Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

In 1970, Our Bodies, Ourselves, the seminal guide to women’s health, described the cosmetic changes that can happen during and after pregnancy simply as phenomena. But now narrowing beauty norms are recasting the transformations of motherhood as stigma.

These unforgiving standards are the offspring of pop culture and technology, a union that treats biological changes as if they were as optional as hair color. Gossip magazines excoriate celebrity moms who don’t immediately lose their “baby weight.” Even Cookie, a luxury parenting magazine, recently ran an article that described postpregnancy breasts as “the ultimate indignity” and promoted implant surgery; a photo of droopy water-filled balloons accompanied the article.

Many women struggle with the impact of aging and pregnancy on their bodies. But the marketing of the “mommy makeover” seeks to pathologize the postpartum body, characterizing pregnancy and childbirth as maladies with disfiguring aftereffects that can be repaired with the help of scalpels and cannulae.

-- NATASHA SINGER

If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democratic president. It's kind of a pipe dream, a personal fantasy of mine.

-- ANN COULTER

I want to be famous so bad it makes me nauseous sometimes.

I'll be lying in bed, drifting off to sleep, thinking about missed opportunities, all the days I've wasted being wasted and then the thought of dying obscure and unheralded scuffles out from under my pillow and it'll jolt me awake like I've stepped off a curb in a dream.

Why? Apart from the obvious benefits to one's social life and bank balance - it's the experience I crave - just to know what it would be like, to join that club where people "get it", who understand social dynamics so acutely they've risen to prominence.

The bizarre thing is that as a society we've never been so fame hungry - yet we're ferociously contemptuous of people who are naked in their desire for renown; it's unseemly, you have to let fame find you.

As noted previously in this blog, the Greek philosopher Aristotle considered the drive for fame to be one of humanity's most noble aspirations, for "fame means being respected by everybody, or having some quality that is desired by all men, or by most, or by the good, or by the wise".

However, when Aristotle scratched these words out on parchment, men achieved fame by doing something better than anybody else - being an incredible athlete, marvellous orator, superb warrior or original thinker; now you can get famous by sobbing about Britney on YouTube.

-- SAM de BRITO

Although Americans have long shied away from conventional bidets, which are common in other countries, and the newer bidet seats, at least two major companies, Kohler and Toto, expect the seat to overcome that resistance eventually.

Last year, Kohler, the American maker of plumbing fixtures, introduced its first bidet seat, the C3, so named for its main selling points: cleanliness, comfort and convenience. This year, Toto, which began selling seats in the United States in 1990, significantly increased its marketing efforts.

-- MARA ALTMAN

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I'm tired of beating around the bush. I'm a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy. I'm not from New York . I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won't get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she's not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?

-- From DEALBREAKER