From the Girls in Steno: Sound Bites to Chew On August 21, 2009

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin because, well, we like her better

The rumor mill churns with speculation that former Republican governor, Sarah “Death Panel” Palin, might relocate to the quaint shores of Rhode Island. The Palin camp is tight lipped (for a change) on these developments, but the The Anchorage Daily News, the cutting edge media source that broke the story on Alaskan oil “Alaska Contains Oil!” reported that Palin would finance her move with the $7 million dollar book deal and contract with FOX.  When asked what Palin would do in a state lacking moose, bear, snow machines, or lurking Russians, a Palin insider remarked that she might spend her days scrubbing the graffiti from her house and spying on Cuba.

A brief skirmish kicked up in media sources this week over photographs of First Lady Michelle Obama emerging from Air Force One on her family vacation to Arizona wearing shorts.  The skirmish ended when reality star Kate Gosselin did something equally as innocuous and un-newsworthy and everyone realized that there were more important issues to deal with than powerful women wearing ordinary clothes. Like, for instance, Sarah Palin moving to Rhode Island.

A story published on Forbes.com describes a new climate of sexual harassment, which is harder to detect than the skirt chasing, copy room groping type of antagonism once commonplace in offices everywhere.  Behaviors that range from suggestive text messaging (e.g. Lt me pt it in!”) to modifying your body language may send dangerous, subtle signals to an unappreciative coworker.  Fortunately for women, this same lack of subtlety is not an issue and direct responses such as “Say that again dirt bag and I’ll drop you like a bad habit on New Year’s Day,” or “What message does my foot connecting with your crotch send?” seem to go a long way in clearing up any confusion.

Joan from Mad Men. She kicks the "ass" in harassment