Twisting the truth

A study has found that men and women both lie about the same amount, but there is a gender gap: apparently men tend to lie to make themselves look better, and women tend to lie to make the other person feel better.

How did they determine this? They videotaped pairs of grad students meeting for the first time, telling them it was a study about reactions to meeting someone new. Then the grad students got to watch the tape to see if they'd said anything inaccurate.

I read about it here, while the actual research was published in the June issue of the Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

Also cited was another study showing that leaders tend to have better skills at lying than others (though this does not mean that they lie more, apparently). Interesting.

$

Book club

Last night I went to a meeting of my book club, which nominally meets monthly, but actually has been known to go on long hiatus. This, plus the fact that the organizer is going off to business school in another month, tipped the balance for me, having to choose between that and game night at YMG. (I console myself with thinking that there were two good options, so I would have a good evening either way, but I still wish I could've done both).

The book this month was Bee Season, by Myla (no, not Myra) Goldberg. It's about a girl who turns out to have a talent after all, for spelling, and the strange paths it takes her down, while her family members also progress into strangenesses. (I'm not putting any spoilers in here.) I enjoyed some of her perceptions about letters, and the writing was good, though one person was bothered by it being in the present tense, and another by the fact that there were no chapter breaks (there were littler section breaks). Much good discussion of the plot and the characters, including a comment that revised my view of the ending. I think we discussed this book more fully than some of the others previously, with pretty heated talk at times, which was fun. (If you want to hear more about specific points, let me know. Otherwise, I'll just say that I found it an enjoyable book worth reading, if you like fiction.)

And there was the usual catching up about people in the minyan. I found that I am extremely out of the loop: the rabbi's family is moving next week, and I hadn't heard they bought a house! Apparently it's closer to shul, and in my general area. Hm, now that their kids are walkers, I could invite them over for Shabbat lunch...
And I heard about my newly-engaged friend's plans for her early November wedding (they've got a hall and a caterer and a band and are lining up a photographer; they've only been engaged 2 weeks!), and that these people were dating, while those people had broken up, and that there's going to be a going-away party for those going away.
It was good to reconnect...

Footwear OTD

Worn by a cow orker's neice (under 6 months old) visiting the office: soft "mouse" shoes, that not only had whiskers coming out of the shoes, but also cute pink semicircular ears, and a little pink curly tail out the back.

Condiment joy, or, how I splurged at the kosher market

I went to the Butcherie tonight, and was sucked into the condiment aisle, browsing for far too long. I ended up getting some beautifully bottled ginger and green peppercorn white wine vinegar, and a wasabi ginger marinade/dressing. (How obvious is it that I'm ginger-obsessed?)

I also bought the first red meat I'll end up cooking in my apartment (after over 6 years). Nothing too exciting, but since I have practically zilch for red meat cookery experience, it'll be a challenge.