Entries for August 2006

A few months back in this space I squibbed a series of blog entries on what I dubbed the "Freelance Economy." The term evolved as American employers continue to cut back on paid benefits that used to be considered de rigueur, such as vacation and health insurance premiums, and move closer to hourly wages.

Last week in this space, I pondered one of Hurricane Katrina's more bizarre and less well-known legacies: a gender imbalance. The storm and its aftermath of shredded housing and wrecked local economies drove out twice as many young women with children as single men, turning New Orleans into a contemporary Wild West.

The blogosphere must have been created for brannigans such as this. Forbes.com posts a studiedly atavistic commentary by one Michael Noer called "Don't Marry Career Women." It starts out as follows and descends from there:

Hard to believe that the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's collision with the Gulf Coast is already upon us. Hard, too, to believe that the massive exodus from Katrina's wrath has left an equally massive gender gap in New Orleans.

Political pollsters have a knack for devising catchy phrases to characterize and categorize American voters. Examples from recent elections include the angry white male, the soccer mom, the security mom, and the NASCAR dad.

Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen and former U.S. Rep. and United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young have something in common: a gaping hole in their racial sensitivity screens. And that's a diplomatic interpretation.

This week, PepsiCo announced that Indra Nooyi will become the company's first female chief executive--advancing her to the rank of No. 2 among female CEOs at Fortune 500 companies rated by revenue. This Indian-born American is second behind Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) CEO Patricia Woertz. Agricultural processor ADM is 56th on the Fortune list, and PepsiCo, the world's second-largest soft-drink company after Coca-Cola Co., is 61st.