… is online here. I have to say, I was rather proud of my answer to the second question.

UPDATE: The magazine’s cover story is about coyotes. Is it just me, or do coyotes look exactly like wolves going, “Duuhh … “?

Also, while you can’t buy the appearance of a “strong, proud, generous person with a sense of humor and perspective” at Sephora, you can buy Smashbox Color Correcting Primer, which is the best foundation primer I’ve ever used — I generally wear it alone, not with foundation, and it gives a beautiful evenness without a made-up look. It doesn’t have SPF, mind you, so you have to wear sunscreen underneath.

Yesterday I had an appointment with the psychiatric nurse who writes my Paxil prescriptions. (I went on Paxil in December when my health problems were properly diagnosed, and I’ll write more about my thoughts on that later. Right now we’re not going for the deep personal/sociological insight, we’re going for cheap laughs, ‘kay?) After our conversation, I noticed, as I always do, the sign pointing to the waiting room, and I stuck my head back in her office:

Me: I love the sign out there that says “Mental Health Reception.” I’d love to attend one someday.

Nurse: I don’t think anyone’s ever noticed that before.

Me: Well, you’ve never had an etiquette columnist as a patient before.

Summer is here, fellow dog lovers, which means it’s time to start packing a water bottle along with the poop bags when you take your little friend out for a walk. (I don’t mean that in a “Scarface” kind of way.)

The straight-up best water bottle for dogs I’ve found are Water Rovers: light, one-piece, and relatively dripless, although that latter depends to some extent on how drooly your dog is. (Milo is part African basenji, so he’s relatively dry-mouthed. Owners of Newfoundlands may have a different experience.)

I’m not getting any sort of kickback from Water Rovers for this, mind you, and I paid good cash money for mine. If Water Rovers decides to send me a bunch of free samples, though, my dog-owning friends are in luck!

UPDATE: Some ongoing technical difficulties prevented me from posting a picture of Water Rovers, so I’m trying it now as an experiment:

Yep, that worked!

“I don’t believe in much, but I do believe in duct tape.”

–Miles Straum, “Lost”

Because my friends write updates like this:

[Name] would like to apologize to Rebecca for the whole throwing-the-towel-wrapped-garter-snake-at-you incident this afternoon. It was not a good panic move on my part. The snake is no longer in my front yard and is somewhere happier than my living room due to your keen eyesight. Thank you and please visit again soon!

As a lifelong fan of Dorothy Parker, I’ve always admired how she could compress into a short story what might take other writers an entire novel to communicate. My snake-throwing friend clearly has a similar gift.

… is online here.

Technical difficulties look to have been resolved! And the blog, in a few weeks, is going to be going in a slightly different direction: less about the book, more about reactions to current events, findings in the social sciences, and so on.

In the meantime, some catching up:

Here was this Sunday’s column, and some follow-up advice.

Here is Wednesday’s chat.

I Tweeted a link to a scientific abstract that, apparently, a lot of folks couldn’t access. Here’s the abstract:

The Scientific Impotence Excuse: Discounting Belief-Threatening Scientific Abstracts

Geoffrey D. Munro, Towson University

ABSTRACT

The scientific impotence discounting hypothesis predicts that people resist belief-disconfirming scientific evidence by concluding that the topic of study is not amenable to scientific investigation. In 2 studies, participants read a series of brief abstracts that either confirmed or disconfirmed their existing beliefs about a stereotype associated with homosexuality. Relative to those reading belief-confirming evidence, participants reading belief-disconfirming evidence indicated more belief that the topic could not be studied scientifically and more belief that a series of other unrelated topics could not be studied scientifically. Thus, being presented with belief-disconfirming scientific evidence may lead to an erosion of belief in the efficacy of scientific methods.

Haven’t read the paper yet, but it sounds interesting.

Whew! We have had a major web host issue and are in the process of reconstructing things over here. So if stuff looks a little weird for the next bit, please be patient. We should be back to normal by tomorrow!

No worries about the slim posting rate here, folks. I’m involved in a weeklong event at Harvard Business School. Regular schedule to resume next week.

… is online here. I’d said in Mind over Manners that I didn’t often get questions that were directly political in nature, but that’s changed since the book came out — an unfortunate development.

Meredith Goldstein, of the popular “Love Letters” blog, and I are doing an event next Saturday at Central Square Theater in conjunction with their production of “The Lady with All the Answers,” a play about Ann Landers.

(Actress Stephanie Clayman, photograph by Elizabeth Stewart/Libberding Photography.)

Meredith and I will be doing a symposium before the play, at 7:00 pm (the play starts at 8:00) and a post-performance reception at Rendezvous restaurant. Join us for a fun evening!

You can buy tickets online. I’ve also got two seats that I’ll be giving away on Monday on my boston.com blog.

I hope to see you there!

A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, e-mailed me with the following:

What do you do when you need a bathroom break while you’re teaching a class? As a student, of course, I would just slip out quietly, but I can’t exactly do that when I’m leading a discussion. I also have IBS, which has happily been in a bit of remission lately, but I worry about the etiquette of that too–there are moments when my body just goes “Get up NOW” and I am not really sure how best to handle this. In a class that was two hours or more, I would probably build in a 5-minute break as a general policy, but right now I’m teaching an 80-minute class, which is exactly the wrong amount of time if you have a small bladder, as far as I’m concerned.

I thought I’d email you not just because I want your opinion, but also because I thought this might be a good question for your blog–I’m sure other academics have this problem! It can’t just be me, right?

I’m sure it’s not just her. I know this for a fact.

And here’s what you do: small group discussions. “Okay, everyone, break into groups of three or four, and take five minutes to [come up with something creative about whatever it is we're discussing]. I’ll pick a couple of groups to report when I get back.”

Convenient, simple, and almost always pedagogically appropriate.

I’ll be chatting from noon-1 Eastern Time here. Come by if you can, read the transcript if you can’t!

All of my Great Big Projects at Harvard wrapped up last week, and I’ve been catching up on the rest of my life, including sleep, ever since.

When you’re in the throes of a major project — at home or at the office — do you like to immerse yourself in it completely, or maintain some semblance of balance? In graduate school, when working on final papers or take-home exams, I would let papers pile up in my study, live on snack food and coffee, and generally get very wild-eyed about things. Gradually, I came to prefer a more balanced approach. Even when I was working on my dissertation, I would put away the papers at the end of the day and straighten up. And even on days when I’d be writing at home all day, I still bothered to brush my hair.

How are you? Do you like to plunge full in and re-emerge some days or weeks later, covered with insight, exhaustion, and Doritos crumbs? Or do you prefer, even when working hard, to try to live a somewhat balanced life?

… is online here. I suspect this one might kick up a storm. I’ll be interested to hear reactions to my advice on the first letter.