TresSugar

Spoken by a Man, Written by Women: Don Draper's Wisdom

TresSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:00:25 -0800

Mad Men's Don Draper spends a lot of time not talking, which does the rare double duty of adding to his appeal while reducing him to a total ass. But when he does talk, his words are elegant, philosophical, and - if you think about - really great advice! Even so, when they're all put together in this montage above, Don sounds more like a narcissist with a God complex than a wise man with a gift for language, reminding us where his words came from: women writers. With women filling the pool of writers on Mad Men, we'd be remiss to give Don all, or any, of the credit. So what's your favorite line?

Girl Crush du Jour: Alison Brie

TresSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:00:12 -0800

Adorable. No word better sums up actress Alison Brie. And while I am sure the 26-year-old would prefer a more sophisticated adjective, she does play Trudy Campbell on Mad Men and ain't nothin' more sophisticated than that. Combine that with her success as the strung-out community college student on NBC's Community, and how I could not be crushing?

Other than radiating ebullience in real life, Alison, who says she's rarely recognized on the street, seems nothing like either character. She grew up with hippie parents in South Pasadena, CA, where she still lives and showed up to a Pasadena Weekly interview in a "Die Yuppie Scum" t-shirt.

But Alison's not as innocent as she or her characters look. She told Pasadena Weekly: "I don’t know why people see me . . . like I’m all prim and proper, when I couldn’t be more different. People think I come off that way, but I’m not.”

She's right. In this 2007 skit, she dishes it right back to the Internet's most infamous yogi, The Underminer, when he asks her to be in his variety show that's like "Curb Your Enthusiasm meets You Can't Do That on Television." Namaste! Watch it below.

Domestic Violence Linked to Football Losses

TresSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:00:27 -0800

Sitting around with the family watching football is a favored Thanksgiving tradition. But new research reveals that football spectating is not always pleasant: losses have a statistical link to a rise in domestic violence. The study, which matched 12 years worth of team records with local domestic violence rates, suggests that a painful loss can trigger moments of anger in fans, causing them to lash out. Here are some of the findings:

When a team favored to win loses, there is an eight percent increase in intimate partner violence in the hometown state (the study only looked at states with one team).
The increase in violence comes in the hours immediately following the loss.
When the loss is against a traditional rival, the spike in violence doubles.
The rate spike also doubles following losses in games with a lot of turnovers and penalties.

But don't call for a ban on football quite yet - the experts reasonably point out that emotional games might just set off violence that would otherwise happen later. So while this information enlightens us about occasions that put women at higher risk of suffering domestic violence, it doesn't exactly tell us more about how to address the root causes. What do you make of it?

Funny Video! Palin Fans Explain Support!

Tres Community — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:00:24 -0800

This post was written by spacekatgal in the TrèsSugar community group Citizen 4.0.

Oh Gods, this video is both embarrassing and awesome at the same time. I was laughing so hard! The best part of this video was learning that "you never have to compromise when you're right. That's for people that are wrong." That will come in handy in my marriage.

There's lots of great stuff going on in our community - join it, check it out, share your posts or advice in the great groups and maybe we'll feature it here on TrèsSugar!

Stranger Than Fiction! Man Marries Video Game Character

TresSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:00:55 -0800

This past Sunday a man known as "Sal9000" and his fiancé Nene Anegasaki vowed to stay together until death, or a power outage, do them part. You see Sal9000's new wife Nene happens to be a video game character in the addictive Nintendo DS game Love Plus. A priest, live audience, MC, and friends of the happy couple were also present at the event, and the bride's virtual maid of honor even gave a speech. A slideshow recounted how the couple met and teased Sal for being quite the player before he met Nene - he had lots of other video game girlfriends. The whole event was livecasted, and Boing Boing put together the video below so we could all witness this unique wedding.

This story might be the first time I've heard of someone marrying an anime character, but I have read about those who "marry" other inanimate objects. The term "objectum sexuals" describes people who feel attraction, arousal, love, and commitment for objects. One woman even held a ceremony in Paris and married the Eiffel Tower. Talk about nontraditional weddings.

Speed Read! Jennifer Hudson to Perform at State Dinner

TresSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:30:19 -0800

Chicago native Jennifer Hudson will perform at the White House's star-studded state dinner tonight. - Washington Post
Google buys ads to explain why an offensive image of Michelle Obama comes up in search results. - Huffington Post
Should we thank Kate Moss for being frank about watching her weight? - Double X
Family returns from out of town to find home has been broken into and
decorated for Christmas. - Lemondrop
Can you write like Sarah Palin? Slate's holding a contest. - Slate
Inside a supermodel's suicide. - Sexy Beast
Octomom Nadya Suleman says she might have more children. Great. - Jezebel
New albums from Rihanna and Lady Gaga are out. - BuzzSugar
Seven lessons we can learn from Hollywood stuntwomen. - Flavorwire

Do Tell: What Are Your Favorite Thanksgiving Traditions?

TresSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:00:13 -0800

Thanksgiving is almost here, and it might just be my favorite holiday. Every year my family gets together for a big party at my aunt's house. I always look forward to the classic food like turkey and mashed potatoes, but I also love the dishes specific to my family, like my mom's spicy jalapeno cranberry sauce or the creamed onions made according to my grandma's recipe. After dinner, we all head to the living room hoping to beat our food comas with a spirited game of charades.

These are the traditions that I will be looking forward to all week. What Thanksgiving traditions do you enjoy?

Wikipedia's Army of Volunteer Editors Are Quitting

TresSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:00:32 -0800

Volunteers who edit Wikipedia each day are quickly teaching the online encyclopedia that freedom and fun are crucial to the democratization of information. Burdened by complicated restrictions and uninterested in the more mundane topics (the most popular entries have already been written), volunteer editors are leaving Wikipedia faster than new ones are joining.

Wikipedia is under constant pressure to police the accuracy of its information, and that typically means leaving the moderation to millions of engaged users. That approach is fine with me, since I usually use Wikipedia to find out what everyone else knows about something; whether or not the info is true is a secondary consideration. But if less people engage in the content creation and moderation the quality of the information could go down. And that's a problem when these pages embody, and perhaps create, conventional wisdom. It's safer when there are more people who edit the entries, and thus more people who hold the power of truth (or truthiness) in their hands.

Luckily right now there are more than three million people who write, edit, and check the information, guaranteeing some level of oversight. Let's hope Wikipedia figures out how to keep them coming back. Have you ever contributed to Wikipedia?

Adam Lambert: Just Another Provocative Pop Star?

TresSugar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:30:39 -0800

Last night on the American Music Awards, Adam Lambert gyrated along dancers dressed in S&M inspired costumes. At one point, the American Idol alum pulled a dancer's face toward his crotch. Of course, not everyone was entertained - the spectacle was edited from the West Coast broadcast. Adam has since expressed his disappointment with that decision, saying:

"There's a big double standard, female pop artists have been doing things provocative like that for years, and the fact that I'm a male, and I'll be edited and discriminated against could be a problem. People are scared and it's really sad, I just wish people could open their minds up and enjoy things, it's all for a laugh, it's really not that big of a deal."

So in other words, the public should just think of the performance as a male throwback to Madonna, as BuzzSugar described it. Do you think Adam is being held to a different standard of acceptable sexual expression or was the network right to edit the show?

Berlusconi's Mistress Tells Us More Than We Need to Know

TresSugar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:30:23 -0800

Italians really take their sex scandals to the next level. Today, Patrizia D'Addario, former call girl mistress to Italy's "I'm no saint" prime minister, adds a "lesbian dimension" to her tale of sex, power, and retaliation.

Patrizia has a book coming out and excerpts reveal that she has been the target of threats, robbery, and violence after going public about her affair with Silvio Berlusconi. But that's not stopping her. Describing a party held at Berlusconi's home, Patrizia shares the prime minister's preference for white silk pajamas and women who like other women. To see an excerpt, read more.

Patrizia writes:

"Other girls arrived, including a pair of lesbians, and a few other escorts. . . My first thought was that I'd found myself in a harem. He was on the couch and all of us, 20 girls in all, were at his disposition."

While the presence of lesbians probably seems relatively inconsequential, it might upset Italian citizens who were otherwise willing to dismiss heterosexual escapades. And as the Guardian reports, Berlusconi can say good-bye to a recent break from bad press: "The publication of D'Addario's book will divert public attention back to the affair after a period in which the focus had been on another sex scandal involving the former center-left governor of the region around Rome. Piero Marrazzo resigned after being filmed taking drugs and having sex with a transsexual." Mama mia.