At once fuzzy-wuzzy and industrial strength, the tacky-sounding “Kung Fu Panda” is high concept with a heart.
6.The Edge of Heaven
(2007, Fatih Akin, NR)
In the course of the extraordinary film “The Edge of Heaven,” children are lost, lost parents are never found, and generational and geographical distances grow wider.
7.The Happening
(2008, M. Night Shyamalan, M. Night Shyamalan, R)
“The Happening” is a divertingly goofy thriller with an animistic bent, moments of shivery and twitchy suspense and a solid lead performance from Mark Wahlberg.
8.The Incredible Hulk
(2008, Louis Leterrier, PG-13)
The new movie about Dr. Bruce Banner is called “The Incredible Hulk.” But let’s not get carried away: “The Adequate Hulk” would have been a more suitable title.
9.Encounters at the End of the World
(2007, Werner Herzog, G)
Few filmmakers make the end of days seem as hauntingly beautiful as Werner Herzog does in “Encounters at the End of the World.”
10.Chris & Don: A Love Story
(2007, Tina Mascara, Guido Santi, NR)
“Chris & Don: A Love Story” examines a complicated and enduring relationship that raised eyebrows even in Hollywood.
11.Wanted
(2008, Timur Bekmambetov, R)
12.Mongol
(2007, Sergei Bodrov, R)
“Mongol” is a big, ponderous epic, its beautifully composed landscape shots punctuated by thundering hooves and bloody, slow-motion battle sequences.
13.Brick Lane
(2007, Sarah Gavron, PG-13)
At the center of “Brick Lane,” a modest film directed by Sarah Gavron, is a woman for whom modesty is not just a defining character trait but also a moral principle.
14.Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
(2008, Patricia Rozema, G)
“Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” appears poised to incite the kind of box-office frenzy more commonly associated with characters named Hannah and Harry.
15.Iron Man
(2008, Jon Favreau, PG-13)
“Iron Man” is an unusually good superhero picture. Or at least — since it certainly has its problems — a superhero movie that’s good in unusual ways.
16.You Don’t Mess With the Zohan
(2008, Dennis Dugan, PG-13)
Let me be blunt: “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” is the finest post-Zionist action-hairdressing sex comedy I have ever seen.
17.The Visitor
(2007, Tom McCarthy, PG-13)
The curious thing about “The Visitor” is that even as it goes more or less where you think it will, it still manages to surprise you along the way.
18.10,000 B.C.
(2008, Roland Emmerich, PG-13)
It’s best not to think too hard about anything in “10,000 BC,” a sublimely dunderheaded excursion into human prehistory.
19.The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
(2008, Andrew Adamson, PG)
Child kings and queens land in a Jacobean tragedy with “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”
20.Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(2008, Steven Spielberg, PG-13)
There’s plenty of frantic energy in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” lots of noise and money too, but what’s absent is any sense of rediscovery.
21.Tick Tock Lullaby
(2007, Lisa Gornick, NR)
22.Trumbo
(2007, Peter Askin, PG-13)
23.In the Heat of the Night
(1967, Norman Jewison, NR)
24.The Strangers
(2008, Bryan Bertino, R)
“The Strangers” proves adept at eliciting the fear and dislocation that accompany the violation of our most sacred space.
25.Hancock
(2008, Peter Berg, PG-13)
BATTING AVG
C. Jones
Braves
.394
Player Avg
L. Berkman Hou .360
A. Pujols StL .347
M. Bradley Tex .330
M. Holliday Col .328
Expanded ML Batting Avg
ERA
E. Volquez
Reds
1.71
Player ERA
J. Duchscherer Oak 1.99
C. Lee Cle 2.45
T. Lincecum SF 2.54
B. Sheets Mil 2.59
Expanded ML ERA
HITS
C. Guzman
Nationals
106
Player Hits
L. Berkman Hou 100
C. Jones Atl 100
I. Kinsler Tex 99
J. Hamilton Tex 97
Expanded ML Hits
HOME RUNS
D. Uggla
Marlins
23
Player HR
C. Utley Phi 22
L. Berkman Hou 21
A. Gonzalez SD 21
R. Braun Mil 20
Expanded ML Home Runs
RBI
J. Hamilton
Rangers
76
Player RBI
A. Gonzalez SD 66
R. Howard Phi 65
C. Utley Phi 63
L. Berkman Hou 62
Expanded ML RBI
RUNS
L. Berkman
Astros
68
Player Runs
I. Kinsler Tex 66
H. Ramirez Fla 66
N. McLouth Pit 59
J. Reyes NYM 57
Expanded ML Runs
SAVES
F. Rodriguez
Angels
31
Player Saves
G. Sherrill Bal 26
J. Papelbon Bos 23
M. Rivera NYY 21
J. Soria KC 21
Expanded ML Saves
STOLEN BASES
W. Taveras
Rockies
35
Player SB
J. Ellsbury Bos 34
I. Suzuki Sea 33
J. Pierre LAD 30
M. Bourn Hou 29
Expanded ML Stolen Bases
WINS
J. Saunders
Angels
11
Player Wins
B. Webb Ari 11
A. Cook Col 10
C. Lee Cle 10
M. Mussina NYY 10
Expanded ML Wins
A saltwater crocodile measuring just two feet long is held by a patron at the Noonamah Tavern.
Drinkers at a watering hole in the Australian outback found themselves toasting a baby saltwater crocodile that wandered up to the pub’s door Sunday.
No one knows how the two-foot long (60 cm) crocodile ended up outside the Noonamah Tavern, located off a dusty highway about 25 miles (40 km) from the Northern Territory capital of Darwin.
But unusual creatures are all in a day’s drinking for the tavern, said bartender Leila Naray.
“We’ve had a lot of horses pop up. We’ve had cane toads, which are yukky,” she said. “We have had a big buffalo come in, wander around. There’s a photo of him with a beer.”
The tavern is also famous for its annual frog-racing competition, a charity event when patrons pack the bar and bet on the best hopper.
But the crocodile was apparently a first.
Two women who work at a gas station outside the bar first spotted the creature. Incredulous bar patrons then rushed out.
A couple of men brought the crocodile inside the pub, taped its mouth and Naray snapped photos.
“We terrorized some of the tourists, I’m sure,” she said.
Once hunted to near extinction by poachers, saltwater crocodiles — affectionately known as “salties” — have since flourished in Australia after being declared a protected species three decades ago.
They can grow up to to 18 feet (5.45 meters) and weigh 1,700 pounds. They eat whatever they can get their jaws on, including water buffaloes and humans.
Back at the bar, employees worried about the effect of all the attention on the baby crocodile. “”We weren’t inventive enough to give him a name,” Naray said.
They put him in a box and sent him to the Darwin Crocodile Farm nearby — where he is doing well.
But the mystery of how the crocodile got to the tavern remains.
“I think someone went fishing and picked him up. Or someone left him here as a practical joke,” she said. “It’s very unlikely that it walked up by itself.”
That, she said, would be a load of croc.
Comment what you think!
1. Duck Soup – (1933) (Marx Brothers)
2. Some Like It Hot – (1959) (Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe)
3. Monty Python and the Holy Grail – (1975) (Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Eric Idle, etc.)
4. Airplane! – (1980) (Robert Hayes, Julie Hagerty)
5. “Dr. Strangelove” – (1964) (Peter Sellers, George C. Scott)
6. Blazing Saddles – (1974) (Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder)
7. What’s Up, Doc? – (1972) (Barbra Striesand, Ryan O’Neil)
8. National Lampoon’s Animal House – (1978) (John Belushi, Tim Matheson)
9. A Night At The Opera – (1935) (Marx Brothers)
10. The Odd Couple – (1968) (Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau)
11. Annie Hall – (1977) (Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts)
12. The Producers – (1968) (Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn)
13. The Gold Rush – (1925) (Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray)
14. Tootsie – (1982) (Dustin Hoffman, Jessica lange, Bill Murray)
15. Young Frankenstein – (1974) (Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle)
16. Bringing Up Baby – (1938) (Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn)
17. Arthur – (1981) (Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli)
18. Bananas – (1971) (Woody Allen, Carlos Montalban)
19. Take The Money And Run – (1969) (Woody Allen, Janet Margolin)
20. Modern Times – (1933) (Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Henry Bergman)
21. A Shot In The Dark – (1964) (Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer)
22. No Time For Sergeants – (1958) (Andy Griffith, Mervyn LeRoy)
23. Adam’s Rib – (1949) (Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn)
24. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – (1963) (Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters)
25. M*A*S*H – (1970) (Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, Sally Kellerman)
26. Lost In America – (1985) (Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty, Sylvia Farrel)
27. National Lampoon’s Vacation – (1983) (Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo)
28. The Pink Panther – (1964) (Peter Sellers, David Niven, Robert Wagner)
29. A Day At The Races – (1937) (Marx Brothers)
30. Caddyshack – (1980) (Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight)
31. The Court Jester – (1956) (Danny Kaye, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury)
32. Sullivan’s Travels – (1941) (Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake)
33. Road To Morocco – (1942) (Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour)
34. This Is Spinal Tap – (1984) (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer)
35. Ghost Busters – (1984) (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver)
36. Groundhog Day – (1993) (Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott)
37. The Birdcage – (1996) (Robin Williams, Nathan Lane)
38. Borat – (2006) (Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian)
39. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – (1986) (Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara)
40. His Girl Friday – (1940) (Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell)
41. The Naked Gun – (1988) (Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley)
42. Sleeper – (1973) (Woody Allen, Diane Keaton)
43. Spaceballs – (1987) (Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman, John Candy)
44. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery – (1997) (Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley)
45. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective – (1994) (Jim Carrey, Sean Young)
46. Born Yesterday – (1950) (Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden)
47. History of the World: Part 1 – (1981) (Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Gregory Hines)
48. The Great Dictator – (1940) (Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie)
49. The Front Page – (1974) (Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau)
50. Top Secret – (1984) (Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif)
51. Home Alone – (1990) (Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern)
52. Meet the Parents – (2000) (Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller)
53. To Be or Not to Be – (1942) (Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack)
54. The Inspector General – (1949) (Danny Kaye, Alan Hale, Walter Slezak)
55. The Jerk – (1979) (Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters)
56. The Big Lebowski – (1998) (Jeff Bridges, John Goodman)
57. Fast Times At Ridgemont High – (1982) (Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh)
58. The Mouse That Roared – (1959) (Peter Sellers, Jean Seberg)
59. There’s Something About Mary – (1998) (Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller, Matt Dillon)
60. City Slickers – (1991) (Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern)
61. The Nutty Professor – (1963) (Jerry Lewis, Stella Stevens)
62. My Cousin Vinny – (1992) (Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, Fred Gwynne)
63. Little Miss Sunshine – (2006) (Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Steve Carell)
64. Silver Streak – (1976) (Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Jill Clayburgh)
65. Mrs. Doubtfire – (1993) (Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan)
66. Scary Movie – (2000) (Keenen Ivory Wayans, Anna Faris, Shawn Wayans)
67. Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure -(1989) (Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter)
68. Stir Crazy – (1981) (Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder)
69. Arsenic and Old Lace – (1944) (Cary Grant, Josephine Hull, Peter Lorre)
70. Beverly Hills Cop – (1984) (Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold)
71. Private Benjamin – (1980) (Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan)
72. Harvey – (1950) (James Stewart, Josephine Hull)
73. Way Out West – (1937) (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy)
74. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – (1989) (Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid)
75. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex… – (1972) (Woody Allen)
76. Monty Python’s Life Of Brian – (1979) (John Cleese, Eric Idle)
77. Meatballs – (1979) (Bill Murray, Harvey Atkin, Kate Lynch)
78. Good Neighbor Sam – (1964) (Jack Lemmon, Romy Schneider, Dorothy Provine)
79. Cat Ballou – (1965) (Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Dwayne Hickman)
80. Rush Hour – (1998) (Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker)
81. Up In Smoke – (1978) (Cheech & Chong)
82. A Fish Called Wanda – (1988) (John Cleese, Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis)
83. The 40 Year Old Virgin – (2005) (Steve Carell, Catherine Keener)
84. The Bank Dick – (1940) (W.C. Fields, Shemp Howard)
85. Ruthless People – (1986) (Bette Midler, Danny DeVito)
86. The Money Pit – (1986) (Tom Hanks, Shelley Long)
87. Babes in Toyland – (1934) (Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy)
88. Tommy Boy – (1995) (Chris Farley, David Spade)
89. Dumb and Dumber – (1994) (Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels)
90. Multiplicity – (1996) (Michael Keaton, Andie MacDowell, Eugene Levy)
91. Monty Python’s Meaning Of Life – (1983) (John Cleese, Eric Idle)
92. The Egg and I – (1947) (Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Percy Kilbride)
93. Hot Shots – (1991) (Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Lloyd Bridges)
94. The Family Jewels – (1965) (Jerry Lewis, Sebastian Cabot)
95. Robin Hood: Men In Tights – (1993) (Cary Elwes, Dave Chapelle, Richard Lewis)
96. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – (1988) (Steve Martin, Michael Caine)
97. Wayne’s World – (1992) (Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Rob Lowe)
98. Three Amigos! – (1986) (Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Martin Short)
99. Sister Act – (1992) (Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Najimy)
100. Operation Petticoat – (1959) (Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Gavin MacLeod)
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101. Broadcast News – (1987) (William Hurt, Albert Brooks, Holly Hunter)
102. Easy Money – (1983) (Rodney Dangerfield, Joe Pesci)
103. The Fortune Cookie – (1966) (Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau)
104. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken – (1966) (Don Knotts, Dick Sargent)
105. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me – (1999) (Mike Myers, Michael York)
106. It’s A Gift – (1934) (W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Baby LeRoy)
107. American Pie – (1999) (Jason Biggs, Eugene Levy)
108. Foul Play – (1978) (Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn)
109. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy – (2004) (Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate)
110. Beverly Hillbillies – (1993) (Jim Varney, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin)
111. Hot Shots! Part Deux – (1993) (Charlie Sheen, Lloyd Bridges)
112. Wedding Crashers – (2005) (Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Christopher Walken)
113. Friday – (1995, F. Gary Gray) (Ice Cube, Chris Tucker)
114. My Little Chickadee – (1940) (W.C. Fields, Mae West)
115. Down And Out in Beverly Hills – (1986) (Bette Midler, Nick Nolte, Richard Dreyfuss)
116. Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein – (1948) (Abbott & Costello, Lon Chaney Jr.)
117. Bean – (1997) (Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Reed, Burt Reynolds)
118. Kung Fu Hustle – (2004, Stephen Chow) (Stephen Chow, Xiaogang Feng)
119. The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming – (1966) (Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters)
120. The Toy – (1982) (Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleeson)
121. Mostro, Il (aka The Monster) – (1994) (Roberto Benigni, Michel Blanc, Nicoletta Braschi)
122. Happy Gilmore – (1996) (Adam Sandler, Dennis Dugan)
123. George Washington Slept Here – (1942) (Jack Benny, Ann Sheridan, Hattie McDaniel)
124. Parenthood – (1989) (Steve Martin, Dianne Wiest, Mary Steenburgen)
125. Rat Race – (2001) (John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr.)
126. Big Trouble – (2002) (Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Jack Kehler)
127. A Night at the Roxbury – (1998) (Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan)
128. Oscar – (1991) (Sylvester Stallone, Marisa Tomei, Tim Curry)
129. Ma and Pa Kettle – (1949) (Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride)
130. Amazon Women on the Moon – (1987) (Arsenio Hall, Steve Guttenberg, Rosanna Arquette)
I often say that I spend more time and energy on my one boy than on my three girls. Other mothers of boys are quick to say the same. Forget that old poem about snips and snails and puppy dog tails, says Sharon O’Donnell, a mom of three boys and the author of “House of Testosterone.” “Somehow it’s been changed to boys being made of ‘fights, farts, and video games,’ and sometimes I’m not sure how much more I can take!”
Boys and girls are both challenging to raise in different ways, experts say.
Not so fast, say moms of girls, who point out that they have to contend with fussier fashion sense, more prickly social navigations, and a far greater capacity to hold a grudge. And as a daughter grows, a parent’s concerns range from body image to math bias.
Stereotyping, or large kernels of truth? “I think parents use ‘which is harder?’ as an expression of whatever our frustration is at the moment,” says family therapist Michael Gurian, author of “Nurture the Nature.” “Boys and girls are each harder in different ways.”
Every child is an individual, of course. His or her innate personality helps shape how life unfolds. Environment (including us, the nurturers) plays a role, too: “There are differences in how we handle boys and girls right from birth,” says David Stein, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Virginia State University in Petersburg. “We tend to talk more softly to girls and throw boys in the air.”
But it’s also true that each gender’s brain, and growth, unfolds at a different rate, influencing behavior. Leonard Sax, M.D., author of “Boys Adrift,” believes parents raise girls and boys differently because girls and boys are so different from birth — their brains aren’t wired the same way. Parenting.com: Pros and cons of learning the sex of your baby
So, can we finally answer the great parenting debate over which sex is more challenging to raise? Much depends on what you’re looking at, and when:
DISCIPLINE
Who’s harder? Boys
Why don’t boys seem to listen? Turns out their hearing is not as good as girls’ right from birth, and this difference only gets greater as kids get older. Girls’ hearing is more sensitive in the frequency range critical to speech discrimination, and the verbal centers in their brains develop more quickly. That means a girl is likely to respond better to discipline strategies such as praise or warnings like “Don’t do that” or “Use your words.”
“Boys tend to be more tactile — they may need to be picked up and plunked in a time-out chair,” Gurian says. They’re also less verbal and more impulsive, he adds, which is especially evident in the toddler and preschool years.
These developmental differences contribute to the mislabeling of normal behavior as problematic, a growing number of observers say. Five boys for every one girl are diagnosed with a “disorder” (including conduct disorder, bipolar disorder, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, sensory integration disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder), says Stein, also the author of “Unraveling the ADD/ADHD Fiasco.” Some kids — most often boys — may simply fall on the more robust end of normal. They need more opportunities to expend energy and aggression, as well as firmer limits. Parenting.com: Guns and dolls
PHYSICAL SAFETY
Who’s harder? Boys
“Much after-dinner wrestling here,” reports Michelle Mayr, the Davis, California, mom of four boys, ages 5 to 12. “I’m constantly fighting to keep my house a home rather than an indoor sports center. Their stuffed animals’ primary function is to be added to the pile of pillows everyone is launching into from the coffee table.”
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In general, boys are more rambunctious and aggressive, experts say. Taking risks lights up the pleasure centers of their brains. Many parents find they have to keep a closer eye on what a son is “getting into,” or use more bandages.
But letting kids explore — at the cost of a few scrapes and cuts — builds character, self-confidence, resilience, and self-reliance, says Wendy Mogel, Ph.D., author of “The Blessing of a Skinned Knee.” Boys, being natural risk takers, may need encouragement to slow down a little, but maybe girls need to be encouraged to take more risks. Look for opportunities for your daughter to jump off a wall, swim in the deep end, or try the bigger slide. Parenting.com: Potty training: girls vs. boys
COMMUNICATION
Who’s harder? First boys, then girls
From birth, a girl baby tends to be more interested in looking at colors and textures, like those on the human face, while a boy baby is drawn more to movement, like a whirling mobile, says Dr. Sax. (These differences play out in the way kids draw: Girls tend to use a rainbow of hues to draw nouns, while boys lean toward blue, black, and silver for their more verblike pictures of vehicles crashing and wars.)
In a nutshell, girls are rigged to be people-oriented, boys to be action-oriented. Because girls study faces so intently, they’re better at reading nonverbal signals, such as expression and tone of voice. Boys not only learn to talk later than girls and use more limited vocabularies, they also have more trouble connecting feelings with words.
“While most girls share their feelings and details of events, my three sons honestly don’t see that as important. I spend my days asking, ‘What happened then?’ or ‘What did he say after you said that?’” O’Donnell says.
Important note: Because boys hold eye contact for shorter periods than girls, parents may worry about autism, since this can be a red flag. “It’s a relief for moms to know that this is normal and comes from the way the brains are set up,” Gurian says.
As girls get to be 8 or so, things can get harder: The flip side of being so adept at communicating is that girls exert a lot of energy on it. There can be a great deal of drama around who’s mad at whom, who said what and why, and more. Start when your daughter’s a toddler to establish an open communication, so she learns she can come to you for advice. Parenting.com: Diapering tips: boys vs girls
SELF-ESTEEM
Who’s harder? Girls
Developing a healthy self-image is critical to all kids. But as the more compliant and people-oriented gender, girls tend to grow up less confident and more insecure than boys, researchers say. Famed gender researcher and psychologist Carol Gilligan, Ph.D., calls this “the tyranny of nice and kind” — unwittingly raising girls to be people pleasers.
“This cultural pressure to put others’ needs first, ignore one’s own gut feelings, and avoid asking for what one wants has traditionally harmed girls,” says Jenn Berman, a California family therapist who wrote “The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy, Confident Kids.” “Despite the fact that she enjoys the positive attention and accolades that people pleasing brings, the more a girl pushes her own needs and desires underground to please others, the more likely her own self-esteem will suffer.”
“I see a natural nurturing instinct in my daughter and her friends,” says Tracy Lyn Moland, a parenting consultant in Calgary, Alberta, who has a girl, 11, and a boy, 8. “I find myself saying, ‘I can take care of that — you get yourself ready,’ when she’s trying to mother her brother.”
Make no mistake, helpfulness and nurturing are virtues for everybody. But this tendency in girls makes it smart to help her explore and strengthen her inner nature and encourage her to try new things.
Body image is a big part of self-esteem, and though there’s certainly body-image dysfunction in boys and men, it remains mostly a female issue. The natural rounding out of the body that happens in puberty clashes with the unnatural slimness girls see in the culture around them.
Be aware of the messages you convey about your own body, diet, and exercise. “It’s painfully obvious that girls’ negative body image can come directly from seeing their moms look critically in the mirror and complain,” says Berman. “Teach your daughter to listen to her body’s signals of hunger and satiety. Girls who listen to their bodies tend to listen to their instincts in other areas.” Sports are a great way for girls to build confidence and a healthy appreciation for their bodies.
SCHOOL
Who’s harder? Mostly boys
Boys and modern education are not an idyllic match. An indoor-based day and an early emphasis on academics and visual-auditory (as opposed to hands-on) learning ask a lot of a group that arrives at school less mature. In their early years, most boys lag behind girls in developing attentiveness, self-control, and language and fine motor skills.
The relatively recent acceleration of the pre-K and kindergarten curricula has occurred without awareness that the brain develops at different sequences in girls and boys, Dr. Sax says. Music, clay work, finger painting, and physical exercise — early-ed activities that once helped lively kids acclimate to school — are vanishing. Few teachers are trained in handling the problems that result.
One area where girls do less well in school concerns spatial learning, such as geometry. Girls may use different parts of their brains to process space perceptions. The key is for parents to present both boys and girls with plenty of no-pressure opportunities to try out the areas that are challenging. Parenting.com: Gender vending
The bottom line? On balance, the general consensus seems to be that boys are more of a handful early on, and girls more challenging beginning in the preteen years. Which means that, as the mom of daughters who are 12, 9, and 7, I have the next ten years cut out for me!
A man in india brought home a sloth bear cub to his daughter after her mother passed away. The man was arrested the daughter was sent to bording school and the bear is in a cage at the zoo and won’t eat!
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As the 2008 general election heats up, one of John McCain’s strongest political advantages is his opponent Barack Obama’s lack of political experience. No surprise there: when Mr. McCain began his political career, Mr. Obama was still a college student.
But lately, Mr. McCain seems to be taking the experience argument in an extreme direction: intimating that Mr. Obama doesn’t actually know, well, much of anything.
Here, for example, is Mr. McCain in a recent op-ed in The Detroit Free Press: “Those who would lead our countries must work to ensure that the benefits of NAFTA are understood throughout our countries, and not jeopardized through cowboy diplomacy. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama does not understand this.”
Or how about the recent Supreme Court decision on granting the right of habeas corpus to Guantanamo detainees: “Senator Obama is obviously confused about what the United States Supreme Court decided and what he is calling for,” Mr. McCain said in a blog entry posted on June 19.
On the recently proposed extension of the G.I. Bill, the McCain campaign issued a statement blasting Senator Obama for failing to “take the time and trouble to understand this issue.”
Or what about Mr. Obama’s knowledge of American foreign policy: He “either hasn’t read” or doesn’t understand “the history of this country in warfare, and the way that we secure alliances and secure the peace,” Mr. McCain said from his campaign plane in May.
Reading these comments, one can only wonder how Mr. Obama won the Democratic nomination!
Of course, this is smart politics for Mr. McCain. According to a recent Zogby poll, more than half of all Americans think Mr. Obama lacks the necessary experience to serve as president. The numbers are even more troubling among white voters. According to a Washington Post poll, about half of them think Mr. Obama would be a risky pick and only 43 percent think he has the experience needed for the nation’s highest office.
Mr. McCain’s ability to build on these poll numbers may be his best, and only, hope for victory in November. But there is a danger for Mr. McCain when he veers from questioning his opponent’s experience to questioning his intellect. Indeed, Mr. McCain’s recent comments verge into the realm of condescension toward the Democratic candidate and his supporters.
Mr. McCain would be wise to remember Al Gore’s sighing during the 2000 presidential debates or George H.W. Bush’s declaration in 1992 that “My dog Millie knows more about foreign affairs than these two bozos” in talking about the Democratic ticket. Voters didn’t exactly warm to these demeaning words.
What’s worse, by continually attacking Mr. Obama’s understanding of policy issues, John McCain runs the risk of actually helping the Democrat neutralize the experience issue. In 1980, supporters of President Jimmy Carter regularly intimated that Ronald Reagan was an intellectual lightweight not to mention a warmonger and a racist. But when the two men debated, and Americans saw that Reagan wasn’t the caricature that he was being presented as, poll numbers showed a huge shift toward the Republican. A similar phenomenon occurred in 2000 when skeptical Democrats set the bar so low for George W. Bush.
When Americans hear Mr. Obama in the presidential debates and realize that he does in fact understand many of the issues facing the country (or even worse that they agree with him), Mr. McCain’s attacks will ring hollow. Such a low threshold is being set for Mr. Obama that he will almost certainly top it and in the process pass the greatest test he will face from voters between now and November, namely, is he up to the job.
But there is another, even greater, risk. Mr. McCain’s constant undermining of Mr. Obama’s intelligence and judgment smacks of disrespect and even seems a bit curmudgeonly. And curmudgeonly is most certainly the one word that Mr. McCain would be wise to avoid in this election.
