Getting Your Money's Worth with Judith West

Tess, a 15 year old when grounded for drinking and missing her curfew by an hour, took to Facebook to complain. She organized an advocacy group of over 1,000 teens to protest her punishment. Her defense was that she made an honest mistake. Parents have also joined the fray. So now we have a full- blown child-rearing debate 2010 on the internet. In fact, one parent started a Facebook group, "1,000 to Support Parents Who Believe in Consequences for Serious Lapses in Judgment and Care Enough about Their Kids to Enforce the Rules". So far, Tess's parents remain unswayed by any Internet suggestions and have not reduced her punishment. Personally, I add my support to the Facebook site, "1,000 to Support Parents Who Believe in Consequences for Serious Lapses in Judgment and Care Enough About Their Kids to Enforce the Rules." How about you?

I traveled over the holiday internationally so was subjected to the new security coming back to the U.S. Personally, I'm not offended by pat down, but I am offended by the inability of all security organizations and all of the powers that be to have been so incompetent. The new politically correct excuse: "failure to connect the dots". If I failed to connect the dots, I'd be out of business. So Getting Your Money's Worth has suggestions. Disband all the alphabet security organizations, send the head of security (who incidentally should have been fired) back to her state, and Google. Yes, Google. Any search engine would have done better.

The average American consumes thirty-four gigabytes of data each day. That's the equivalent of about 100,000 words both read and heard. Tolstoy's book, WAR AND PEACE, which is approximately 1,500 pages, contains roughly 150,000 words. So every day and a half, we're reading or hearing the equivalent of a 1,500 page book. Most of this happens in front of screens watching TV content. Second is radio, and third computers -- and for computers, it's mostly video games. What a relief. No longer am I going to fret about memory loss. A 1,500 page book every day and a half is pretty good.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has hundreds of millions of dollars to dispense in Race to the Top grants. This money is meant to encourage education innovation. For states to participate, there can be no cap on the number of charter schools. But here we go again with adults first and kids last. Kids should come first! There's a movement to force charter schools to unionize, to accept so many Special Ed., so many English as a Second Language -- anything to starve charter schools of flexibility and fresh thinking; the very reason they exist in the first place. No sooner does something good happen in education than it gets shot down. Charters are more effective. Long waiting lists exist. Parents and taxpayers want them.

The NEW YORK TIMES says there are lies, damned lies and lies you tell your spouse. I'm not talking about big, deal-breaking lies. Rather, I'm talking about the little white lies that help relationships run smoothly. After all, is there a man dumb enough to tell his wife she looks fat? For women, they fib about the cost of their hair highlights or botox. A favorite trick, the new clothes out of a shopping bag in the cleaner's plastic bag. Men do fudge: how much they drink; how fast they drive. Guys said they always tell their wives they look beautiful. Over one bad hair day, I don't want to make her mad. Most spouses know that they've manipulated the truth. They don't ever consider it lying. For me, my standard lie: "Oh, you're so smart!"

What are your top pet peeves? METRO NEW YORK asked New Yorker's theirs. Not surprising, a lot come from the subways. Tops: outsized backpacks both on elevators and subways. Next: spreading legs to take two seats. On the list: your bag gets a seat, but for your fare, you don't. Walking three abreast on sidewalks, ignoring "Excuse me." Dog leashes so long nearly tripping pedestrians. I know. I fell over one. A big peeve: stopping in middle of sidewalk or staircase chatting on cell. Still, from the subway: iPod volume so loud all can hear. And, a common annoyance: specials rattled off in restaurants, telling everything but the cost. How do you know if you're getting your money's worth?