Enrolling In Executive School Would Really Pay Off Right Now

The numbers for 1997 aren’t in yet, but we’ll be sure to pass them along, especially if they differ from the following report we gleaned from the Dec. 15 issue of Time:

Pay increase for average U.S. worker in the fiscal year 1996 3 percent.

Pay increase for the average top executive in 1996 - 54 percent.

Think about it: Estimated number of hits in 1997 on www.ClubLove.com, an adult entertainment Web site - 1.4 billion. Estimated number of hits in ‘97 on www.Whitehouse.gov - 91 million. (From: Jan. 5 Time)

America’s great fears: Speaking in public, getting fat, going out alone at night, visiting the dentist, dying, spiders and insects, swimming in the ocean, heights, flying, large crowds. (From January/February Health)

And, while weight’s on our minds… Sixty percent of American women wear size 12 or larger. That fact evidently is not lost on The Body Shop, which created controversy late last year when it unveiled an ad picturing a plus-sized female mannequin lounging on the couch with copy that reads: There are 3 billion women who don’t look like supermodels and only 8 who do. (From: January Marie Claire)

New York essayist Fran Lebowitz on aging: “There is the belief that if you run, don’t smoke, drink apple juice, not only will you live to be 95 or for eternity - whichever comes first - but that what you will be is not actually 95, preceded by all that actually precedes it, but, in fact, 35 for 60 years. Clearly that’s the plan. No one really wants to be 95. No one ever sees anyone who’s 95. All the people who are 95, we hide. Except for the rare one they trot out to show how great it can be to be 95.” (From: January Vanity Fair)

Also from Lebowitz - her thoughts on boys: “Here are some things that women would not have invented: the wheel, the gun, the internal-combustion engine, fire. These are male inventions, testosterone-driven inventions. In order to get from caves to co-ops, we needed men, or actually boys because people died so young. Everyone thinks man invented this, man invented that, but really boy did. Boy invented weapons. Boy invented tools. Boy invented all the things we needed to survive before life was a cabaret. So boy was really good then. But now life has passed him by and what has he become? What do all things become when we no longer need them but still want them? Ornamental.” (From: January Vanity Fair)

Quote of the week: “I’m much more than a pair of breasts … I represent success, hard work, and fun.” - former “Baywatch” babe Pamela Anderson Lee. (From: Jan. 5 Time)

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: Susan English is the Weekend Editor at The Spokesman-Review, contact her by mail at 999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201; by e-mail at susane@spokesman.com or by phone at 459-5488.