Overheard

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/08/2010 (5514 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Anti-hoarding pills, here we come

"You don’t want to create a whole sort of science on a few unusual cases. The drug companies will start creating drugs allegedly specifically for ‘hoarding disorder’ and away we go, we’re off to the races one more time."

— Dr. Frank Farley says it would be wrong to classify hoarding as an official mental sickness. The current diagnostic manual now lists 357 psychiatric afflications, up from 128 when it was first published in 1952.

 

But that’s the fun part

"There’s no need to buy each child a whole new wardrobe and a backpack full of sparkly new school supplies just because Sept. 1 is approaching."

— Sarah Deveau, author of Money Smart Mom, says parents should rein in spending on kids’ supplies and clothing and invest the money in Registered Education Savings Plans, instead.

 

Training babies to give up

"People are going to have to accept that extensive, uncomforted crying is actually risky for infants. I’m sorry, don’t shoot the messenger."

— British parenting guru Penelope Leach strongly advises against the "controlled-crying" Ferber approach to training a baby to sleep through the night.

 

Vote for Mom

"She doesn’t fit a traditional female norm. It makes us uncomfortable because our norms don’t associate women with power. We see women as nurturing, as conciliatory, as selfless."

— Associate law professor at UBC Margot Young explains why childless, unwed Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard appears to be losing popularity.

 

Different principles this time

"There were lots of debates, but in the end, scientific principles always prevailed, and it was never done without testing. That’s a huge difference."

— Ivan Fellegi, Canada chief statistician from 1985 to 2008, explains the difference between the latest cabinet-approved census change and all the others that preceded.

 

And it’s warmer, too

"We might not be able to do all these crazy things like The Goose when we’re older, but we’ll always be able to golf."

— Canada’s figure-skating champion Tessa Virtue offers one of the reasons she and partner Scott Moir enjoy their new sport.

 

Better than nothing

"I’ll be the guinea pig, sign me up. It’s better than what we’re going through now. It’s hope for us."

— MS patient Laurel Whittington says she would sign up for a clinical trial of the controversial ‘liberation’ procedure.

 

Adventures in eating

"Given a chance to experience Philippine cuisine, I want to hold my nose and bite into a balut. At the Mexican pavilion, I want to crunch down on grasshopper happy-hour."

— Free Press writer and Folklorama reviewer Melissa Martin offers some tips to improve our 41-year-old cultural festival.

 

One tough mission

"I would guess that there is life on Mars, but it’s not very abundant and it’s only present in a few areas."

— U of W professor Ed Cloutis is hopeful as he and seven Canadian scientists work on a NASA 2016 mission to search for signs of life on Mars.

 

We’re outta here

"Can you handle the truth? Fact is, not only are you replaceable, if you vanished off the face of the Earth in the next 10 seconds your employer would find someone to do your job by the end of the day, and life would continue unabated at your workstation."

— Columnist Catherine Ford scoffs at those workaholics who refuse to take vacations.