Pregnant and Poor with Two Jobs

A video from the Washington Post, accompanied by an article available by clicking here.

Ivanka Trump Feminism

Ivanka Trump feminism: When a super rich white woman makes generic statements about economic equality, ignoring racism, poverty, heterosexism, and those who are gender rebels. It pays disproportionate attention to women with higher levels of educational attainment. It pays sparse attention to women with less earning power. It is a businesswoman ("lean in") and middle-class feminism, not a working-class feminism.

This is a definition in progress. Please let me know if you have suggestions for improvement.

What's The Best Van Halen Album?

I've spent approximately 4% of my life trying to determine the best Van Halen album. This, of course, is a subjective endeavor. Then again, I suppose some quantitatively minded person could develop a set of metrics to objectively make the call. But that ain't me. Let me take you through my process.

The easy part is eliminating anything that happened after 1984.

I get caught up between Diver Down, Fair Warning, and 1984.

I am quick to remove their first three albums from the picture (Van Halen, Van Halen II, Women and Children First). Each are strong albums in their own right, but none of them offer enough to make it into the final round. Van Halen II gets the closest on the strength of Dance the Night Away, and don't forget their fine cover of You're No Good. Women and Children First contains one of my top 10 favorite Van Halen songs--In a Simple Rhyme--but it's not an album that provides enough good content from beginning to end.

As I write this, I'm twisting myself in a knot, and ready to delete this, which is something I've done numerous times over the years in trying to write this post. As soon as I review the tracks of the first Van Halen album, I'm ready to put it back into consideration for best album. Goodness, you've got Runnin' with the Devil, a cover of You Really Got Me, Feel Your Love Tonight, and Eddie Van Halen doing his thing on Eruption. There's also Ice Cream Man. One day I'll tell you about how Ice Cream Man got me out of a fight in 8th grade, but you'll have to wait until my memoir.

As usual, I'm stuck, and again I'm close to hitting delete and moving on with my life. I've probably spent closer to 6% of my life with this process. You can judge me for that. I accept.

Maybe there's no right answer to the question. Maybe that's the answer I've been searching for all these years. But it's no fun to sit on the fence. The fact of the matter is that one of their albums is better than the others. I have to face another fact: I am not ready to conclude which album is the best. I will return to this another day. I have to be content with the process. For now, let's keep this thing inconclusive and enjoy the simple beauty of Runnin' With The Devil.

Melancholy Sociologist Shuns Bon Iver

When you write a poem quickly you might make a typo ("if his life"). In his life was what I was going for there. Well, editing mistakes is a reason we usually process words nowadays, eh?

To Do List

THE KARDASHIAN-JENNER INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

ALL CAPS HOT TAKE SO YOU KNOW IT'S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG PLUS RUN ON SENTENCES FOR FULL EFFECT HEY PEPSI HERE'S THE THING IF YOU WANT TO USE A KARDASHIAN/JENNER TO MOVE PRODUCT THEN GOOD NEWS THEY'RE ON THE TELEVISION 24-7-365 I WISH IT WERE ONLY 365 BUT THEY'RE ON THE TELEVISION SCREEN 24-7-INFINITY SO HOW ABOUT SOME SUBTLE PRODUCT PLACEMENT INSTEAD OF WHATEVER THAT 30 SECOND SPOT WAS OR PURPORTED TO BE. I KNOW THIS IS EXHIBIT Z OF CAPITALISM BEING CAPITALISM BUT LISTEN SODA JERK WE CONSUMERS HAVE OUR LIMITS. TO ADD INSULT TO THIS HOT TAKE INJURY LET'S BE CLEAR THAT COKE > PEPSI BY A FACTOR OF BAZILLION.

PARAGRAPH #2 BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH I SHOULD BE GRADING I CAN'T DENY WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT AND THE PEOPLE DEMAND HOT TAKES SO STOP READING DAVID BROOKS AND START READING TODD SCHOEPFLIN'S CREATIVE SOCIOLOGY BLOG AND HERE'S ANOTHER TAKE THE MORE YOU LISTEN TO WHITNEY THE MORE YOU REALIZE THAT WHITNEY SOUNDS LIKE BREAD I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT WHITNEY HOUSTON I'M TALKING ABOUT WHITNEY THE BAND FOR INSTANCE LISTEN TO THEIR SONG GOLDEN DAYS <-- HYPERLINK CAUSE I'M GOOD LIKE THAT THEN LISTEN TO ANY SONG BY BREAD AND YOU'LL SEE WHAT I MEAN RETWEET INSTAGRAM ELLO MELLOW YELLOW PEACE OUT.

The Fear of Catching Feelings

Maybe you want to catch feelings.
Or maybe you don't.

How long will you wait for the right one?
What if, all along, there was more than one?

Will you decide to cool your heart?
Or decide that linking your heart to another is worth the risk?

Hot Take: Men and Women Can Be Friends

It's come to my attention that we are not yet in universal agreement that men and women can be friends. Here's a bullet point:

• Men and women can be friends.

Here's another bullet point:

• Men and women should be friends.

I am blessed to have many friends that are women. I find it rather easy to be friends with women. I haven't counted lately, but I think I have more friends that are women than men.

I heard of a prominent person in society who avoids dinners with women because he's married.

I'm very happily married. 12 years so far. There are times I have meals with women who are my friends. It's not a problem. Here's another radical detail. My wife has friends who are women--I consider them my friends too. 

So I have women friends at my workplace, and women friends I've met outside of work too. Imagine.

If this is an unusual life skill in 2017, I am happy to speak at your campus or to your organization about it for a reasonable fee. 

Thank you,

Todd

4 Hot Takes

1. Men buy boats so they have something to name.

2. "Oh Darling" is the best song on Supertramp's Breakfast in America album.

3. The Food Network should be renamed The Guy Fieri Network.

4. April is not the cruelest month.

I am scheduled to appear on a highly-rated program to debate these points.

When and what program, you ask?

I will keep you in suspense.