an open letter to planet fitness.

Mr. Chris Rondeau
CEO, Planet Fitness
113 Crosby Road, Suite 15
Newington, NH 03801

Dear Mr. Rondeau,

I'm a professional business writer and self-confessed grammar geek from Austin, Texas, and I'm writing to both express my distress about and request a couple of corrections to your company's marketing language.

I'm distressed about Planet Fitness' use of the phrase "Judgement Free Zone." While I understand and fully support your philosophy of offering an environment where gym members can exercise without feeling self-conscious, I must alert you to two blatant grammatical errors within the phrase "Judgement Free Zone."

Error #1: Misspelling of Judgement

In American English, judgement is generally considered a misspelling of judgment for all uses of the word. In British English, judgment was traditionally preferred, but judgement has gained popularity over the past couple of centuries, so today, both spellings are common – in Great Britain. There is a web-based myth that judgement was the original spelling and judgment is a 19th-century American invention; this is simply untrue.

Error #2: Lack of hyphenation between Judgment and Free

In the phrase "Judgement Free Zone," judgment and free work together as a single adjective describing zone: a zone that is free of judgment, or judgment-free. This compound modifier must be hyphenated. Without the hyphen, both judgment and free are working as separate adjectives, each describing zone – so you are effectively saying the zone is both a judgment zone [the opposite of your actual intention] and a free zone [wholly inaccurate, as your members all pay dues to work out in such a 'zone'].

I urge you, now armed with these corrections, to change your company's use of Judgement Free Zone to Judgment-Free Zone. Any company that can invent and trademark a clever term like lunk for its own marketing purposes can surely take care that all its marketing language is grammatically correct. Planet Fitness – the self-proclaimed "most innovative health club brand in the United States" – deserves no less.

Thank you in advance for your contribution to proper English use.

Best regards,
Kristen Card

hey, pope francis . . .

i'm not catholic [thank god].

but i love the concept of patron saints,
good guys [+ gals!] turned super-specific guardian angels,
available at a prayer's notice to help a believer out
with anything from girl scouts to lumbago.

lately, my work flow has been awfully, painfully s . l . o . w.
like, leech-like-money-bleed slow.
& candidly, i'm just about drained dry.

so, today i'm calling upon a sainted trifecta:
nicholas [patron saint of money problems];
cajetan [patron saint of job seekers]; &
john the baptist [patron saint of prosperity],
to send mama some good money-making opportunity.

& while i wait for my prayers to be answered,
i'll send up one more prayer, one of gratitude
that i don't live in one of the ten worst-paying u.s. cities for women.

for the past five years, the u.s. pay gap has remained
essentially unchanged: women earn not quite 79% of what men earn on average,
which comes out to an annual difference of about $10,000 less.

based upon a review of america's 100 most populous metro areas,
24/7 wall st. has identified the top ten worst-paying cities for women.

24/7 wall st. compared the median earnings for the past 12 months
of both men & women working full-time, year-round in the country's
100 largest metropolitan statistical areas, based on u.s. census bureau data.

& i'm seriously relieved to reveal texas has no cities in the top bottom ten.
can i get a yeehaw, y'all?!?

the winner biggest loser [spoiler alert!] was provo-orem, utah,
where being a homeschooling mom apparently pays better than professional employment.
women there earn not quite 62% of what men earn,
which calculates to just about $20k less a year.

*sigh.*

here's the rest of the list of cities not to go to for a self-value lift, ladies:

2. ogden-clearfield, utah [women earn 65 cents for each dollar men earn]
3. lancaster, pennsylvania [almost 69 cents]
4. baton rouge, louisiana [69 cents]
5. palm bay-melbourne-titusville, florida [almost 70 cents]
6. colorado springs, colorado [70.5 cents]
7. wichita, kansas [almost 72 cents]
8. bridgeport-stamford, connecticut [72 cents]
9. tulsa, oklahoma [almost 73 cents]
10. seattle-tacoma-bellevue, washington [73 cents]

& again, i'm pleasantly puzzled by the scarcity of southern states represented here.

now i'm wondering how "we" get a patron saint of women's rights named? hmmmm . . .


image source: mary's prayers @ etsy.com.

powerful. pregnant. yahoo!

marissa mayer, the half-finnish daughter of
an art teacher & an engineer from wausau, wisconsin,
is now arguably america’s most powerful pregnant woman.

monday, 37yo mayer was named the new president & ceo of web giant yahoo!
tuesday, she revealed she’s pregnant with her first child, a baby boy, due in october.

prior to joining yahoo!,
she was employee #20 at google, & the company’s first girl engineer.
since 2010, mayer has been serving as vice president
of google’s local, locations & map services.
previously, she managed the company’s search team for over ten years.

huge kudos to mayer, who may be the
first-ever pregnant ceo of a fortune 500 tech company.
& huge kudos to yahoo! execs, who apparently were informed of her pregnancy
& didn’t let the term “delicate condition” be included in their decision-making.

mayer says she intends to work through only a handful of weeks of
maternity leave from home before returning to the workplace.

hmmm.

the reality is, mayer definitely has the resources
to actually follow through with her plan.
she has access to excellent childcare,
a schedule she sets herself,
a spouse with similar flexibility,
& tons of money.

but she still has literally a world of expectation on her professionally,
all the personal expectations – real, perceived & self-induced –
that naturally accompany motherhood,
a body full of chemical, hormonal & other physiological change,
& a little creature of love she’s going to want to be with all. the. time.

& how mayer deals with all that,
incidentally,
will send a socially significant message
about women & work & equality & america
& feminism & motherhood & life|work balance.

no pressure, marissa.

here’s hoping smart, hard-working, powerful, pregnant you
finds a way to build a better workplace for women;
finds a way to create a for-real family-friendly work culture,
with understanding & support, rather than judging & resentment;
finds a way to convince folks that pregnancy & parenthood
don’t diminish a woman’s worth in the workplace;
finds a way to help moms who don’t have the expansive resources you enjoy.

& here’s hoping new-mommy you
finds a way to spend as much time as
humanly possible sniffing the head
of that little creature of love.

because believe you me, yummybabyscalpscent is fleeting.


image source: latimes.com.

equal pay day.

just like tax day, it comes around each year,
& is always a little depressing.
equal pay day.

49 years ago, president john f. kennedy signed
the equal pay act of 1963.
today, women still must work until mid-april of this year
in order to earn what the average american male earned last year.
yep — today's the day we catch up with where the men were january 1st.

according to the latest u.s. census stats,
full-time working women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
& naturally, the gap is wider for women of color.

*heavy. sigh.*

ok. so, the better-than-nothing news is,
president obama has flagged equal pay as a priority.
in fact, in his 2012 state of the union address, the president said,
" ... an economy built to last is one where we encourage
the talent & ingenuity of every person in this country.
that means women should earn equal pay for equal work."

so, what is the president doing to walk that talk?

1) he created the equal pay task force.
since its creation two years ago, the eptf has helped:

:: increase enforcement actions;

:: increase recovered money for women seeking
their fair share for doing the same work as men;

:: increase outreach to employers & employees alike,
with rewarding results; &

:: make sure the full weight of the federal government
is centered on closing the gender pay gap for good.

2) the department of labor is gathering & distributing good pay-gap info.

:: a solution to the gender pay-gap problem has been difficult
in large part because access to essential information has been limited.
the equal pay app challenge invited software developers to use
publicly available data & resources to create applications that provide
— greater access to pay data, organized by gender, race & ethnicity,
— interactive tools for early career coaching or online mentoring, or
— data to help inform pay negotiations.
the winners of the challenge have been announced, &
soon, anyone with a smartphone, tablet or computer
will be able to easily access the info they need to make sure they're paid fairly.

:: the dol has also just published two new brochures
to educate employees regarding their rights &
to ensure employers understand their obligations
under existing equal-pay laws.

let's hope once more americans know better,
more americans will do better.
until then, tip your waitress an extra 23% today,
in "celebration" of equal pay day.


image source: fringepop.

where i'll be.

i won't be blogging the rest of the week.

last friday, i was chosen as a finalist for ivillage's search
for ten national "everywoman" contributors.

which is thrilling.

now, i've got to put together
a three-minute video

telling all about me,
interviewing someone important to me,
& offering my best "tip" for women/moms
by next friday.

which is frightening beyond belief.

so i'll be writing & coordinating & shooting & editing
& freaking [already there!] for the rest of the week.

meet me here next monday
for a peek at my completed video!


image source: Alex Koplin & David Meiklejohn

georgia on my mind.

i've been thinking of & wanting to write about
georgia o'keeffe
since our new mexico journey.

i've appreciated her work for decades,
but knew little about her as a person & artist
until we visited santa fe's georgia o'keeffe museum.

amazing, fascinating woman.

& while i might eventually
offer some highlights of her long life here,
today, my full life here & now is moving forward,
holding me firmly in its current.

next monday,
our big girl begins middle school &
our little boy begins a new elementary school.

transition city, here we come.

meanwhile, i'm beginning several new
ambitious professional projects,
following a fairly fallow [& thankfully
so] summer season.

yet, among ms. o'keeffe's cache of
thought-provoking words of wisdom,
i discover appropriate inspiration
for us all.

for them:
"i've been absolutely terrified
every moment of my life ...
& i've never let it keep me from doing
a single thing i wanted to do."

& for me:
"the days you work are the best days."


image source: posters of santa fe

pay gap. sux.

i was all about the greening of the blog during earth day[s] last week. now i need to turn our attention back to another sort of vital green.

cha-ching.

tuesday, april 20th, marked how far into 2010 american women must work from january 1, 2009, to match what men earned last year.

no, no typos. for what a guy earned working from 1.1.2009 to 12.31.2009, a gal had to work an extra 110 days [78 weekdays] to earn the same.

o.m.g. i'm sorry － what year is this?

2010 － and women are still earning only 77 cents for every male dollar.

the harvard business review put together this eye-opening [potentially to the point of tears] presentation of some of the pay-gap facts, such as they are ... i dare you to not be righteously rageful [click the image to go to the rest of the presentation]:

sux, yes?

the lilly ledbetter fair pay restoration act was the first bill president obama signed into law. it doesn't seem to have done much yet, but obama says he's not done with pay parity yet.

the president is cracking down on pay inequity and backing the paycheck fairness act. the measure will make it okay to talk about pay in the workplace, make it easier to prove sex discrimination, and make penalties harsher for companies who underpay women employees.

go-bama. american women don't have 110 days to spare.

image source: huffington post

what a wonderful world ... of women.

Monday was the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Many countries honor the occasion with a national holiday, including Vietnam, Russia and China. But not here in the good old U-S-of-A, no sir – er, ma’am. Here in America, the best we can do is hold a media event at the White House … which is nothing to sneeze at, I realize, but still, it’s not exactly a national holiday, now, is it? Heck, it’s not even a Hallmark-created holiday.

Lowered expectations, anyone?

Anyway, the State Department commemoration was kind of cool. President Obama and the First Lady welcomed women of the Obama Administration, members of Congress, women’s organization leaders and high-school students to their albino abode. Women working to help women all around the world were honored. And Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got all girlfriend-y.

Yes, ‘Chelle and Hill actually managed to make light of the dark 2008 duel between Clinton and Barack for the Democratic presidential nomination. The First Lady briefly stumbled over Clinton’s job title: “Let me thank my dear friend, Senator – Secretary Clinton. I almost said President Clinton,” quipped Mrs. O to laughter and applause.

“But let me thank you for your friendship,” the First Lady continued, “for your support … and for your indispensable advice in getting me through this first year and helping me figure out how to get my family settled in our new life in D.C.”

But the tone of the event turned serious as the President noted the challenges America still faces along the road to gender equality:

“Even as we reflect on the hope of our history, we must also face squarely the reality of the present – a reality marked by unfairness, marked by hardship for too many women in America. The statistics of inequality are all too familiar to us – how women earn just 77 cents for every dollar men make; how one in four women is the victim of domestic violence at some point in her life; how women are more than half the population, but make up only 17% of the seats in Congress, and less than 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs.

“These, and any number of other facts and figures, reflect the fundamental truth that in 2010, full gender equality has not yet been achieved.”

So that's the bad news – a misnomer, since it's not really "news," now, is it? And the good news? The ten amazing women who earned the U.S. State Department's 2010 International Women of Courage Award:

• Dr. Lee Ae-ran of the Republic of Korea, for promoting human rights in North Korea and aiding the refugee community in the Republic of Korea;
• Shukria Asil of Afghanistan, for promoting governmental responsiveness to meet women's needs;
• Androula Henriques of Cyprus, for fighting human trafficking;
• Jansila Majeed of Sri Lanka, for strengthening rights for internally displaced persons;
• Jestina Mukoko of Zimbabwe, for documenting human rights abuses;
• Sister Marie Claude Naddaf of Syria, for working for social services for women;
• Ann Njogu of Kenya, for seeking social transformation and being at the forefront of reforms in Kenya;
• Sonia Pierre of the Dominican Republic, for ending discrimination based upon country of origin and the human rights abuses of statelessness;
• Colonel Shafiqa Quraishi of Afghanistan, for integrating women into the government and police force; and
• Shadi Sadr of Iran, for advocating for women's legal rights and an end to execution by stoning.

Please click on their names and learn more about this extraordinary, global top ten and how each is making a difference in the world for women.

image source: associated press

global girl power.

Forbes' annual list of the world's Power Women isn't about fame or fortune － it's about influence. And yes, gals, size matters.

Putting together this year's list of the top 100 most powerful women worldwide, Forbes considered two qualities: how many media mentions the women got; and how big of an organization or country the women lead.

Number one for the fourth consecutive year is German Chancellor Angela Merkel [above], leader of the world's fourth-largest economy. Runner-up at number two is Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Sheila Bair, who has overseen the orderly takeover of 77 banks to date this year, while fighting big boys like Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for more power for her agency.

The list is largely corporate, with numbers 3, 4 and 6-10 all big-business CEOS － Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Cynthia Carroll of Anglo American, Irene Rosenfeld of Kraft Foods, Ellen Kullman of DuPont, Angela Braly of WellPoint, Anne Lauvergeon of France's Areva, and Lynn Elsenhans of Sunoco. Number 5 is Singapore's Ho Ching, who leads Tamasek, the city-state's sovereign wealth fund.

At number 36, Hillary Rodham Clinton is the highest-ranking woman U.S. government leader, followed by First Lady Michelle Obama at number 40, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (#51), newly sworn Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (#54) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (#56). Poor 16-year Supreme Court veteran Ruth Bader Ginsberg didn't make it into the top 100 this year [time to work that publicist, Justice G!].

Of course you're now wondering, as I did, but what about Oprah?? Well, Forbes opted to give women media figures their own list this year, based upon how much money they earn, how many media mentions they receive, how big of an audience they reach [size still matters!] and how many Facebook/Twitter followers they've got. Topping the Most Influential Women in Media list by a landslide is, naturally, Lady O, followed by ABC's 63-year-old Diane Sawyer and 79-year-old (!) Barbara Walters.

Rounding out the top twelve of a list of 30: talk-show hostesses Ellen Degeneres and Tyra Banks [#5 － really?!?], NBC's Meredith Vieira and Ann Curry, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, domestic goddess Martha Stewart [#9, and Tyra's #5 － something's gone terribly awry!], spunky chef Rachael Ray, The Ladies of The View, and blogging post-mistress Arianna Huffington. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow [to whom I'm offering a special shoutout, because I love her] ranked midway at 15th.

xerox ain't no copycat.

Xerox Corporation has announced that Ursula Burns, currently the company's president, will take over as CEO as of July 1st, accepting the eight-year-reign reins from Anne Mulcahy, who will continue with Xerox as chairman.

Burns will be the first black woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and her promotion will mark the first woman-to-woman transition of leadership, according to Fortune.

Mulcahy, 56, named Burns, 50, as president of the world's largest high-speed color-printer maker two years ago, almost three decades after Burns joined Xerox as a summer intern. She will be one of about 15 women leading Fortune 500 companies and, at the helm of a $17.6-billion business, the most powerful black woman in the corporate world.

slowing down kindergarten.

Confession time: My name is Kristen, I've got a son about to graduate from kindergarten, and [gasp!!] he can't read yet.

Knows his letters, knows their sounds, but is just beginning to put it all together. I'm not particularly alarmed about this situation — after all, he just turned six three months ago, just lost his first tooth last week. My daughter didn't really read until the back half of first grade, and now she feeds voraciously upon books, an almost-fifth-grader reading at a tenth-grade level.

I bring it up not because of my concern or lack thereof, but because of how intensely learning to read in kindergarten seems to be stressed (and that is the proper word for it) by the school system. When I was graduating from kindergarten, the readiness "exam" they gave me was having me recite the alphabet and count to a hundred. Period. Kindergarten was much more about learning how to act appropriately in social situations, like a classroom or a playground, than it was about college prep. Which is not to imply we didn't learn stuff, but what we learned was mostly through human interaction, and especially play.

The times, they have a'changed. But, the question is, for the better?

Recently, Peggy Orenstein of The New York Times authored an article ("Kindergarten Cram," 5.3.09) questioning the wisdom of accelerated kindergarten. Based upon "Crisis in the Kindergarten," a newly released report from the nonprofit research and advocacy group Alliance for Childhood, Orenstein cites some very interesting findings. Some samplings:

• A survey showed kindergarteners spend an average of two to three hours a day being instructed and tested in reading and math, while they spent less than 30 minutes playing.
  
• Play is how kids develop higher-level thinking, improve their language and social skills, cultivate empathy and reduce stress.
  
• Any early advantage observed from accelerating kindergarten fades by fourth grade.
  
• In Finland, where students consistently come out on top in international assessments, they don't begin formal reading instruction until age 7.
  
• Homework confers no benefit — it doesn't enhance either retention or study habits — until middle school.
  
• Literacy assessments neither predict nor improve young children's educational outcomes.

I must concur with Orenstein's hope — that "[m]aybe the current economic retrenchment will trigger a new perspective on early education, something similar to the movement toward local, sustainable, organic food. Call it Slow Schools. After all, part of what got us into this mess was valuing achievement, speed and results over ethics, thoughtfulness and responsibility."

Peggy's pegged it. When it comes to our itty bitties, let's put off productivity and bring on the play.

money for mama.

So the question is, does this make you feel a) gratified, because your work is worth so much, or b) despondent, because it's all theoretical anyway??

Salary.com, in honor(?) of mothers on Mother's Day, released its 9th annual mom salary survey this week. The group calculates this unreal remuneration by selecting ten jobs that closely match the multiple tasks moms typically do as moms (chief executive officer, computer operator, cook, daycare provider, driver, facilities manager, housekeeper, janitor, laundry service, psychologist), and surveying over 12,000 American moms to quantify their normal hours worked within each role every week.

For 2009, a stay-at-home mom does the work equivalent of a $122,732 salary, up 5% since last year, while a works-elsewhere-fulltime-mom does the work equivalent of a $76,184 second-job salary, up 11% since 2008.

The (fake) salaries rose from a year ago due to the fact that all moms are outsourcing less of the around-the-house jobs, therefore putting in much more "overtime" on their own. The survey says stay-at-homes work about 56 hours of overtime a week (a 96-hour workweek), while the work-elsewhere-fulltimes put in about 17 hours of overtime a week, in addition to their full-time hours as both employees and moms (a 97-hour workweek).

Yowza.

So, on a scale of 1 to 10 — 10 being you feel pleased as punch with all you achieve, 1 being you feel like lying down, preferably for two weeks under the covers — how do these calculations affect you and your self-image as a working (because clearly, we're all working!) mom??

keeping the social-media party in check.

Feeling blogged down? FaceBook-planted? LinkedIn-out? Utterly Twitter-pated?
You're not alone.

Between the onslaught of new social media and ongoing coverage of it by the regular media, maybe you're feeling just a tad anti-social? Sadly, it looks like you may be able to avoid joining the party for only so long, as social media is quickly getting down to business.

Yes, blog posts and fan pages and tweets (oh, my!) are becoming the new gadgets in the business toolbox — and goodness knows, we can use all the bottom-line lifters we can get in today's gravity-prone economy.

But how to use social media to benefit your business effectively and — maybe more importantly — efficiently? Well, one good thing about new technologies is they can create new business opportunities.

Introducing my friend and fellow freelancer Amy Hufford of Stellar Communications. Amy, who loves and is way into emerging technologies (and especially conquering them), has just added a new offering to her menu of services: Social Media Planning.

For a flat fee, Amy will review your current online communications — your website + whatever social media you may already be dabbling in — then talk with you at length about what you're doing now, what you want to be doing, how much time you want to spend doing it and how you want it all to work together.

Finally, she'll put together a social-media strategy for you, complete with which social media you should be leveraging (and what's a waste of time/energy for your purposes), how much time you should be spending keeping up with it, content examples specific to your business, and best practices recommendations. Amy can also train you or your staff to execute your social-media plan.

Oh, and Amy's company name just happens to be a direct reflection of her work: stellar.

So, if you or your company is struggling with social media, visit Amy at her website or her LinkedIn page (and yes, you can find her at FaceBook & Twitter, too).

She Amy-zing.  ;D

pretty paper. pretty effective.

Yes, the bulk of my work interaction as an independent business and marketing writer is conducted via email. And yes, I'm plugged into FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and this blog. I do my best to keep up with the daily evolution of this e-universe (or is it un-E-verse?).

But at heart, I'm really still just a girl who likes paper.

I love the feel of it between by thumb and fingers. I like to flip through it, turn it over, fold and unfold it. I like to highlight and write on it, line it up, binder-clip and staple it.

I print on both sides of it and recycle it like a madwoman. But I shudder whenever others speak of going paperless or *gasp!* a paperless world. That's no dream of mine, I tell you. The girl can't help it.

So I was dutifully delighted by a recent Marketing Minute e-newsletter I received from marketing consultant and author Marcia Yudkin, touting the benefits of keeping real mail in your business' marketing mix. She begins:

More and more companies and organizations have gone email only in communicating with actual and potential customers. It's earth-friendly, easier logistically and considerably cheaper than sending stuff by mail.

Yet Yudkin goes on to say that smart marketers should continue to include some mailings in their marketing plans, for four key reasons:

1. You don't want to put all your communications into one e-basket. If a customer changes e-addresses without notifying you or opts out to reduce their inbox influx, then you've lost them forever.

2. You don't want your communications to be dismissed without even a look-see. Many people filter or file their email without ever opening it. But most people will at least glance at both sides of a postcard before it hits the recycle bin.

3. You want your communications to stand out. Email volume is rising while mail volume is falling — it's easy to guess in which medium you're more likely to shine.

4. You want the ability to target your communications. Using postal list services to mail to a specifically defined audience is smart. Using email to do it is spam.

Additionally, from my perspective, there's much to be said for the power of a handwritten note to a client — be it one of gratitude, happy congratulations, simple base-touching or condolence. Real mail always seems to be appreciated.

So, at the risk of sounding terribly un-green (the day before Earth Day, too) — and French, t'boot — I say, vive la papier!!

life is tweet.

It sure seems to be going thataway, anyway.

Just a note to let my fabu blog followers know that along with my girl Oprah, I've officially joined the global songbird-fest known as Twitter.

I envision my tweets as an opportunity to offer bits and pieces of my writerly wisdom, as well as cross-support my beloved blog and other wow web stuff I discover.

So follow me up to the trees and listen to my song of 140 characters or fewer: @kristencard.

["Lake Oswego" original map painting by Rachel Austin; click here to visit her etsy shop.]

loving Lilly's law.

"[W]e must recommit ourselves 

more broadly to ensuring that 

our daughters have the same 

rights and opportunities 

as our sons."

－ President Barack Obama, 1.22.09

Apparently, Mr. President ain't just whistling Dixie with his moving feminist rhetoric (OK, poor choice of idiom, but you know what I mean).

Today, the President signed his first bill into law: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Named for an Alabama woman who, at the end of a 19-year career with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Plant Company, complained that she had been paid less than her male counterparts during her entire tenure with the company. A court ruled that she had been discriminated against, but the U.S. Supreme Court tossed the case, ruling that she should have filed her lawsuit within 180 days of the date she received her first less-than paycheck from Goodyear.

The new law resets the six-month clock every time a worker receives a paycheck. Congress actually tried to pass a similar measure two years ago, but the Bush administration opposed the bill and Senate Republicans killed it.

The President was joined at the bill signing ceremony by women from both sides of the political aisle, as well as Ms. Ledbetter herself, now 70 and part of feminist history. First Lady Michelle Obama spoke afterward at a reception in the State Dining Room.

"It is fitting that with 

the very first bill I sign － 

the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act 

－ we are upholding one of 

this nation's first principles: 

that we are all created equal 

and each deserve a chance 

to pursue our own version 

of happiness."

－ President Barack Obama, 1.29.09

45 years later, the gender pay gap persists.

From today's Parade magazine . . . 

First, the bad news: The Equal Pay Act was approved in 1963, yet women still earn only about 78 cents on each dollar a male colleague makes.

Now, the better news: Congress is renewing its efforts to close the salary gap. Two bills are expected to be proposed soon － the Paycheck Fairness Act, which will force employers to justify pay differences and will enhance penalties for discrimination, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which will override Ledbetter v. Goodyear, the Supreme Court ruling that says that women suing for equal pay must do so within 180 days of the beginning of the discrimination.

And here's a point I'm embarrassed to confess I've never pondered: The consequences of the wage gap continue long after a woman's actual work life ceases; if she's paid less, her Social Security payments and pension are lower, too.

And the hits just keep on coming . . .

must-see tv news anchors.

My college buddy Scott Anderson shared the following link with me (thanks, Scott!), and it made my Wednesday. Put a smile on your face by checking out the synchronized commercial-break chair-dancing of WGN weekend anchors Robert Jordan and Jackie Bange, who clearly love what they do:

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/headcandy/2008/12/who-says-tv-anc.html

:D

something to think about.

Time is not money.

Time is life.

Spend wisely.

go green by not going at all.

As many of you know, since the beginning of the year, I've been working part-time at the office of an environmental ad agency. And, as many of you know, I've been struggling with the transition from full-time work-at-homer to part-time office worker/part-time work-at-homer. And, as many of you, I've been struggling with the skyrocketing price I'm paying at the pump － not only shelling out more, but also more frequently now, since I'm driving into downtown three days a week.

So, combine all of the above, and it's not surprising I've been thinking about the real costs of my commute － not only to my work freedom and flexibility, but also to my bank account and to the environment.

Of course, I'm not the only one thinking about the commute/gas/global warming connection. Recently, the Washington Posts' On Balance blog featured a post by guest blogger Brian Reid about how telecommuting might lift a big burden off of employees and the planet. In "The Green Argument for Telecommuting," Reid writes:

The folks at undress4success.com, a site focused on working from home, estimates that getting the 40 percent of Americans who could work from home off of the roads and into a home office would save 625 million barrels of oil a year, spare the atmosphere from 100 million tons of carbon dioxide and save us all $43 billion in gas costs. ... Teleworking even one day every two weeks should theoretically cut gas usage by 10 percent, which is hardly marginal.

Maybe I'll forward this information to my environmentally-oriented employer to open negotiations for a two-day in-office workweek ...