Photoshop left leg out, photoshop left foot onto right leg, and now you’re ready to print some catalogues! (Via Photoshop Disaters):

More proof that the poll showing Romney leading among women voters is BS? [Feministing]

Women are better drivers than men, (yet another) study proves. I’m just sayings all. [SacBee]

Obama “surrounded himself with morally repugnant political whores,” claims increasingly unhinged Mike Huckabee. [Mediaite]

Mindy Kaling recalls how she felt when her pilot was picked up for a series. (Hint: Good.) [The Mary Sue]

Remember these things? Turns out they didn’t “Shape Up” crap. And now Sketchers has to pay $40 million for false advertising. [Styleite]:

Metta World Peace shares his thoughts on the women of Oklahoma City. Brace yourself. [SportsGrid]

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Exactly a year ago yesterday, I graduated from the University of Arizona, and rather than thank my relatives for leaving the comfortable temperatures of California to stand in 107 degree weather as I received my diploma, I told myself they had no reason to be proud of me. They’d invested so much in my education and I lacked the drive or ability to come out of school with a job lined up. Suddenly my glory days as an award-winning student journalist had diminished in value, and I went from eternally bubbly college newspaper writer to underemployed 21-year-old whose only other talents were taking coma naps and stomaching 700-calorie blueberry scones every morning. My future looked bleak, and it didn’t help that some of my underclassmen acquaintances joked about my failed attempt at locking down a job. It can be rather easy to mock others under the comfy security blanket of academia, but as some of them learned upon graduating a year later, the workforce can be a tough hellscape to enter. Especially when films about this exact phenomenon are just as awful as the economy itself:

Now that graduation is in the past and I can’t even remember the last time I napped or gobbled up a scone (okay, I caved and bought one of the latter from Starbucks on Sunday. I’m only human!), I deeply regret the way I carried myself during what should have been one of the proudest moments of my life. Graduation is meant to be exciting, not scary or intimidating, and it breaks my heart to see so many seniors spending this rite of passage feeling like they’re not enough. There’s plenty to be excited about and proud of when completing undergrad, and this achievement must be celebrated without negativity or nerves.

Of course, there’s plenty to be discouraged about when thrusting oneself into this economy, which has been far from welcoming to new graduates. On the other hand, new research claims that the class of 2012 has it better than any other graduating class since before the start of the recession, so the job market won’t be as bad for recent grads as it was for the folks of 2008 and shortly beyond. If you’re without work at the moment, fret not. That may change soon — if you’re proactive in your search.

A former classmate of mine just finished up at Arizona and said she does not want to have to resort to a job she could have scored in high school. Though I understand the fear of feeling like four years of hardcore studying was really for nothing, a part of me actually wishes I’d taken on my old high school movie theater job in the immediate months following graduation. One of the best jobs I ever had was serving popcorn, cleaning cinemas, and filling up cups of soda. Why? Because I enjoyed being on my feet and around normal working people. At 22, I wasn’t ready to enter a totally serious professional environment. I still don’t fit into that culture, so I really think I could have gained a lot from at least a little more time at an odd job. Those who have no other option than to take positions most often filled by teenagers can eventually transition into another line of work. Just look at New York Times bestselling author David Sedaris, who said farewell to odd jobs in his mid-thirties for the life of a storyteller — and a highly-lauded one at that. But before being considered one of the greatest non-fiction writers of our time, he worked as a Macy’s elf and cleaned houses, among other things. Success did not fall into his lap or find him in his early twenties.

Matt Lewis, a senior contributor to The Daily Caller and well-regarded political commentator, who worked at a few restaurants during college and did dining management before getting his first serious job at the Leadership Institute, says there’s something positive in having “bad jobs” or knowing little about the working world as a novice employee. He explained it to The Jane Dough as such:

“My first boss was a guy named John Dunagan. John literally had to teach me everything — including the fact that you’re not supposed to button all the buttons on a blazer (that’s how green and uncultured I was!). John was a consummate leader, and I still find myself impersonating him whenever I need to make an important decision or give someone advice. It’s important to gain these role models along the way…But having bad jobs is also important because it teaches you what you don’t want to do — and who you don’t want to be. Having said that, you can always learn something from even the worst jobs. You can learn from a bad manager which mistakes to avoid. And sometimes a bad job can teach you another lesson — that you want to work hard so that you don’t end up there for the rest of your life!”

One New York City-based writer (who wished to remain nameless) told us he didn’t take the easy route to becoming a political reporter, either. As they say, he paid his dues prior to working as a full-time scribe:

“When I graduated with my Master’s degree from journalism, I thought I would be a shoe-in for a media job in New York City. Alas, the Summer of 2009 was a brutal one for journalism job applicants. I applied for internship after internship, until I finally agreed upon an unpaid one, which seemed like a cool alternative weekly. Until I was assigned ‘distro’ — cool, ‘what’s distro?’ It turned out it was passing out newspapers in the subway, the most thankless job. Fortunately, after leaving that internship for a way better internship, I eventually landed a full-time job blogging. So don’t give up!”

Whether you graduate with your dream job, something that pays the bills, or a few different restaurant gigs, allow yourself to enjoy graduation without dwelling on the uncertainty ahead. Stability is great, but so is a sense of mystery, and if anything, be thankful that you still have it in your life.

Today saw yet another jaw-dropping tale of Wall Street prattishness, this time in the form of a post-date survey. Yep, a finance dude went on a date with a lady. And then he asked her for constructive feedback.

The culprit in this tale is a 24-year-old “finance guy” in Philadelphia named Mike, according to Deadspin, which doesn’t outline his career much beyond Does Things With Money. (This is the case with a lot of these confessional, finance-date posts.) After going on a handful of dates, the tipster (a woman) says the pair parted ways — at which point she received a “Date Response Form.” It was a post-mortem review sheet, courtesy of Mike.

It included questions like “Mike is very self conscious about his hair. Does he have reason to be?” “Who paid for dinner?” (coupled with “Are you a feminist,” amusingly enough) and “How are Mike’s conversation skills? He didn’t talk about himself the whole night… did he?” Were it not for these tinges of sincere(-sounding) insecurity, you’d easily write off the “Date Response Form” as a big, elaborate prank. It reads like the dialogue from a mediocre, experimental one-act play. But as far as anyone can tell, the questions are deadly serious.

And this kind of anecdote floats around constantly.

Consider last month’s Spreadsheet Romeo. An idiotic (this time, New York-based) Finance Guy entered in each of his Match.com dates into a spreadsheet, meticulously rating each woman he went out with and chronicling every contact he had with them (including text messages). “Dave,” as he’s known, wrote things like “mixed bag of pictures, but great bod” and “OK girl, but very jappy; one and done for me)” for his reviews. It was awful.

In this case, Dave actually forwarded the spreadsheet to one of his dates — who then passed it along to her friends who later passed it along to Jezebel, which published a highly censored version of the document. It’s worth mentioning that more than one person from wildly different sectors of my personal life forwarded the document to me as well. Was an acquaintance of mine on there? No — I have no tight affiliation with the gentlemen of Wall Street. The stupid thing had reached old school meme-itude, that’s all.

As long as we’re on the subject, there’s this post from Gawker that included a hedge funder’s lengthy email to a woman he was dating after being turned down for a second date. (To summarize, its point is why don’t you want me?) And there’s the “Breakup Quiz” (also courtesy of Gawker), which reads like a more hostile version of good ol’ MIke’s “Date Response Form.” In each of these instances, any jerkiness is accompanied by sad insecurity. Why don’t you want me? they all seem to scream.

Why is this happening? Why are these real-life stories published over and over? Are 20-something finance guys really that bad? Or are we just that angry at Wall Street?

It’s hardly any surprise that Gordon Gekko and Patrick Bateman were each conceived within roughly five years of each other. Gekko splashed onto the screen mere months after the late ’80s-early ’90s market crash, while Bateman arose in the pages of Bret Easton Ellis’ famed “American Psycho” toward the tail end of the malaise. These characters encapsulated the collective attitude toward Wall Street’s villains at the time — a mixture of fear and a little amusement. These characters were terrifying, yes. But who doesn’t recite the phrase “greed is good” without a smirk? Who doesn’t reference the infamous business-card standoff without a chuckle? Despite their fictionalized malice, both Bateman and Gekko are borderline campy figures today. Wall Street scared us — now, we laugh at it.

And it’s with this mix that we approach the “creepy dudes of Wall Street.” Sure, none of these guys are Gekkos. And maybe the flood of “guess what just happened on my date with this trader!” is more a resurgence than anything else. I’m certainly not excusing the arrogant ways of our accidental internet punching bags. But to write off this trend as “all finance guys are assholes” is too flippant. And men in other quote-un-quote prestige fields rarely suffer the same stigma. “Creepy doctor” dates? That’s not really a “thing.” Sure, they happen — but rarely is the phrase “that’s what you get for going out with a doctor!” uttered when someone recounts a terrible date with an MD.

This, of course, would be the optimal time for a writer to recount some simultaneously juicy-yet-unsavory experiences she’s had with the Wall Street set. Some appalling, backhanded compliment at a crowded bar that’s emblematic of A Larger Problem Among Men And Wall Street. But that’s not really the point, is it? I’ve gone on loads of crummy dates, with men of all professional backgrounds. And yet, in the 20-something zeitgeist, the confessional “Once I went on a date with a Wall Street guy” reigns supreme, in social circles and online. Discrimination doesn’t exist just on Wall Street.

In the post-2008 world, we’ve passed fearing the instruments of our economy’s destruction. We’re laughing at them now. And maybe it’s because, on some level, we feel we need to.

“I don’t usually admire Sarah Palin,” Chomsky said during a video interview with Democracy Now. “But when she was making fun of this ‘hopey changey stuff,’ she was right, there was nothing there.”

I definitely didn’t expect that out of Green Party presidential candidate backer Chomsky, especially since it’s rare to see non-right wing political figures speak favorably of Palin in the media, but these two have a point that the message came across as empty and florid. There’s a reason Obama didn’t deploy it again for presidential election round two, and good riddance.

[The Blaze, National Review]

New York Times

Though sexologist Dr. Logan Levkoff praised the “Fifty Shades” trilogy last week for changing the way women talk about sex, Jong implies in a new piece for New York Social Diary that the series is merely in its honeymoon stage and will not remain a must-have forever. Referencing bondage-loving Grey’s S/M sex room, in which he physically abuses naive 20-something Anastasia Steele for pleasure, Jong says:

“And a porn movie—even what they call mommy porn? I read it. I got to the Red Room with its whips and chains and rubber suits. I didn’t believe a word even though ‘The Story of O’ never fails to arouse.”

That’s not to say she always finds fault with a story similar to that of Grey and Steele. Jong says such a tale must be well told, and “Fifty Shades,” which has been criticized before for being poorly written, simply isn’t:

“This latke? You can take your Master of the Universe in gray. I’m sticking with ‘The Story of O.’ Classics last. This ‘book of one hand,’ as the French say, won’t. Neither will the money.”

“Fifty Shades” mastermind E.L. James never intended to go big with her books, nor did she ever claim to have Shakespeare quality writing talent, so don’t think I’m trying to clip her wings. As an aspiring writer, I find her unexpected rise to fame rather inspirational and encouraging, but it must be said that the relationship between Grey and Steele isn’t going to captivate readers long term. Even if we get a movie out of it, “Fifty Shades” won’t go down in history as revolutionary. James said so herself.

Okay, let’s rephrase: There is a surprisingly large crop of celebs who allegedly don’t tip at all. And that list includes Mariah, Lindsay and Madonna, according to a new report from Daily Infographic. Oh, Madge. How could you?

Unsurprisingly, the report also includes some bad news for waiters: There’s not a whole lot you can do to affect your tip. Aside from being attractive. Not exactly a lock on that one, either.

The publication attests that Vergara’s 19-year-old son, Manolo Rodriguez was upset by the news, as he looked up to Loeb, whom he credited for helping him get into Boston University, where the teenager currently studies. Though I don’t doubt that Manolo grew close to Loeb over the two-year period in which Vergara and her former flame dated, it’s unfair to the high profile celebrity and her offspring to claim the young man has lost a father figure thanks to his mom’s broken relationship. Manolo is also pushing 20 and in college, and while I can say from experience that it’s not easy to be without a father figure in one’s early adult years, he doesn’t exactly need tons of hand holding in this stage of his life, either.

Having grown up under his mother’s care alone, Manolo is even more familiar with what it’s like not to have a dad around, and quite frankly, he doesn’t seem all that torn up over it. He made a Mother’s Day tribute video for her this year and thanked her for looking out for him: “What I’m most proud about her is that she hasn’t changed. She has her career and she still managed to raise me at the same time so that’s pretty great. Is my mother a good mother? Yes, she’s the best.” They did a Got Milk? ad together and have close his entire life, so Manolo will be just fine without Loeb. His mother has always been more than enough and nothing can change that.

A former model, actress and, yes, burlesque dancer (awesome), is stronger, more flexible and healthier than you are, ever have been or ever will be. Someone pass the Oreos.

[H/T Buzzfeed]

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A report on sexual objectification shows that both men and women perceive images of “sexy” women as “objects,” according to your freshman women’s studies professor Medical Express. Like sexy, breathing bags of flesh. Humanoid pleasurebots.

The study, carried out by a team of Belgian scientists, determined the object-versus-person distinction by showing test subjects images of men and women (correction, sexy men and women), some of them upside-down. “Pictures of people present a recognition problem when they’re turned upside-down, but pictures of objects don’t have that problem,” Medical Express explained. And, wouldn’t you know it, people had a harder time recognizing the men when they were flipped over. Women, miraculously, were still readily obvious as women. Eureka.

Of course, it’s worth noting that both men and women (of, presumably, diverse sexual orientations) both saw women as objects and men as people. Maybe this whole “popular culture” racket is onto something…

This just happened to Bloomberg TV reporter Sara Eisen, who wore a bewildered expression on her face when the camera not-so-gracefully switched from another anchor to her just as she was fixing her dress. The poor thing was caught mid-adjustment and off-guard but started her segment without stumbling or appearing violated or humiliated in any way. She smiled, seeming to laugh at herself, which is more than most could do. My face would have been burning in embarrassment, so the Trooper of the Year Award goes to the classy woman below:

[The Sun]

– The latest in women’s undergarment technology: The Camelflage (via Daily What):

– Rejoice! Ellen DeGeneres is receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor! [The Mary Sue]

– A new report shows that half of college grads can’t find full-time employment. In other news, half of college graduates probably majored in Philosophy. [CBS]

– The weirdest reasons people quit jobs (our favorite: “A person quit because he hated the carpet”). [AOL]

– The final season of Teen Mom is airing. So… yep. Here’s the trailer, via Hollywood Life:

– Only a matter of time: WashPo braintrust Dana Milbank calls out “our first female president,” Barack Obama, for “pandering” to women. [Mediaite]

– Paris Hilton gets a day job. Kind of. [Gossip Cop]

– Forty-six percent of Americans think Facebook is a fad. [Geekosystem] Forty-six percent of Americans also think pot should be legal… coincidence?

He reportedly mumbled a curse word upon delivering the Barnard College commencement address yesterday, and even though the claim turned out to be false, he’s disappointed us, claiming he knows “nothing” of the New York Times bestselling “Fifty Shades” trilogy.

During a new Q&A conducted by the hosts on “The View,” Obama was tested on his pop culture knowledge. Though he was aware of reality star Kim Kardashian’s famously short marriage with athlete Kris Humphries, Obama couldn’t provide the proper answer when Joy Behar asked him to identify “the controversial sex book that’s on millions of women’s bedside tables.”

“I don’t know that,” Obama said, provoking laughter from the audience. “I’ll ask Michelle when I get home.”

Granted, he’s the president and has far more important matters on his hands than to stay up to date on women’s literature, but come on! That’s weak for a man as plugged in as the president, although a part of me is relieved that he’s sitting out for this one. “Fifty Shades of Grey” is getting lots of love all over, and clearly it didn’t need an endorsement from Obama to thrive on the market.

[POLITICO]

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So claims a new report, which shows that only substance abuse and extramarital affairs are greater predictors of divorce than financial incompatibility. The bottom line: Feeling like your spouse is a bad money manager increased the odds of divorce by 45 percent.

And the money woes in marriage go on and on. Roughly 68 percent of U.S. adults say their romantic entanglements have been (or, I suppose, are currently being) affected by “financial deceptions.” Thirty-one percent of respondents to the survey, meanwhile, actually copped to lying about their shared finances to their partner. So, not only are you people bending the truth in your relationships, you’re also bending it in survey responses. I guess that’s the takeaway. Read on for more facts.

Courtesy of: CreditDonkey

News of Obama’s usage of the dirty “s” word came when Huffington Post editor Ethan Klapper tweeted “Obama hot mic just now — ‘I gotta get my sh……’” right after the president allegedly used the full-length version of the obscenity. A few seconds later, the president returned to the podium to grab something, suggesting that he may very well have spewed a profanity. Hearts broke all over the world and God killed a kitten somewhere. Nice going, Barry O.

Fox Nation has muffled audio of the utterance, although I’ve listened to it about ten times and still cannot make out any bad language. And Mary Ann LoFrumento says he never swore to begin with, having tweeted in the aftermath of Klapper’s tweet, “I was sitting close to the President on the platform and he said ‘I gotta get my gift’ referring to his medal of distinction.” Whose word are you going to take? But even if he didn’t swear this time, I wouldn’t hold any future slip-ups against him.

[H/T The College Fix]

One need only look at gender pay gap stats to understand why technical careers are (or, well, should be) attractive to women in business. Women in STEM careers, on the whole, tend to face a narrower gender pay gap than women in less subjective fields, so to speak. Cut-and-dry qualifications and results are abundant in tech — less so in jobs in which your friendships and connections take a starring role. While the gender pay gap in different career fields can be attributed to any number of things, its comparative narrowness in STEM is telling. STEM women are more likely to be taken on their merits. This isn’t always the case in other fields. I’m not saying it’s the perfect field for women but one need only look at recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data to see how STEM pay stacks up against other departments. It’s clearly a better option.

And, with that in mind, it’s easy to see why women flock to the Chief Information Officer job at major corporations. Earlier this year, a study showed that five out of the top 10 highest-paid CIOs are women (to be clear, that’s Chief Information Officers, not Chief Investment Officers). Margaret McCarthy of Aetna and Lori Beer of WellPoint were, in fact, the two top-paid CIOs of 2011, according to data obtained by WikiBon. These are the good jobs — and, more importantly, these are the good jobs for women. And what the CIO pay data shows us is that this job has long been a stronghold for women.

Which brings us back to the latest study on women and the CIO suite: We ladies, against all seeming logic, are dwindling from the post. And, in fact, this pattern has been in the works for the last few years. What’s going on?

Twelve percent of CIOs in the U.S. were women back in 2010, according to the new report from Harvey Nash USA. The number slipped slightly to 11 percent last year, before declining to 9 percent today. Meanwhile, a third of CIOs said they have no women in IT management roles at all.

This is particularly staggering, as Mashable pointed out, because tech companies with women in charge have 12 percent higher revenues. One can imagine that CIOs at non-tech groups could have a similar influence. In short: Diversity helps everyone. This is not a particularly novel sentiment but in tech, it bears mentioning.

But while we can make the case that more women in IT is good for everyone, the Harvey Nash data is particularly bad news for women. As more and more reports show that many U.S. companies aren’t doing enough to recruit women into STEM roles, the CIO spot is kind of our last stand. Girls need to see women in charge in tech to feel motivated to pursue high-level IT careers themselves.

So, why is this happening? We’d like to think it’s a complex series of problems. But the real answer is of the chicken-and-the-egg variety: There aren’t a lot of women CIOs because there aren’t a lot of women CIOs. Or, as Harvery Nash Senior CP Anna Frazzetto told Reuters:

The video, which features multiple females voicing their opinion on the candidate, starts with one of them saying, “Congratulations, Mitt Romney — you’re the presumed GOP nominee.” Other women pop up on screen with displeased expressions and say:

“[You threatened] to let our employers take away our contraception coverage, threaten to let our insurance companies charge us more, just because we’re women, and threaten to get rid of Planned Parenthood, a life-saving source of healthcare for millions of women. So this November, we’re gonna remember how you threw women under the bus, just to get the nomination.”

Zing! Here’s the thing, though. He didn’t exactly have to “[throw] women under the bus just to get the nomination,” as he pretty much had the spot secured from the beginning. Romney was always ahead of his GOP rivals, so it’s not as if he had to neglect females to get where he is today.

If this clip gets around, Romney will have some explaining to do, and he can’t defer to wife Ann this time.

[The Hill]

Most offices honor the “casual Friday” dress code policy, and if you’d like to see how loose that term really is, show up in a pair of penis leggings. Hey, most people are too delirious or burned out by the end of the week to care about your attire, and if you’re dealing with uncharacteristic May showers as New York City is currently experiencing, you have an excuse to be frumpy. Of course, it’s a little hard to justify spending €119,00 on something frumpy, but that’s the price you pay for standing out.

If you’re feeling adventurous or work at a rather laid-back professional environment, give these a shot. And if you’re male, worry not, they come in men’s sizes too.

[H/T Jezebel]

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Here it is. Verdict? I love her but I have some reservations with the sneak peek here. Serious reservations. But it’s still too early to call it and I don’t want to spoil it for you, so just watch the clip (Via Jezebel):

Wines marketed to women not all that tasty? [Businessweek]

What it’s really like for women in the military. [HuffPo]

Mediaite compiled a list of Newsweek’s most controversial covers. Yes, this gem made the cut:

Why it’s silly for women to worry about their age. [Jezebel]

Obama is “convinced that the women of this generation will lead the way.” We can’t disagree. [Buzzfeed]

The segment, of course, was not without some awkward moments. The worst of which, perhaps, was when Barbara Walters choked out the sentence “you are married to your [insert 5-second pause here] wife?” with the same tone with which someone might ask “you own… 58 pet iguanas?”

“Is that hard to say?” Orman responded, somewhat stunned. Can’t say we blame her for wondering.

“No, I had to think of the right word,” Walters explained.

Mmm. Moving on.

And what did Orman think when she heard the president announce his support for same-sex marriage?

“I thought I was going to die of happiness on the spot. You know, I’m going to be 61 in June. And in my entire life I never thought — during my lifetime — that I would see that this even beginning to be a possibility.”

Of course, when View co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck noted that Obama sort of, well, put same-sex marriage back on the states to figure it out for themselves, Orman didn’t mince words, arguing that “It has to go to the federal level. It absolutely has to.”

And then, the kicker:

“It’s an emotional issue, it’s a financial issue. And it’s an issue that I really hope — if you know a gay person, if they’re your mother your children, your cousin, your employee, your employer, I don’t care, your dog walker — I’m asking you all to vote for President Obama and make this a reality.”

Watch the segment here:

But Mark Schimel of Long Island is doing just that, and I have a few guesses as to his motivation: He really wants to upset his ex-wife, would like to inspire a television series or “You’ve Got Mail”-esque rom-com, or is going through a mid-life crisis in his separation aftermath. No matter Mark’s driving force, he has decided to run for Nassau County State Assembly against Michelle Schimel, his estranged wife who has held the seat since 2007 and is in her third term. After 32 years together, Michelle and Mark split in 2011, but clearly the problems didn’t melt away when their romance did. They’re not legally divorced, but if anything could prompt a signing of the documents on Michelle’s part, it has to be this. He swears his race isn’t meant to be a “circus” and is “all about business,” but the only business here is none of ours.

Even Mark’s mom, who received a Mother’s Day card from Michelle for the holiday this year, finds the move by her son preposterous.

“I love her very much,” Mark’s mother told the New York Daily News of her daughter-in-law of more than three decades. “I can’t believe he’d do a thing like this. I’m going to talk to him.”

His slimy, conniving scheme is low on so many levels, but his mom says he doesn’t have a shot against well-liked wife Michelle:

“He’ll never win anything against Michelle. They [the voters] love her.”

Yeah, and let’s not forget that most people don’t have a whole lot of faith in a candidate who airs his dirty laundry in public and seems to run for office solely out of spite. Just a thought.

After watching the first few episodes of the show, I’ve found that I would still like to see more development of Shoshanna and Jessa’s characters. They are certainly the more outlandish half of the leading quartet of girls, but they still feel like caricatures to me. Shoshanna’s virginity got its own subplot last week, but other than that she’s still creeping around the periphery of the show. Her big moment this week was accidentally (and then not so accidentally) watching Jess and her ex-boyfriend have sex in her apartment, which Jessa breezily categorized as proving she is “not smote-able,” whatever that means.

Jessa’s sexy baby-sitter story is marginally more interesting. It’s still unclear to me why she is friends with Hannah and Marnie, other than the fact that they went to school together. Her globe-trotting and free-spiritedness, which somehow also manages to be pretentious, certainly don’t seem like they would lend themselves very well to long term friendships. Her delight last week at Charlie’s performance of “Hannah’s Song” seems to suggest that she doesn’t particularly care about being kind to her friends, and she doesn’t seem to have much of an identity beyond having crummy parents and being an almost magically powerful seductress — why do they keep her around?

The big story this week was the fallout from “Hannah’s Song,” which Charlie and his horrible band played at a gig in Bushwick last week, and which features lines taken directly from Hannah’s diary, like “What is Marnie thinking / she needs to know what’s out there / how does it feel to date a man with a vagina.” This led to Charlie dumping Marnie, forcing her to visit his apartment for the first time (!) to beg for his forgiveness. This is preceded by an ugly little scene where Marnie vows to get Charlie back at the breakfast table, and when Hannah expresses misgivings about her change of heart she tells her she doesn’t understand the situation, because “you’ve never been loved as much.”

YIKES. I know that Hannah wrote some pretty shockingly cruel things in her journal, but that line was tossed off so casually, and Hannah accepting it so calmly after it’s followed up with “except by me. And your dad” felt very bizarre. Also odd was Hannah’s reaction to Marnie’s anger about the journal. She reads the same lines we heard last week out loud, again. She claims that it’s part of the book of essays we’ve been hearing so much about, which makes so little sense it makes my head spin around 360 degrees. Those lines aren’t lines from an essay — they sound like a journal entry.

After getting this glimpse at Hannahs’ writing it’s clear that it’s not very good, but I feel like the show does want us to take her literary aspirations seriously. At other points in the show, it seems clear that Hannah is supposed to be sympathetic on some level. But I also feel like that sympathy and willingness to cut her some slack would come more easily if she was demonstrably talented, a sentiment the show seems to think we will agree with despite mounting evidence to the contrary. I have whiplash from the show’s ever-shifting perception of Hannah, making her hateful and sympathetic and relatable and delusional in alternating intervals. I suppose a counter argument might be that she is complex, but to me it reads as inconsistent.

Marnie’s story, in contrast to everything else this week, felt grounded in reality. We found out how she met Charlie, at a party at Oberlin that unsurprisingly set the tone for their one-sided relationship. She begs Charlie not to break up with her, promising him everything (even blow jobs) to get him to consider trying again. They end up in bed together and Charlie asks her to make some truly insane and sad concessions, like “You should act like my life is real.” When Marnie hits her head on the metaphorically apt ceiling of Charlie’s weird cage-like bed frame and he latches on to her like superglue, she realizes that she wants to break up after all. It seems, a little bit, like she just wanted to be the one doing the dumping.

I like the show, and certainly find it funny, but I’m just not sure how I’m supposed to read each character. Is Hannah’s memoir any good? If not, then what makes her struggle in New York City meaningful to me? Hopefully this question will be answered in more detail in the coming weeks.

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That’s why Michele Bachmann’s recent endorsement of Allen Quist, the Minnesota Congressman candidate with whom the former presidential contender had a “working relationship,” doesn’t reflect well on Bachmann. The soybean farmer, who teamed up with Bachmann in the 90s to challenge Minnesota’s state curriculum standards, has been known to make wild assertions — one being that humans may have lived among dinosaurs in Southeast Asia up until the 11th century.

In addition to going on a witch hunt against an adult bookstore, which he called a “haven for anal intercourse,” Quist has also provided scientific facts to back the existence of dragons. Last but certainly not least, he once told a British reporter that women are “genetically predisposed” to be subservient to men, referencing the behavior of wild animals as evidence in his favor. As pointed out by adviser Ben Golnik, “Quist has not won an election in over 25 years.” And now you know why.

[Via Mother Jones]

Compiled by The Ladders, the study shows that a significant portion (55 percent) of working moms “struggle” to balance work and home life, calling the juggle “overwhelming.” Sixteen percent of respondents, meanwhile, said their coworkers are “resentful of [their] competing priorities.

Check out more alarming stats below:

Over the weekend, the Oberlin College graduate posted a photograph of her breathless, drenched after-party look alongside the words, “My spinning birthday party was magical and @iamgreenfield [Max Greenfield] came and my dad came!” For obvious reasons, she looks far from pleased in the picture. Intense exercise regimens don’t always bring people great joy, and walking around with a red face and damp clothes is as uncomfortable as it is embarrassing. Maybe it helped that Dunham’s rigorous festivities were held at SoulCycle, a work-out hotspot for many celebrities. You never know when Jake Gyllenhaal will turn up with his washboard abs and glowing smile. Judging from Dunham’s reports, though, we doubt the “Brokeback Mountain” actor graced the fitness center with his presence for her special day. Nevertheless, it seems like she had a blast without him.

Most folks use their birthday as an excuse not to work out, but Dunham is no ordinary gal. I’d prefer to spend my own birthday on a west coast beach with a mango margarita in hand, but would scrap this idea in a heartbeat to snag an invitation to one of Dunham’s gatherings. Would you?

[BuzzFeed Shift]