It's no secret that I'm lukewarm on the game of basketball, as a player and as a spectator but, in the course of the last week, a lot has changed.

My souring on basketball came back in the mid 90s when the Hawks hired Lenny Wilkens who clearly believed that there was only room for one person whose last name is phonetically pronounced "Wilkens" in this city. I was a young guy then, and trading Dominique was an almost unforgivable sin in my book. Watching Danny Manning - the guy who we got in return - play with the heart of the pre-reformed Grinch in the playoffs that year, I had had it.

I followed the Hawks and even managed to go to the game where WIlkens broke the NBA record for wins as a coach, I was generally turned off. The fact that I graduated from high school around the same time and would be away from regular Physical Education classes would take me away from playing the game as well.

Last Saturday I was invited to play a game of basketball with the faculty and staff of the Georgia State School of Music against a team of students from the department. This was the first time I had been on a basketball court in years and the first time I had played full court since my days prowling Run 'N Shoot as a teen. This rust was compounded by the fact that the average age of my team was about 35 and the average age of the opposition was something like 20. Even worse was the fact that they had twelve players and we had nine.

As it turned out, the old boys did alright. We lost the game by one point (60-59, playing to 60) but had tons of chances to win. This game was part of my current initiative to get in better shape, and it really showed how out of shape I am. I don't know if I've ever felt as old as I did late in the game when their team scored a basket and I looked down the court at what looked at the time like the length of an airport runway. I'm working on it though, and even in the nascent stages of this process I am already feeling much better all around.

I think I'll start checking out a basketball when I hit the gym.

- So Friday night the hottest ticket in the ATL made its way into my possession. Celtics vs. Hawks - Game 6. This was only my second Hawks game at Phillips Arena and man, that place was about to explode. There is nothing like being in a city used to a really crappy sports franchise when that franchise turns the corner. I've been here when the Braves ('91) and the Falcons ('98) unexpectedly turned the corner to play in the championship games of their respective leagues and what I saw in Phillips arena was every bit as electric as those two years.

The odds seem pretty steep that they could pull off a miracle run like our other franchises, but anything can happen so I'll root for the boys as long as they are standing. Here's to the Hawks showing those old fogeys in Boston what the kids showed us last weekend.

GO HAWKS!!!!

Ok I slipped getting my TV roundup out so I'm going to have to double up The Office between now and the next episode.

American Idol Season 7 Top 5

FINALLY Brooke is ghost! C Ya! Syesha was back with the straight hair again though so all was not right in the world. It would seem like next week would be Syesha's to lose given her pretty regular status as one of the lowest vote getters, but that depends on how Brooke's voters decide to redistribute themselves. The now-horseless Voteforthworst crowd will probably go for the mediocre Jason Castro and I'd guess that the others would move toward David Cook and then David Archuleta with Syesha benefitting the least, unless her being the only remaining woman counts for more than I am guessing.

This contest will end in a pretty anti-climatic way as it would be a tremendous upset for David Cook to lose. The real horse race is for second place and I see David Archuleta taking that spot with Mr. Castro in third and Syesha pulling up the rear.

The Office S04E11

I was kind of lukewarm to the first few post-strike episodes, but now things are spinning up like crazy. Apparently they are trying to go out with a bang in the finale. For me, the show is at its best when it's dealing with the realities and insanities of corporate America. This is what I have picked up on so far.

1) Ryan / Jim stress
This was one of those things that has been bubbling under for a minute: when Ryan took Jim's seat upon the office merger, then with Ryan trying to holler at Karen (lame), then with Ryan trying to holler at Pam (using a super lame approach I might add). One interesting aspect of The Office is that it happens on a real-life time scale - so if an episode airs in December, the proceedings take place in December. I had to look back and see what episodes aired in December to see if I had missed something pertaining to the Christmas party that Ryan refers to. I like this thread, and actually like the huge leap of an idea of seeing Jim working with the executive suits.

2) Ryan character development

If this were 24, there would be a near certainty that Ryan is on the verge of getting killed. When the 24 writers are about to off jackass characters, you start learning more about them and they become more relatable. Now we see that Ryan is coming apart at the seams. Apparently life as an executive in New York is going to his head and he has a bit of a monkey on his back. This really works toward setting the scenario speculated above.

3) The "Taking Jim Down a Peg" campaign continues

If things keep going like this, J may never make it to corporate.

4) Toby

Jeez, is dude a lame or what?

James has an interesting post on downtown panhandling and Five Points (hey that's my old loft building in the Wikipedia article!). I was going to respond to the post in his comments, but my response got so long that I figured I'd put it here.

The Homeless

First off, I set forth my panhandling position on this site four years ago to the day and I also elaborated on this issue in my ATL podcast back in 05. To briefly recap, I got over the panhandling thing years ago. I have lived and worked downtown for almost ten years and walk among plenty of homeless people whenever I leave the house. Right now, I don't know what's worse, the fact that these people are homeless, or the fact that so many people feel like they are entitled to be shielded from the reality of urban homelessness when they enter urban centers. It is incredible how disrespectful some of us can be to a person simply asking for change.

Or worse. I was once at Supreme Fish Delight on Auburn Ave. (how many strange stories have I started like that) when a group of middle aged women ran into the restaurant screaming and yelling for help. As soon as they saw me, the only man in the restaurant, they ran toward me. At this point, I didn't know what to think as this wasn't a typical response to a robbery or accident. Once they got behind me, the source of their fear stumbled through the door - a clearly mentally deranged homeless man wandering aimlessly in a zombie-like stupor. I tried my best to contain my laughter as the cashier sternly told the intruder to leave, which he did promptly.

I guess I can see how these women could be scared. I mean a dude whose brain is so mushed that he mumbles a bunch of non-words, stumbles instead of walks, and holds his arms in front of himself like a Praying Mantis that happens to be black wouldn't be a settling sight for the average uninitiated tourist. However, this guy - like the overwhelming majority of the homeless downtown - was completely harmless and would respond to a simple "leave me alone." Contrary to popular belief, ignoring beggars is much less effective than looking them in the eye and firmly telling them that you have nothing for them. These people are human beings and, amazingly enough, common courtesy will go a way to getting you on your way. There are absolutely outliers, but I can't recall any sort of problem with a homeless person in years once I figured out how to best communicate with them. So many times I have gotten responses like "God bless you sir, and thank you for at least looking at me when you spoke."

Five Points

I guess I have a completely different view of Five Points. James mentions how the little plaza outside of the old World of Coke is dead during the week. To the extent that this is true, it's to be expected since the World of Coke is now gone and there is nothing over there outside of the Braves shuttle. Also, the fountain - like all others in the city - is shut down so the draw isn't quite what it used to be. Still, on the weekends and lunch time during the week - when the Underground is at its peak utilization - you'll see plenty of people out there regardless of the absence of the WoC. I saw at least ten people lounging there today during lunch, and I took a really early lunch.

However, if the diversity of the crowd is the concern, that could be an issue. At least on the weekends. The tourist trap nature of the Underground brings lots of outsiders, but more of the regulars are black and I think that's just being accepted as the way it's going to be. I talk to plenty of white tourists in the area (I must have some "ask me for directions" pheromone in my chemical composition) and they are almost always positive about the area - going out of their way to say so - so it can't be all bad. It also seems like those night clubs do okay, but I say that as a guy who doesn't go to clubs but walks past the Underground late at night fairly frequently.

Anyhow, my Downtown Unification Theory has always been that if Five Points is going to be what it should - that would be a hub of downtown activity - connecting it to Centennial Park is the key. The problem with doing this via Marietta Street is that there are several buildings there that darken the path at night (State Bar, AJC, Telecom Tower, DFACS, HUD, etc) and offer little value to the visitor during the day. Luckie Street could also serve this purpose but at LEAST two of the parking lots there would have to be replaced by buildings that contain some sort of restaurants or entertainment. Right now the street lining is too perforated and not inviting enough for any tourist to really want to explore it much further than the Super 8 Motel. If the lot across from 123 Luckie were replaced with a nice development putting more stuff to do on the street that would be a big improvement.

Luckie could provide a corridor from Centennial Park to Woodruff Park, and decent storefronts down Peachtree (which it arguably has now, but most places close when the students aren't around) could push people to the Underground. It would also put Broad Street - one of the jewels of the Fairlie Poplar District (a jewel unto itself) - in play on the weekends, though the business owners there seem to clean up so much during the week that they may not care about weekend business. Even still, there is lots of room for Forsyth to accommodate people as well on the way to the Five Points MARTA station. A key to this happening would be some decent storefronts in the Grant Building.

This also puts Auburn Ave. in play potentially, but there is too much dead space between Peachtree and the Auburn Ave. Research Library. GSU may be able to fix some of that since it recently acquired the Suntrust Building and will raze the unsightly annex building, but still you've got nothing but dead buildings for two blocks after that which are guaranteed to keep people from venturing down that way. A possible fix for this is to develop Decatur St. and push people to Auburn Ave. via Piedmont or Jesse Hill Jr. Drive. Though here Grady presents a problem with the numerous parking decks and generally depressing environment. With that taken into consideration, Ellis Street could be an option too.

Bah, there are plenty of things that could be done. My core idea here is that people need relatively uninterrupted stretches of restaurants and hotels and shops to encourage them to keep moving from one area to another. To me, the big problem with Five Points is that it's isolated by the two dead blocks running west of Forsyth Street that would otherwise create a clean connection to the CNN Center and Centennial Park. This is also a problem running east to Auburn Avenue as much of the legacy GSU campus is just as non-functioning for pedestrians as the buildings on Marietta. I have a few other ideas on what could be done there but this post has already gone way too long and I think that I've given the gist of my position. I'd love to serve on a committee or two regarding this, Central Atlanta Progress did a study on this a while back (I'll try to find and link to it later), and while I had issues, there were definitely good perspectives and suggestions - especially pertaining to the "Gulch."

Let's keep this conversation going, because there definitely is a will to see something happen.

American Idol Season 7 Top 6

Not only was I wrong about Brooke going home last week, she isn't even in the bottom two this week after forgetting the freaking words to her song! Even worse, Syesha was in the bottom two after what appeared to be a great performance (didn't really get a chance to check it out last night). Now I might be a little biased toward Syesha as I think that she is gorgeous. Those of you who know me best know why. Here's a hint, whoever it is that gets her to run out there with that wig/perm needs to be publicly tarred, feathered, and forced to listen to William Hung CDs for a week.

Just after I typed that last paragraph I decided to see who the official vote for the worst contestant was and surprise surprise. Now it all makes sense. Well... part of it anyway.

I swear for as long as I watch this show, I just can't not feel uncomfortable when they do their little musical numbers pimping Ford cards. Here is a relatively painless one. Check out the related videos at your risk.

The Office S04E10

The Office didn't do a whole lot for me last week. I have to wonder how much Micheal's schtick can last. I already knew how his whole "search for love" was going to play out about five minutes into the episode. Don't get me wrong, the show is still great due to an excellent all around cast and writing but, Micheal Scott? Stay off the lake friend.

The subplot with the parking lot was generally lame for me as well until the payoff. Okay, the set up of the office park tenants as "five families" was clever, but that's about it. I can't remember another time in the show's run when Kevin was really humanized. Now that I think about it, that's pretty much par for the course when dealing with the fat bald guy. Oh yeah, Andy's post-meeting dance was priceless.

Creed was his normal creepy self. If you haven't read his supremely in-character blog, you should give it a gander. Some people don't know this but his character is actually a self parody. Creed Bratton is a real guy who played in a pretty successful band called The Grass Roots in the 60s and plays himself on the show. His history with the band is discussed in the Booze Cruise episode. He only gets a few lines per show, but they are almost always golden. I wouldn't be surprised if he writes the blog himself.

The Jim and Pam bit was nice, but after three full seasons of them dilly dallying around, please forgive me if I don't get all sentimental about what's being foreshadowed. Deep down I see some drama coming here. Or is it that I just want to see drama? Whatever the case, the walking scene was perfectly written, shot, and acted - like the large majority of this series that I've come to love.

- Check out my current playlist to get a feeling of my mood as of late:



- Only recently have I had a chance to spend any real time in the area east of downtown struck by the tornado a few weeks back and, man, Cabbagetown took a serious hit. So did Oakland cemetary. The pictures on the news really do no justice to the amount of damage done over there. Only a few days ago did the Equitable building get its windows replaced and the Peachtree Plaza still has uncharacteristically dark patches blotting its facade.

* Some people didn't get my tornado NWH reference. I should know by now to link anything that a reader may have a question about but sometimes I just get lazy. So here you go (NSFW):

We was out of town when that sh*t happened
and for even more NWH fun:
What's up with the hats?

- I've been spending a lot of my free time (I've had a lot of it lately) as of late working on upgrading this site. It's no secret that this is a project that has taken no small amount of time, and if I wanted I could release it today with pretty much all of the functionality but I don't want to do that because I need to hold on to that sense of relief for when I've actually accomplished something. It sucks that it has taken so long, but the upgrade has come to represent something considerably more than a blog engine update. It represents the culmination of a vision that I've been chiseling over the years. Today I was working on a baysean spam filter but I think that might have to get futured.

- I am working on a podcast pertaining to a subject that I think is very misunderstood - Affirmative Action. Pundits and politicians so frequently misrepresent AA (both pro and con) and very few people I know with strong opinions on it really have any ideas outside of the talking points of their side so I am taking it upon myself as an HR nut to have an even-handed discussion of the issue. I was hoping to have it up by now but there were a couple of books that I wanted to read before I put it up. I don't expect them to change my assessment, but even in knowing their positions I want to review the arguments in case any worthwhile information can be added to the post.

- I've been doing a little amateur plumbing as of late as the custodian here seems to be breaking more stuff than he fixes these days. One of my faucets had low water pressure and, as it turned out, the aerator was clogged by this white chalky stuff. I'm assuming that this is the same stuff I see flaking around in water once it comes out of the tap and that this type of thing happens often, but I felt a sense of pride in solving the problem. Problem solving without a compiler... what a concept.

I also unclogged a really badly clogged sink. It took about a bottle and a half of Drain O and much strategic jetting of the faucet but now I can let the faucet run for more than ten seconds without the sink overflowing. Again, a simple thing, but gratifying.

Now if I can just get that kitchen sink leak fixed...

- The Braves are finally starting to look up. Jair Jurrgens is looking like the truth. Chipper is looking like his future Hall of Famer self and so does Smoltz. I don't know what's up with booing Andruw though.

So while I was sitting working on the new site I checked out American Idol and Hell's Kitchen. I figured that now was a good time for a TV roundup.

American Idol

If there is any justice, Brooke will go home. She was atrocious and I did catch enough of the show last week to know that she was in the bottom 3. Mariah is way out of her league and she was exposed. I remember seeing her audition and wondering what the judges saw in her.

The best vocal of the night for me by far was Syesha. She has an incredible voice and thank God she dropped that perm/wig/wtf from last week and let the fro glow. From what I have seen so far, quality voices abound this year. The small Asian girl that recently got kicked off sounded great, I just don't think she had total command yet. Clearly David is the Blake of this season. I actually get a little of a Daughtry vibe from him too though he seems to have more humility. I think I have to watch one more week before I can really peg a favorite.

The Office

So The Office is FINALLY back on the air and they came back with a Micheal and Jan Smörgåsbord. This was perfect as the big pre-strike cliffhanger was how they would hold out after the deposition. Apparently not by much.

One thread that I really like about season 4 is the de-perfectication of Jim. For some reason the fact that he stuck around the office and abused Dwight for years simply because he was too much of a lame to tell Pam how he felt AND that he had the audacity to bring Karen back from Stamford and paraded her in Pam's face hasn't dented his character's luster with much of the fan base (hard to get past an abnormally tall frame and a baby face). Now that the show is a bona fide cash cow, it looks like the writers are taking more aggressive steps to expose his character flaws - hopefully with the intent to create some real drama between him and Pam. Not that she doesn't deserve a little drama for her role in Jim's shenanigans.

Speaking of Karen, am I the only one that looked at her coming between Jim and Pam and saw the old jezebel / "mulatto harlot" stereotype (think Lydia the housekeeper in The Birth of a Nation)? I highly doubt that was the purpose, but after reading a few message boards related to the show during season 3 I was taken aback at the vitriol aimed toward Karen's character. I'm aware that she is supposed to be Italian in the show but Rasheeda Jones is bi-racial (by way of Quincy Jones and a white supermodel) and I couldn't shake the thought. After a bit of meta-cognition I've decided to write it off as a case of knowing too much for my own good. I could go on a similar tangent with the way that Jan's chartacter has developed but I'll save that analysis too.

I don't know what to make on the whole Dwight / Andy / Angela thing. The situation was set up brilliantly but I'm still waiting for a payoff, I have faith that it will be delivered.

For the record, Creed is my favorite character.

Also, Hunter's song is as perfect an example of callback humor as I've ever seen. Each new episode is funny on it's own, but incredibly rewarding for those of us who know the entire story.

Hell's Kitchen

I love cooking and Gordon Ramsey so I'm all about Hell's Kitchen. I prefer him on Kitchen Nightmares as the situation appears to be a little less under his control but Hell's Kitchen is fine. I'm so glad that Jason's cartoonishly sexist ass got voted off. He sounds like a 4th grader with his whole "man this" "woman that" talk. Dude, just shut up and cook. Oh, you can't do that. See ya sucka.

The Cathedral

Notes from the Braves home opener:

- I'm not sure exactly how this goes in other Major League parks as I always end up in the nosebleed section when I'm a visitor, but If you want to have the hardcore baseball experience, the outfield seats at Turner Field are where it's at. Warning: don't bring the kids, I have seen countless examples of why this is a bad idea.

- The Braves lost the opener 12-11 in the 12th inning. A loss normally sucks but watching the Bravos come back from being down 5 in the ninth and almost erase a 3 point deficit in the 12th was as exciting as regular season baseball gets - especially in April.

As you may or may not know, the last two runs in the 9th inning were scored on a misplayed fly ball by the Pittsburgh outfielders, with Jason Bey being the most responsible party. Well let me tell you, the person in that picture above is Jason Bey, and I would not be surprised if the harassment fans in the left field stands were laying on him had a little to do with that misplay. Those guys were brutal.

The heckling was bad to begin with, but once the Braves were down by 5 runs and the lames started the leave, the hardcore fans filtered down to the row of seats behind the outfield wall and just tore into him. One fan opened the Gameday program and saw that Bey was from Canada. After this little factoid was announced to the group, all subsequent heckles were punctuated by the word "eh."

And you know that his misplay in the 9th resulted in a plethora of takes on the frequently mocked - by Americans anyway - Canadian pronunciation of "about" which happens to translate to the baseball term for an error ("a boot").

This was all wildly entertaining but, jeez, I can't imagine what Barry Bonds went through.

- Tom Glavine got a nice ovation when he was introduced, it was great to see him back. I think it's safe to say that letting him go to the Mets for such a small amount more and then taking the gamble on Hampton was not one of the better sets of decisions made by the front office. I said this before and I'll say again that I was sorely disappointed at how Glavine was thrown under the bus by the organization after the 2002 NLDS when they pretty much laid the whole thing at his feet. The point itself was not totally meritless, but having it so prominent on the website (and this was before the MLB site consolidation so the Braves were in total control of content) was one of the few truly low-class moves by the Schuerholz regime since it was in power.

- The pen didn't look too great.

- There were a lot of young women at the game. Maybe it was just the section, but it was a marked difference from my usual experience where most of the females at the game are soccer mom types. One of the more interesting things about my trip to Yankee stadium a few years back was how young and cosmopolitan the crowd was. I mean there were groups of beautiful women there with no men in sight. I'm sure that there was a New York factor at play there but, here in Atlanta - with one exception - I have to drag a woman my age to a Braves game kicking and screaming.

- You know, Mad Dog is only signed through 2008 in San Diego and he can definitely still pitch. I can think of a lot of reasons not to do this but, it sure would be cool to have Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux, Chipper, and Cox all have one last season together. This is probably the fanboy in me speaking but, it's clear that these guys can still throw and with Hudson and Jurrjens filling out the rotation, plus our very capable offense (even without Texeria, but a decent power hitter would have to replace him), I can see it as a sound business decision.

- Speaking of the old crew, a belated big up to Dave Justice who was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame. Him going from pariah to savior in the span of a few hours on October 28, 1995 is one of the great episodes in Atlanta sports history.

- The Atlanta Film Festival is upon us once again. I really hate the fact that it's held in April now as opposed to June but what do you do? I have gone through most of the roster and here are my films of interest.

Bama Girl
The Unbearable Rightness of Diversity
The Axe in the Attic
The AIDS Chronicles - Here to Represent
Africa's Daughters
Nerdcore Rising
Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking
Disconnect

Take these recommendations with a grain of salt though. As it stands, the best film I've ever seen at the AFF - and really, anywhere, at any time - was Primer, and that one was picked by Sarah. Now I read the summaries of all of the films, but the one for Primer was ultra-cryptic:

At night and on weekends, four men in a suburban garage have built a cottage industry of error-checking devices. But, they know that there is something more.

How in hell she picked that one I'm not sure, but I think that it had won the Sloan award at Sundance by then so maybe that was the draw. Also, the director, Shane Carruth, was there as well. It was an awesome experience.

I tend to gravitate toward documentaries as it's hard to find any event where you get to see so many high quality ones. Regardless, if you're into movies, you could really just throw a dart at the schedule and come out on top.

- Speaking of movies, Peachtree TV - the rebranded local ATL version of TBS - has announced their lineup for Screen on the Green this year:

May 29 — “Jaws” (1975).

June 5 — “Big Momma’s House” (2000).

June 12 — “Chicago” (2002).

June 19 — “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982).

June 26 — Fans’ choice between “Back to the Future” (1985), “Rocky” (1976) or “Footloose” (1984). Moviegoers can vote by going to Peachtreetv.com from April 14-27. The winning film will be announced in May.

Two tidbits of awesomeness this year: 1. it will be at Centennial Park, so I will be able to walk over there straight from work and get a good spot instead of the relentlessly pathetic spaces I have inhabited over the last few years thanks to the Midtown commute 2. June 26. If you know me and movies, you know what I'm excited for that day. Here's a hint: Chuck Berry is insulted.

No real artistic classics here. Yeah I know the significance of Jaws and popularity of ET but past iterations of this festival have seen the likes of Casablanca and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

- Speaking of Peachtree TV. The trademark of the station is a movie every night. This week is Steven Segal week. The dubiousness of dedicating a week to Steven Segal films aside, tonight's movie was Executive Decision. Really? On Steven Segal week? That's like having Drew Barrymore week and showing Scream. Or having black thespian week and showing any horror from the 70s or 80s (Let's give George Romero some props).

So if pretty upper middle class white women in BMWs suffer from discrimination, who doesn't?

I'm a Southerner. To hear me talk, you probably wouldn't know that as I don't speak with much of an accent. Back during the election of two thousand whores (2004) circumstances had me in constant contact with a ferociously liberal bunch that was very politically active. I had lived on the concrete in Downtown Atlanta and worked at a University for years so this wasn't really anything new, but never had I spent so much time talking politics with people. There was one (white) woman in particular with whom I spent a lot of time talking about race and gender politics. As a black self-identified feminist, I was really into those conversations and the parallels were fascinating. One day we were sitting at her computer and she loaded a website that she swore would have me in stitches.

The site was called f*ckthesouth.com.

F*ckthesouth.com is a red state / blue state rant caused by Democrat sour grapes after losing the presidential election of 2004. Given the fact that at least half of the so-called red states aren't even in the south (we won't even touch the Democratic Party's history in the South or how slavery played a massive role in financing commerce in the north or how Florida really isn't the South), I think the titular phrase says everything you need to know about the intellectual value of the content within (to be fair, there are some salient points made). What amazed me was the fact that my good-hearted Liberal friend could see no congruence between the racism and sexism she hated so much and this tragically irrational generalization of the South.

For a second, I could envision being the "passing" negro having tea with unsuspecting white folk while they pepper every sentence with the word "nigger." Obviously revealing my southern identity (which I did to great amusement) didn't get me lynched or have any other negative effect but, from the perspective of logical deficiency, there is absolutely ZERO difference between the thought process of a racist and the thought process of a regionalist. As it is here in America, history causes us to focus on a few forms of discrimination and ignore copious others.

I'll never forget when Eric Robert Rudolph was sentenced and the families of his victims confronted him, one dude made a comment about how Rudolph was a "small man" and attributed some inferiority complex to the singular characteristic of being short. They played it on the news and it was no big deal. Had this guy been talking to a female convict and told her that her actions were due to her being irrational as a result of her gender, the fit would have hit the shan. Routinely short people are discriminated against, bald people are discriminated against, people who speak English that doesn't conform to the American "standard" are discriminated against, and overweight people are discriminated against with extreme prejudice - even when these attributes have no bearing on what they are being evaluated for. This is completely acceptable socially, even though it exhibits the same flawed halo effect that racists and sexists employ. This isn't just a person to person thing either, there are numerous studies showing employment discrimination based on these second and third tier attributes or how these attributes can compound the negativity of existing attributes.

One study cited in Tipping the Scales of Justice: Fighting Weight-Based Discrimination found that 16% of employers admitted they wouldn't hire an obese woman under any conditions. Another 44% reported they would only hire them under certain circumstances.

studies have shown that short people are paid less than taller people, with disparities similar in magnitude to the race and gender gaps.[3][5] Generally, height discrimination takes the form of covert discrimination, with people being passed over for promotion or denied jobs in the first instance.

A survey of Fortune 500 CEO height in 2005 revealed that they were on average 6 feet tall, which is 3 inches taller than the average American man. Fully 30% of these CEOs were 6 foot 2 inches tall or more; in comparison only 3.9% of the overall United States population is of this height.[6] Equally significantly, similar surveys have uncovered that less than 3% of CEOs were below 5'7? in height, and that 90% of CEOs are of above average height.[7]

With that said, discrimination does not deserve such a bad rep as it, after all, is the very engine that drives evolution and is very useful in general. Nature discriminates against the unresourceful and, over time, so do the resourceful. Soon other entities are able to become even more resourceful and discriminate against the old school of resourcefulness. I discriminate against restaurants that serve bad food. I discriminate against people that aren't up to the job that I need done. I discriminate against women that can't hold my attention with their thoughts and ideas. A distinction could be drawn between this type of discrimination and the aforementioned region/sex/racism with the latter being prejudicial and the former being of the informed variety, but the point is that discrimination is the foundational element of decision making and is only a "bad" thing the minority of the time.

I think it's safe to assume that most anti-discrimination types are targeting prejudicial discrimination. While that is certainly a noble cause, lately I've been of the thinking that forcing people to make rational decisions could actually do the population more harm than good...

So via Slashdot I came across an article about how men are apparently "clueless" when it comes to picking up on sexual cues from a woman. That means that we men have trouble discerning whether a woman wants to be friendly with us or sleep with us. The author brings up a dandy little term "perceptual insensitivity" as the male attribute that makes us so hapless in the endeavor of decoding a woman's intent.

Reading the actual study, the differences between men and women are statistically significant, but not as staggering as the cited article might lead you to believe. Men misidentified a woman's friendliness for sexual attraction 12.1% of the time while women were unable to decipher a woman's intent 8.7% of the time. Relatively that's a significant difference between genders, but all that this says is the vast majority of men know when a woman is just trying to be friendly. When it comes to mistaking sexuality for friendliness, men screw up more than women 37.8% to 31.9% respectively. It seems to me that the real takeaway from this study is that women are three times more likely to not get approached for sex when they want it than to get approached when they don't want it.

This whole sexual perception skill set probably has more relevance to guys looking for a one night stand at a bar than a guy like me but, still, I'd like to share an alternative hypothesis or two for your consideration.

1. Maybe women are "clueless" when it comes to communicating intent / desires.*

From my experience with quite a few women and conversations with quite a few men, it seems like most women prefer to communicate using some form of telepathy. Given the inability of most men - including myself - to read minds, this causes a bit of a problem when it comes to things like... hmmm... oh... COMMUNICATING! This gets even hairier as it seems like, however bad men might be at mind reading, women are that much worse. That is if you consider "assume the absolute worst possible thought and amplify its negativity by 10" an honest attempt at mind reading.

Throughout most of my High School and college years I was constantly pounded with this idea that females mature faster than males. At one point, I concluded that this is true only if "maturity" is a measure of how quickly a person can delude themselves into thinking that they are ready for a serious relationship as women seem to have men beaten by a mile on that one. I later read that this statement has something to do with how young girls develop verbal skills faster than young boys. My question is: what in the hell happens when they get older?

"Women are supposed to be communicators" my ass.

*The study revolved around photographs as opposed to real women so this idea couldn't have been addressed.

2. Maybe women are intentionally sending mixed signals.

I could write a book on this but, I'll turn to Chris Rock to break this down. The key part is around the 1 minute mark.

Platonic Friends EXTREMELY NOT SAFE FOR WORK

With all of this said, I still love women and don't think I'm perfect. Just meet me halfway. Please.

How about one more Chris Rock relationship insight to close this out.