Daily Dose of Common Sense

If you live in close confines, chances are your neighbors hear you having sex. Most walls just aren’t that thick.

A group of New Yorkers were polled, and…

According to the survey, the most common sounds heard through the walls were thumping (60 percent), moaning (56 percent), screaming (28 percent) and “other” (23 percent).

But just 12 percent of New Yorkers said neighbors ever complained about their lovemaking, and only 24 percent said they went out of their way to pipe down.

So, you can assume that your neighbors hear you getting it on, but the good news is that you won’t receive many (if at all) complaints about it. Pretty good news the day before Valentine’s Day, huh?

[Via PatsPapers]

Here are some of our favorite brief Web stories from this week.

Some people had common sense.

• Time Magazine did a profile on They Might Be Giants‘ kids album called Here Comes Science. Glad to see a great band getting some props. Kids need smart music!
• Too broke to fly home for Uncle George’s funeral? No problem. Some funeral homes now begin to stream funerals live on the Web.
• A Texas family cut their grocery bill in half by planning their meals a year in advance. A lot of work, I’m sure, but knowing what you need to buy down the road allows you to wait until it goes on sale, etc.

And, some did not.

• A TSA agent planted fake drugs on a traveler as a gag. Nice, huh? Agent no longer employed by TSA.
• A New Hampshire man called the cops to complain that he paid for sex and did not receive it. Clearly not a student of the law. He and the woman were both arrested (shocker!).
• Detroit shoplifters ran over and killed the Kmart employee trying to stop them. Now they face armed robbery and homicide charges. The shoplifters were making off with $400 of CDs. That’s worth going to jail for, don’t you think?

PETA finds ridiculous ways to grab headlines. “No publicity stunt too low” should be the group’s motto. In true form, PETA members have taken their nonsense to an elementary school in Florida. In protesting the pending arrival of the circus, PETA arranged for a person in a bloody elephant costume to walk around at the end of the school day. Yes, an elephant with a bloody ear. Not surprisingly, the article says the elephant wasn’t a big hit with the kids. (You think?)

PETA’s issue is the treatment of circus elephants, which Ringling Brothers denies:

“We have never been found in violation of the Animal Welfare Act, which overseas the care and treatment of animals including, the Asian elephant.”

Really, PETA? Is traumatizing the children who might attend the circus the best way to accomplish your goal?

[Via MomLogic.com]

This story lacks common sense in so many areas that it’s hard to know where to begin.

A Connecticut mother left her two small kids in the car while she ran an errand. Big deal, right? Well, what if I told you it was in freezing conditions and the car was off? Bad. Really bad. Has this woman never heard of frostbite or hypothermia?

We can assume she left her 3-year old and a 1-year old to freeze their buns off in the car while going on a SUPER, IMPORTANT errand. Perhaps picking something up at the store, dropping of a letter at the Post Office, paying a bill, or maybe bringing peace to the Middle East.

Nope. She had to go sit in a tanning bed. Yep, getting a fake tan was that important.

Guess she hasn’t heard of skin cancer either.

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Some residents of Big Spring, Texas didn’t appreciate one man’s holiday decorations. The man has a statue of Michelangelo’s David in his front lawn. For laughs and holiday cheer, he dressed David up in a Santa hat and beard, which caused some parents to complain. They claim their kids were asking “Why is Santa naked?”

After complaints, the homeowner covered the statue’s bait and tackle with boxer shorts, which you can see here in this photo.

Parents can’t explain to kids that it’s not really Santa and that it’s a replica of a famous statue? Come on, people! Lighten up.

You know, living in a place called BIG SPRING, these townspeople should have appreciated the joke.

[Via PatsPapers.com]

Photo: BETSY BLANEY/The Associated Press

From the Huffington Post, here are 15 toys to avoid for your kids this holiday. Some of them are weird, some disturbing, and some just plain wrong.

Enjoy!

Turkey gets a bad reputation as the cause of post-Thanksgiving “food comas.” This is where you’re so sleepy that you can barely function once the last bite of pumpkin pie has been swallowed. A myth has long been perpetrated about tryptophan, an enzyme in turkey, as being the cause for sleepiness. Well, that is just plain wrong.

Yes, tryptophan can cause sleepiness. But, here’s how it does it.

Tryptophan also can be metabolized into serotonin and melatonin, neurotransmitters that exert a calming effect and regulates sleep. However, L-tryptophan needs to be taken on an empty stomach and without any other amino acids or protein in order to make you drowsy. There’s lots of protein in a serving of turkey and it’s probably not the only food on the table.

Also, the concentration of tryptophan in turkey is the same as the amount found in beef and chicken, and even more tryptophan is contained in cheese and pork.

So, why are you so sleepy after all that turkey dinner?

Overeating is the culprit in this myth. Ingesting an excess of food can slow blood flow and oxygenation, which makes you feel tired. Many people are led to believe it’s the turkey that specifically makes them long for their pillow, but in reality, it’s just the quantity of dinner.

Don’t blame the turkey if you have to go to bed early tonight.

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Not everyone relishes the quality family time provided by the holidays. If you dread the upcoming moments with your kin like a Michael Jackson seance, here are some tips to get through it all in one sane piece.

At family gatherings, don’t talk about:

• religion
• politics
• the lack of seasoning in the food
• your lesbian experiment in college
• the inheritance

More tips:

Don’t expect to share a bedroom with your boyfriend/girlfriend if your hosts are conservative in this area. Just accept that you’re sleeping apart for a few days in exchange for some free grub. Better yet, offer to stay in a hotel nearby.

Just smile and nod any time your mother picks on comments on your _________________ (insert most sensitive topic here). Because she WILL mention it.

Make sure to keep taking your medication. Whether it’s Prozac, Ambien, Johnny Walker or chocolate cake, don’t try to go cold turkey around Turkey Day.

Pack a bag with snacks. That way, if you don’t like the food, you can sneak away for a Snickers bar later.

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There are tens of millions of workers in the U.S. who do not receive any paid sick leave. That means that about 40% of Americans either have to work while ill or take the hit to their paychecks. For people living paycheck-to-paycheck, this usually means sucking it up, taking some cold medication, and heading to work. And you know who’s catching what they have? Everyone else.

This is one reason that public officials are very worried about this flu season. Many of the workers in this category are waiters, child care employees, office temps, and cashiers. They’re handling your food, your kids, and your money. That means germs are spreading at the speed of light.

You can hardly blame John/Julie Q. Worker who doesn’t get sick leave. Yes, he/she should stay home but what if he/she fears being fired, or can’t afford to take the pay hit? And, you can hardly blame struggling Small Q. Business, who can’t afford to pay workers for not working. But, businesses should at least help sick workers make up the hours lost with additional hours later on.

So, shame on bigger companies like Wal-Mart (who can afford sick leave) for not treating this issue with the seriousness it deserves.

Workers at many retailers and restaurants say their employers’ policies discourage them from calling in sick. At Wal-Mart, when employees miss one or more days because of illness or other reasons, they generally get a demerit point. Once employees obtain four points over a six-month period, they begin receiving warnings that can lead to dismissal.

In addition, when Wal-Mart employees call in sick, their first day off is not a paid sick day (although workers can use a vacation day or personal day), but the second and third days are paid. The policy is meant to keep workers who are not actually sick from taking a day off to, say, go fishing.

Paul Hotchkiss, a support manager at a Wal-Mart store in Hastings, Minn., said the point system pressured him to report to work two weeks ago even though he had swine flu.

Forcing people to come to work sick only gets other workers sick. Offices are notorious germ factories, even outside of flu season.

A recent study found the average office desk contains 20,961 germs per square inch! The worst hot spots for germs? Phones, computer keyboards, and computer mice. If not cleaned regularly, they are a great breeding place for viruses that cause colds and flu.

Also, don’t forget about communal bathrooms, the office coffeepot, microwaves, and water coolers. Gossip isn’t the only thing being exchanged in these places. Germs are also traded on any commonly touched surfaces.

If you get sick leave, USE IT. If you don’t, lobby your bosses and companies for better sick policies. This flu season, we may need all the help we can get.

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As I’m sure most parents have now heard, Southwest Airlines flight attendants kicked a cranky two-year old child off their plane last week. Mother and son were flying together from Amarillo, Texas to San Jose, California, and the toddler started shouting and crying before the plane took off.

Pamela Root’s 2-year-old son was screaming for the Southwest Airlines plane to “Go! Plane! Go!”

“I want Daddy!” Adam shouted. Over and over again.

Despite her embarrassment, the stay-at-home San Jose mom remained confident that once the plane took off and she fed him, Adam would calm down and take a nap–just as he had on the half-dozen other plane rides with Mom.

The flight crew wasn’t willing to find out.

The mother couldn’t give the kid a few small snacks to keep him quiet before takeoff? He’s hungry, in a strange space, and screaming, and she decides not to give him anything. Huh? I’m assuming they were not the only two passengers on the plane. Did the mother not care at all about anyone else around them? I’m not saying the airline should have kicked them off the flight, but come on, lady. When it was obvious her son wasn’t calming down, her common sense should have kicked in. Giving him something small may have distracted him and prevented the whole episode.

Seems like an unfortunate incident that could have been avoided with a few Cheerios.