News Cut: June 2, 2008 Archive

Manipulating teens

Posted at 11:40 AM on June 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

If you've never raised a teenager, you can probably stop reading now. If you have, you too probably got a chuckle out of this research in the news today:

If you want your overweight teenagers to slim down, whatever you do, don't tell them to go on a diet. That most likely will make matters worse, according to a new study published today.

In short, it's a technique that seems certain to backfire, said Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, a professor of epidemiology at the university and the lead author of the study published in the journal Pediatrics.

Now, for those of you who haven't raised teenagers who are still reading this, here's the news-you-can-use message: teenagers don't listen to their parents. Usually by the time the kid gets to be a teenager, parents have caught on to this and the smart ones know how to manipulate them.

Mrs. News Cut, for example, had a perfect way to get the kids in my house to eat healthier. She didn't put a tub of grapes in front of them and say, "here, eat this. It's good for you." She simply left a bowl of grapes on the counter, knowing that it took 4 more steps and several calories to get to the potato chips. Teens will always take the path of least resistance. "Give me those grapes!"

Survivors of Teen Years (SOTYs): Send your proven methods for teen manipulation here.

WHAT YOU WANT YOUR TEEN TO DO	WHAT YOU DO OR SAY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN
Get rid of the new stud through his/her eyelid.	"That's really cool. I'm getting one, too." (Note: Be prepared to follow through on this, Spike.
Turn down the music.	Play the same music in another room. Louder. When he/she comes out of the room. Start dancing the way you did in high school when you thought you were cool, but still couldn't get a date.
Stop eating so much junk food.	Stop buying so much junkfood.
Get more exercise.	Buy a Wii. (Hey, it's a start. ) Put the Guitar Hero disk near the grapes.

No one said this would be easy. Be very careful in this process. As good as you may think you are at manipulating teens, they come preprogrammed to be better at it.

(5 Comments)

Mailbag: Minnesota's tornado alley

Posted at 12:27 PM on June 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

In the comments section of this week's (last week's?) News Cut Quiz, one of our more faithful readers says...

Noting that tornadoes came up in a discussion with a neighbor last night. He claimed there's a higher propensity for the north metro to get hit, while the southern suburbs rarely do. Where did you find the numbers about the north side's likelihood for tornadoes vs. nationwide?

This was based on a question that was in this week's News Cut Quiz and the simple answer is I found the data on the Web site, CityData.com.

But to the question itself, your friend appears to be incorrect based on the data. But I probably would've guessed that to, especially in talking to the people in Rogers who, it seems, have more than their fair share of serious weather.

But according to the data, it's the I-90 corridor in southern Minnesota that has the highest percentage ABOVE the historical national average.

Consider these numbers:

Albert Lea - 88% higher

Worthington - 71% higher

Austin - 82% higher

The North Metro, on the other hand, has historical rates in the vicinity of 30-40% higher, such as:

Anoka - 31% higher

Brooklyn Park - 35% higher

Elk River - 24% higher

Arden Hills - 27% higher

And the south to south-central area is slightly higher:

Apple Valley - 46% higher

Lakeville - 48% higher

Mankato - 51% higher

Rochester - 46% higher

Woodbury - 33% higher

Not terribly surprising, the northwest corner of the state below the national average:

Alexandria - 19% lower

Detroit Lakes - 30% lower

Bemidji - 71% lower

Got a question related to the news? Fire away.

(2 Comments)

It's raining salespeople!

Posted at 1:12 PM on June 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

It hailed this weekend and that, presumably, is good news for the seemingly hundreds of people who canvas my neighborhood all summer, trying to convince me that I've had hail damage and need to replace my roof and siding. They know that without actually getting up on the roof. The Paulsons, who I talked to in Rogers yesterday, relayed that one of their biggest frustrations in recovering from actual damage was the number of "storm chaser" roofing and siding operations.

"Oh, you have some hail damage right here!" one exclaimed to me a few years ago.

"No, that's where I smashed my snowblower into the siding while clearing my walk last winter," I replied.

"How about these dents over here?"

"Kid with a tennis ball and too much time on his hands," I said.

Already within the last two weeks, another dozen or so signs went up on lawns near me proclaiming that there was hail damage and the roof/siding was to be replaced. Is anyone else concerned that America's shingles can't hold up to hail?

I've lived in my neighborhood for about 16 years and we haven't had many hailstorms during that time; Saturday's was probably the worst and all it did was take down a few leaves. My car was left out in it and suffered no damage. To the extent my roof may need replacing, it may be because it's getting close to 25 years old.

Clearly there are situations around here where hail has damaged homes. And nobody -- least of all the insurance companies -- seem to be making a big deal out of the high number of people getting a new roof and siding.

Charlie Quimby, who authors Across the Great Divide, relays his experiences in a post today:

The key to this sale, of course, is the promise to take advantage of the insurance company. That's why you buy insurance, right? Maybe, but I had something more in mind like replacing a tornado-flattened house, not fixing dimples in my 20-year-old shingles. My neighbors may have free new roofs, but I get to feel morally superior.

If you're replacing aluminum siding, it also appears that the only colors these folks provide is beige. Generally speaking, it's easy to feel morally superior over anything that's beige.

(1 Comments)