Elmo's World Like Our Own?

        Toy companies are in their busy season with the holidays just around the corner, and today I read an interesting article on toys. Actually a specific toy, the plush red toy named Elmo. Almost everyone has heard of this lovable little creature, he appears in Sesame Street, and on the shelves of every toy store. The article prosed a fascinating question, why are kids so obsessed with Elmo? And it made me think about not only Elmo, but about all the toys that children obsess over. Because there has to be something that makes one toy more appealing then another, even to the most simple of minds.
        The article suggests that children want to play with a friend who sees the world like they do, and who better to play with then the fuzzy red guy who like them is "curious, open-minded, fun, loves to learn new things, very optimistic, and happy-go-lucky (Elmo Fever)." This however is a concept that goes far beyond the shelves of "Toys R Us." Not only do the young like people (or furry animals) who see the same world like they do, but people of all ages value this characteristic.
        There are many instances in our society that demonstrate the characteristic of people liking people who see the world like them. For example, immigrants formed sections of the city with other immigrants from their country. China town, German district, and the "south-side Irish", are a few that are still around today. This could be explained as having come from such similar cultures causes people to see the world similarly, and want to be with each other. What are your thoughts on this phenomenon? Do you see any other examples of this in your everyday life?

Too Many Men in the Kitchen?

      Today I stumbled upon an interesting article in The Week. It discussed a list that Time Magazine produced of the top 50 "gods of food" in America. Interestingly enough, there were only thirteen women present on this list, and among these thirteen women, none were actually chefs. This came as a big surprise to many, and The Week said that this must be because chefs are a male dominated profession.
      Later in the article however, it is said that in reality about 20% of chefs now a day are women. This made some commenters very angry, that the Time gods of food list didn't contain any women even though the industry is actually 20% women. To me, two things stick out. First, I wonder how the editor of Time selected his "gods of food" list. Does he really believe that the only chefs worth divine recognition are males? And the second being that still after the fact, 20% seems like a low number of women in the chef industry. After all, haven't women been known to be the cooks in our families throughout American history?
      It seems that a consistent stereotype throughout American history has been women as the cooks in a family. Most American families still run with this tradition, having the mother cook a homemade meal for the family each night. It seems odd to me that even though women have been known to be the chefs of the family, they in fact aren't the majority of chefs of today's world. Is this representative of the fact that men have also been portrayed as the breadwinners? Does a women have a place in the kitchen only in the comfort of her own home?

Airborne

Traveling this weekend to Boston, I noticed lots of differences in the TSA security. And for the first time in a long time, it seems to me that instead of the security becoming more strict, it seems to me that it has become a bit more relaxed.
Since 9/11, the security in airports has gotten increasingly more strict. I came across a timeline of important events that have sparked new TSA regulations over the past 12 years or so on travelinsurence.org.
*November 2001-After 9/11, TSA was created to make air travel safer
*December 2001- Passenger tries to ignite a "shoe bomb", TSA requires passengers to take off their shoes in order to pass through security
*August 2006- Liquid explosives are attempted to bring aboard an aircraft, TSA requires all liquids aboard to now be reduced to small travel sized containers
*October 2007- In response to attempted remote control explosives, the TSA adds additional carry-on scanning devices to security
*November 2010- TSA introduces full body x-ray scanners that display completely nude x-rays of passengers, full body pat downs introduced
*October 2013- TSA Pre allows passengers to get a background check before entering the airport, to make security easier
It seems to me that after a period where the news from TSA was about newly implanted technology that makes it harder to get on board a flight, the TSA is backing off a little, and trying to now make it easier. Will these new freedoms cause more problems in airports? Or appease the unhappy passengers who claim to feel invaded during the random pat-downs.
Just last week their was a shooting in the Los Angeles airport, where a man shot down and killed a TSA agent. Will this cause the TSA to become more strict? I mean how much more could they possibly do?!? Or will this be brushed off, and the government will continue to try and make it easier for passengers to get through security. Comment below.

More Candy=More Success?

With halloween being this past week, I watched as dozens of children bombarded my front door in hopes of some candy. Despite the fact that the weather that night was terrible, with constant downpours of rain, trick-or-treaters ran from house to house collecting their candy and laughing. Although I knew that this was me just a few years back, I wondered what it was that made this youngsters feel the need to go "trick-or-treating." I mean with the amount of candy they collect wouldn't cost more then ten dollars in its equivalent at Walgreens. What is it then, that makes these kids want to go get their candy themselves, in the pouring rain, then just go out and buy some. I think the answer to this question reflects an important American value. The value that reward is better when you earned it, and that having a good work ethic will get you far.
According to Forbes magazine, America ranks in the top 10 for countries with most socio-economic mobility. This means that America, compared to the rest of the world, has an enormous possibility for people who are born into poor circumstances, to succeed and become wealthy. I believe that this is because of the work ethic that is taught to us through our culture. The work ethic that we want to earn something by working. Like kids want to eat the candy that they earned.