Broccoli recipe

If you just can't imagine broccoli and sugar together (a combination I mentioned on Tuesday), here's a recipe from my sister-in-law that may change your mind:

Broccoli Salad

5-6 cups of broccoli, chopped
1 pkg. craisins
almonds, silvered or crushed
red onion
8 oz. white cheese (optional)
1 lb. cooked crumbled bacon
--
Dressing
1-1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tb. rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
salt & pepper to taste

In one bowl, combine the first six ingredients (salad only). In a separate bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients. Stir dressing well and then pour over broccoli salad. Mix well. Refrigerate before serving. Enjoy!

Sweet, sweet broccoli

Apparently a spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down - or the broccoli, at least. Subjects who ate samples of bitter foods (grapefruit juice, broccoli, cauliflower) with sugar added reported liking those foods better than they had before the experiment - even when they ate those foods again, weeks later, without any sugar added. This study by researchers at Arizona State University appears in the January 2008 issue of Appetite.

Could sugar be what I think it is: the "duct tape" of the food world? It fixes anything!

Wait, you're probably thinking. Isn't sugar bad - linked to addictive behavior, obesity, diabetes, and other health issues? Is the average person, who consumes almost half a pound of sugar daily (remember that 300-calorie Mocha Latte you had this morning?), really able to taste the difference between sweetened and unsweetened broccoli? Doesn't a person's normal daily intake of sugar affect how they perceive sweetness?

"Yes, our normal daily intake of sugar affects how we perceive sweetness. Genetics, biology, exposure, and learning all contribute to sweetness perception as well," says Dr. Gregory J. Privitera, author of The Psychological Dieter (due out in March 2008) and one of the current study's authors. "But remember, the key for flavor reinforcement to work is that a less preferred food is mixed with a liked flavor or taste - and Americans really like sugar. The more an added flavor is liked, the more it should increase a person's liking for the target food."

So what happens when you stop putting sugar on these healthy foods? Well, you will find that you like the taste of them more, even without the added sweetener. The problem then becomes one of will power, not preference. If I'm trying to include more broccoli in my diet, adding a little sugar in the beginning will help, but then I need to learn to eat broccoli (and other things) without sugar. Easier said than done!

Hamsters of hostility

A study in the January 2008 issue of Cognition & Emotion by researchers at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. collected information from pet owners regarding what sorts of emotions they recognized in their pets. The researchers were particularly interested in secondary emotions like jealousy, pride, and shame, and found that over 81 percent of dog owners and 79 percent of horse owners reported that their animals experience jealousy. I've seen in my own cats behaviors that might suggest jealousy: Our Maine Coon sometimes comes over and whacks our Russian blue on her head when I'm petting her.

However, I find some of the other numbers in the report equally interesting. Pets scored close for primary emotions like curiosity (hamster/82 to rat/100) and fear (hamster/89 to horse/100), but there was great variation in reports of other emotions. Empathy, for example. Horses ranked at 67 while hamsters scored lowest on empathy at 2 percent. Hmmm... as happy as a lark, as busy as a bee - as uncaring as a hamster? A lion-hearted cop vs. a hamster-hearted killer? The dogs of war and the hamsters of hostility?

A buyer's advice to sellers, part III

Five things a buyer doesn't care about that keep showing up in house for sale ads:

1. "Custom design." Ah, you got to build the house of your dreams. You picked the faucets, the light fixtures, the faux finish in the den. Now unless you find a buyer who happens to have the exact same residential vision as yours, "custom design" doesn't mean much. In fact, quirkier houses can be harder to sell, particularly when the quirks include the floor plan.

2. "House owned by one owner." If this is meant to suggest that the house is well cared for, then write "well cared for" in your ad (and be sure to include photos that show this). When I read "house owned by one owner" I tend to think (1) it's outdated and (2) it smells like old person.

3. "Recently reduced from..." Yes, reducing the price may attract buyers who otherwise wouldn't have looked at it. However, if you were asking $50,000 too much for your property and you reduce it by $30,000, it is still overpriced by $20,000.

4. "Realtor - 2006 & 2007 Top Producer - Bachelor Degree 1999." What's with the big glossy photo of the realtor? Am I looking for a house or a date? Buyers don't care if the realtor has a degree or is a top producer (anyway, do you mean top for your cubicle, your office, your region, or your state?) - I want to know about the house.

5. "House appraised at..." But your ad doesn't say who is doing the appraising, so why should I care? I have no idea if it's from a reputable appraiser or not. Secondly, if the appraisal is vastly out of line with the county assessment, recent sales of other homes in the same neighborhood, and the market growth rate for the neighborhood, it's wrong. Even if it's right, it's wrong.

Independents and primaries

An in-law asked me not too long ago whether I was going to vote for Obama or Clinton in the primaries. I figured the question revealed either a big assumption regarding my political affiliation or was a not-so-subtle way to learn what my affiliation is. Thrown by the questioner's approach, and admittedly feeling somewhat gleeful about disproving someone's assumptions about me, I replied with unnecessary haughtiness: "I'm registered independent. I don't vote in the primaries." Meaning, I'm not allowed.

Talk about assumptions being wrong. Dang it. Since then I've learned that independent voters - also called "decline-to-state" or non-partisan - can vote in some primaries, depending on the state and the party. Independents in New Hampshire can vote in either primary, for example. Independents in California can vote in the Democratic primary but not the Republican one. In Oregon, where I live, independent voters can't vote in either primary, but some people are trying to change that.

I don't know whether I would vote in a primary if given the chance. Giving non-party members a vote in a party's primary feels to me like a PR stunt to lure independents into registering as party members. No doubt, though, our primaries are really more like mini-elections. Imagine if Obama, Clinton, McCain, Romney, and two others could all appear on the November ballot. Wouldn't it change how you felt about the primaries?

"'Decline-to-state' voters add Golden State intrigue," by Dorothy Korber and Phillip Reese, The Sacramento Bee

No matter what

My approach to politics rankles some. See, I'm registered as an independent - and when I say independent, I don't mean Libertarian or Green or any of those other political labels, some of which seem to pop up during election year like pimples after pizza. I do vote but I don't belong to a party.

In reality, a two-party system exists in the U.S. There are the other parties, sure, but they've yet to win a presidential race - though the Libertarian candidates in 1972, John Hospers and Theodora Nathan, got an electoral vote. Go Libertarians? I think not. There are a variety of third party members who serve as mayors or governors, or appear in their state's house of representatives. But when it comes to the Big One (November 4), it's like Coke or Pepsi (yeah, you know there's RC, but eww); vanilla or chocolate (anyone for spumoni?); black or white. If you want your vote for president to count, it's going to be either Democrat or Republican.

Being independent helps me focus on what I'm really voting for: a person who's going to be president for four years. If you're a registered Democrat, you've probably already made up your mind that the Democratic candidate is the lesser of the two evils and you'll vote Democrat no matter what. No matter what. I once interviewed a feminist who said she'd vote for a female president no matter what. Really? No matter what? That's scary. "No matter what" is how bad leaders get into office. "No matter what" might be just what all the Republicans said to themselves in the last election. It means you've ceased any actual thinking about the subject. Suddenly reality doesn't matter. You idealize, and you lose focus. When you vote, are you voting for an ideal, a party, or a person?

A buyer's advice to sellers, part II

As the house hunting continues, so does my unsolicited but hopefully useful advice for sellers:

1. Be honest about the house's location. Don't list it as Portland* if it's really Gresham, Beaverton, Hillsboro - or anywhere else not-Portland. (*Fill in the names of any major city and its surrounding areas here.)

2. Even better, indicate your neighborhood. Are you in the Lincoln neighborhood or Salmon Creek area in Vancouver? Both the same city, but the neighborhoods have a different feel.

3. Make your remodel work count. Better to remodel one or two rooms using quality materials and craftsmanship than to make cheap, junky updates all over the house. The buyer will end up paying as much as if no remodel work had been done just to fix the cheap work. You might not care about that, but the buyer does, and will offer less to offset those future expenses.

4. List a single price, not a price range. When a buyer sees an ad that says "will consider all offers between $239,000 and $270,000," he's not going to offer the upper number knowing already that you'll settle for the lower one. And you've also priced yourself out of offers ABOVE $270,000. So list the house at $255,000 and be ready to negotiate.

5. Be professional. That means check spelling in your ad, don't swear, and don't use your ad to vent your spleen about politics, religion, or how the contractors robbed you for the remodel work.

Short women and tall men

When I first joined a gym a few years ago, my personal trainer was a lovely, affable, taller-than-average woman named Stacy. Eventually we ended up talking about height (which always happens with two short people, or a short and a tall person, but almost never with an individual of average height). Stacy said something along the lines of "You know, tall men like short women. Short men like short women. But short women like tall men. So tall women end up stuck dating short men." I'd never thought of it that way before, and though I didn't know how accurate her theory was, I left the gym feeling like a hot commodity thanks to my shortness.

Well, according to a January 2008 study on conditional mating preferences in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, Stacy was kind of right. The researchers used information from personal ads and undergraduates to study mate preferences for height. They found that overall, both men and women preferred to be in a relationship where the man was taller, though men were a little more willing to break this "social norm" and date a woman taller than them.

Interestingly, the study found that tall women (like Stacy) and short men were less attached to this social norm. Is it because they feel like Stacy did, that all the taller guys are "taken" by shorter women? And for the short guys, that all the shorter women are "taken" by tall guys? And does this explain the high-five I got from another 4'11" woman a few years ago when I explained that I was dating a 6'4" guy?

Finally, the study found that height preferences didn't really have anything to do with "endorsement of traditional gender roles." In other words - just because a woman feels "The man should be taller" does not mean she's more likely to feel "The man should be the breadwinner."

I don't feel so bad now about my very tall husband doing the laundry. Not that I really felt bad about it before. I always sucked at doing the laundry.

A buyer's advice to sellers, part I

My husband and I are in the early stage of house hunting, which means a lot of searching sale ads online. Sellers, it’s a scary market out there for you, so I’ve heard. Here’s some advice from a buyer on what I want to see in a “house for sale” ad:

1. The basics. Square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, age, and price should be the MINIMUM information in your ad. Address and/or MLS number help too, though I can understand being reluctant to post your address online.

2. The truth. Your potential buyer will discover the truth sooner or later anyway. An assessment is a matter of public record, so don’t lie about the home’s assessed value. And if you learn that your realtor lied about your property on your behalf, FIND A NEW REALTOR.

3. The whole truth. Don't say "brand new" if your property is a year old. Say "built in 2007" or "1-year-old" house for sale. Don't call it a "house" if it is really a condo or townhouse.

4. And nothing but the truth. Skip phrases like “It feels bigger than it is” (How do you know if a room feels big or small to someone else?) and “Better than new” (That’s for the buyer to decide).

5. Photos! Buyers aren’t handing out creative writing awards, they’re looking for a future home, so show as well as tell. It should be a photo with your house—not your kids, cat, or new car—as the subject.

Think about it - If there's a buyer out there who's looking for what you're selling, you have to tell them what your selling. The single guy who's actually looking for a condo is gonna skip your condo ad if you call it a house in the headline. And the family that's looking for a house may stop to look at your condo ad because you've called it a house but when they read the entire ad, they'll just move on. This is just a start. More unsolicited advice to come in later posts...

Embrace your weirdness

First off, Happy New Year to all and welcome. I've always been about 5 years behind when it comes to new technology, new music, new whatever, and that has included blogging. But at last I'm joining the cyber cacophony.

This habit of lagging behind is just one of my quirks. Normally I don't think of myself as weird. You don't need to try to be different when you're 4'11". People notice.

I visited two friends over Thanksgiving last year, a lesbian couple (who, by the way, are roughly the same height). I learned that my lesbian friends think I'm weird. And they think my husband and I look funny together because he's 6'4" and I'm 4'11". Tall guy, short girl - funny. Same height lesbians - not funny.

When I told them that my husband had taken up the tuba (an instrument he'd played in high school), and I was learning the euphonium (kind of a small tuba), my one friend said, "You always pick the weirdest things. But I'm glad you've found someone who enjoys the weird things with you."

At first I was a little hurt to be called weird. I mean, they found the father for their child via a catalog of sperm donors. I'm not knocking it. Their choice to raise a child together is courageous. But the process was weird. Weirder than learning to play the euphonium? I guess it depends on your point of view. One person's weirdness is another person's happy life.

Anyway, they are good friends and I moved beyond the hurt to gratitude that they noticed and celebrated my happiness. And they gave me a goal for the new year: embrace your weirdness!