Friday Double Dose: More House Work = Less Breast Cancer, The Role of Beauty Queens and a Flexible Wish for the New Year

I’m traveling this week, so here’s a shortened version of the “double dose.” Have a Happy, Healthy New Year!

Wish for the New Year: Increased use of flex time.

Housework Cuts Breast Cancer Risk: Yes, that’s the actual headline, but the real point of the study, as reported by the BBC, is that “moderate forms of physical activity” may be more useful in reducing breast cancer risk than “less frequent but more intense recreational physical activity.” So of course housework is the recommended activity — as it was in 2004.

Living Longer, Saving Less: The Los Angeles Times this week reported on scientists searching for the key to longevity and women having less financial security as they get older.

Silicone Over Saline?: With the recent FDA approval of silicone implants, more women are likely to choose silicone, despite lingering health concerns.

What Are Beauty Queens For, Anyway?: Just asking.

When Nature Calls, Women in House Hike: Add to the New Year’s wish list: a women’s bathroom off the House chamber. Margaret Talev writes:

The members-only House men’s room, with its shoeshine stand, fireplace and television tuned to floor proceedings, is nestled a few paces from the House chamber, beside the speaker’s lounge, flanked by Capitol police. How convenient.

Reaching the women’s equivalent entails traversing a hall where tourists gather, or entering the minority leader’s office, navigating a corridor that winds past secretarial desks and punching in a keypad code to ensure restricted access.

When Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., takes the gavel, she may revisit, along with the Iraq war and raising the minimum wage, the question of potty parity.