New Coverage Would Benefit Many Partners

Sun., Nov. 1, 1998

By Susan English susane@spokesman.com

Although only 6 percent of employers currently offer their workers benefit coverage for domestic partners, 29 percent more have the idea under consideration, a new study says.

Such actions could be a boon to many of the estimated 5.6 million households headed by unmarried couples, approximately one-third of them same-sex couples.

“More and more companies are accepting that this is the right thing to do,” says Marsha Venturi of New York-based Buck Consultants Inc., which conducted the study. (From Knight Ridder wire service)

* It’s still all about Ken: Mattel’s new Detective Barbie ($35) includes all the accessories needed to help her solve a kidnapping and recover missing loot. A fun new tact for girls, right up to the point they discover Barbie’s real quest is to find Ken. (From Oct. 26 Time)

* The new American mantra: “Whenever I return from a sojourn in the woods or waters or mountains, I’m dismayed by the noise and jumble of the workaday world. One moment I can lay everything I need on the corner of a poncho, tally my responsibilities on the fingers of one hand. The next moment, it seems I couldn’t fit all my furniture and tasks into a warehouse. Time in the wild reminds me how much of what I ordinarily do is mere dithering, how much of what I own is mere encumbrance. Coming home, I can see that there are too many appliances in my cupboards, too many clothes in my closet, too many strings of duty jerking me in too many directions. The opposite of simplicity, as I understand it, is not complexity but clutter.” — writer Scott Russell Sanders (from Nov.-Dec. Utne Reader)

* Beyond the gold medal: Apparently German Olympic skater Katarina Witt is expanding her entertainment horizons and will be featured in a 10-page pictoral in the December issue of Playboy magazine. She’s joining the list of Olympic athletes who’s value as a role model for young women has tarnished. (From Oct. 26 Time)

* Listen up: Not only is one in every 12 American men hearing-impaired by the age of 30, all of us just aren’t listening anymore. Recent studies show most of us can recall only about 25 percent of what we’ve heard in the previous few days. (From November Esquire)

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