Adriana Allen, a crossing guard from Boca Raton, Florida, made news today for being a good person. No, she didn't save children from a tornado or land a plane on a river or buy up a Kmart for charity. She just gave back what was not hers: a stack of cash she found sticking out of an ATM. Would you do the same?

 

The term “women’s work” has long been moot, deader now than a male chauvinist at a book club meeting. Work is work for whomever can find it, and over the past forty years women have proven as capable as men in occupations ranging from Ivy League president to tech-company CEO. But now the tables are turning again. In increasing numbers, men are pursuing career paths that have always been dominated by women.

 

The astronomical event of this weekend is an annular eclipse, in which the sun will be partially obscured as it gets photo-bombed by the moon. Depending on your Earth-bound perspective, you’ll see more or less of the sun blocked by the lunar intruder. The ideal viewing spot: a rowboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

 

Can you detect sexual orientation just by looking at someone’s face? A study released yesterday says there’s a good chance you can. Students from University of Washington were able to distinguish accurately, more often than not, between gay and straight people after looking at a Facebook profile photo for less than a second.

 

There’s a conservative streak running through some easy-going American households. The dinner table is the last bastion of civility in a culture that scratches its sweat-panted bum in the mall, pees on the seat, and doesn’t hesitate to hock a loogie on a public sidewalk. Today seems like an apt time to discuss table manners as we are currently in the midst of National Etiquette Week — or were you unaware of that fact, you witless barbarian?

 

by Demetria L. Lucas, Essence

I know you've heard people blaming the bad girls of reality TV for the downfall of civilization, and younger womankind specifically. But every time that argument is made someone inevitably points out that TV characters are not to blame. It's the parents, the culture, the society that we live in that fosters anger and insecurity in women, and a million other reasons, “they” say. And while all those may be true too, the effects of bad-girl reality TV may actually be worse than we thought, according to a recent study.  

To paraphrase a famous old movie line, there are eight million stories in New York City, and this is one of them. It’s one of the good ones, too, underscoring all that is hopeful and possible for an immigrant who left troubled shores yearning to breathe free.

 

When State of the World’s Mothers 2012 was released by Save The Children this week, timed to commemorate Mother’s Day, the American media pounced on one point made in the 70-page report: The U.S. ranked #25 in a tally of which countries were the best and worst places for being a mom.