Date Potential Slim For Jackson, Presley
As inquiring minds already know, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley have called it quits, ending the most improbable marriage since, uh, well, hmmm, that’s a tough one, hehe, hehehehe.
But whatever. Now that they’re nearly unhitched, both are presumably poised to jump back into the dating and mating pool. And both can expect a chilly reception, according to a new national survey.
Nine out of 10 women interviewed said they would not go out on a date with Michael Jackson if he asked them. And nearly two out of three men would just say no to Lisa Marie Presley.
Marriage prospects also appear dim, the survey found. Just 2 percent of those women interviewed said they’d seriously consider marrying Michael, while one in 10 guys say they’d think about becoming the third Mr. Lisa Marie.
Who is what in who’s who?
Who exactly are those people listed in “Who’s Who in America”? A survey by Yankelovich Partners of 3,000 notable men and women whose biographies appear in the 1995 edition produced this group portrait:
More than half earned $100,000 a year or more; their average income was $219,500.
95 percent are college graduates; 82 percent have advanced degrees or are working toward them.
Seven in 10 were 55 years or older; 6 percent were under the age of 45.
76 percent are working in the field in which they were initially educated or trained. Nearly half said their career “fulfills a childhood dream.”
84 percent said they were “very” or “totally” successful in their business or professional life, but 68 percent said they had been as successful in their home or personal life.
Eight in 10 said they never lost a job. Of those who had, most said they were fired unfairly.
Research notes
Education is life: Here’s one more reason to stay in school: You live longer. University of Pennsylvania researchers examined mortality data on more than 600,000 men and women in the 1980s. They found that the death rate was 7.41 per 1,000 for men ages 25 to 65 with fewer than nine years of formal education. That was more than double the rate for those with college degrees - differences that persisted even after researchers controlled for income, marital status, race and current place of residence. Similar though smaller differences were found for women, they reported in the journal Social Science and Medicine. Why does education matter? Partly because better-educated people may be less likely to engage in unhealthful behaviors like smoking or excessive drinking, they said.
Poet’s corner: You don’t have to be one couplet short of a sonnet to write poetry, but it may help. Psychologists at Britain’s Oxford University asked 40 diagnosed psychotics and 40 diagnosed normal people each to write a poem, then analyzed their works. They found no difference in content, imagery, word choice or overall quality, suggesting that “general poetic creativity does have psychotic features,” they reported in the latest British Journal of Medical Psychology.