Progressive Girl

As you know if you spend any time at all on this blog, I watch a lot of sports on television, and thus sacrifice myself to endless repetitions of beer and truck commercials.

Almost all of these commercials are stupid the first time, and become painful over the course of the game -- and unbearable over the course of the season.

So I have been astonished that I still enjoy Progressive Girl, who has been popping up as frequently as a Budweiser commercial during an NFL game, now that Massachusetts has deregulated the automobile insurance industry.



And I'm always happy to see her - even if I've seen that particular commercial a gazillion times.

She has such kooky charm, with just a little edge to it, that she manages to stay fresh.

I'm even starting to say her lines along with her.

And apparently, I am not alone.

There are in fact several online groups and sites, and even a Facebook page, that explore Progressive Girl's charm and magnetism.

The actress who portrays her is Stephanie Courtney, who also has a recurring role as the ditzy switchboard operator in "Mad Men."

And as a passionate fan of "Mad Men" I'm going to be interested to see how Stephanie has chosen to tilt her character in Season Three.

"Every Little Step" - For Fans Of "A Chorus Line"

As I've written here before, "A Chorus Line" is my favorite Broadway Musical and, in my opinion, the perfect synthesis of dramatic and performing arts.

"Every Little Step," in limited release right now, is a documentary look at how the 2005 revival of "A Chorus Line" came together.

The filmmakers had the complete cooperation of the creators of the original production, and of Michael Bennet's estate, and there is a lot of first-person insight into the way the original show was created.

As opposed to "American Idol," where every one wants to be a "Star," this move (and the play) is all about wanting to get a job.

And that should certainly resonate at this point in time.

On Pride

“I have a new client, a laid-off lawyer, who’s commuting in every day — to his Starbucks,” said Robert C. Chope, a professor of counseling at San Francisco State University and president of the employment division of the American Counseling Association. “He gets dressed up, meets with colleagues, networks; he calls it his Western White House. I have encouraged him to keep his routine.”

I'm sure that many in the crowded demographic of the recently unemployed can relate to this, and, if they're smart, have implemented some variation of this strategy.

Cougars

When I first started hearing about "cougars" in the context of older women dating younger men (as with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, pictured), I wondered how this could be okay when I had understood that older men dating younger women was not. Was there a double standard being applied here?

Well, based on some really unscientific research reported in today's Boston Globe, it looks like it may all be a moot point:

"If I do the age-appropriate [events,] I get tons of women," Trickett said. "When I do younger men and older women, I get tons of women. When I do younger women older men, I get tons of older men and I struggle to get the women."

"Sure, Demi Moore broke a mold, and I know a few couples - family members and friends of friends - who represent the highly publicized demographic of older women and younger men, but the dating industry will tell you that for the most part that demographic is a myth. Men still seek younger women, especially as those men get older themselves.

"It's the general rules, what happens when people hook up and go into a relationship," said Mark Brooks, an online dating industry consultant who runs Online Personals Watch. "With men dating women, it tends to be up to six years younger but it will only be up to two years older."