COFFEE BREAK
Saturday, November 7, 2015
PARENTS TALK BACK
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and a punch
in the mouth
A
box arrived at my work with a
seductive message.
It promised “the pouty lips you
always wanted. Naturally.”
I had not given much thought to the
state of my lips, but I supposed that maybe
they could be a little plumper.
“What harm could there be in trying
a device that doesn’t involve needles or
chemicals?” I thought. The company had
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so why shouldn’t I test
it? In retrospect, when
“lips” is spelled with a
Z and “extreme” with a
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validity of the product.
I vaguely recalled
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hearing about some
Sultin
ridiculous “lip challenge”
Parents talk back
that had been making the
rounds among teenagers,
but this wasn’t that, of course. This product
came in a fancy box and retailed for
$69.99.
I handed the instructions to a colleague,
who seemed a little too amused and
eager to spearhead the experiment. After
inserting my lips in the mouthpiece, I was
told to compress the sides of the cylinder.
When I released the tube, it created a
vacuum that sucked my lips into the plastic
tube.
It hurt.
I looked at the fashion editor who had
been guiding this misadventure, and she
said the directions said to keep it dangling
there for two minutes.
It hurt a lot. When the two minutes were
up, I broke the seal and peeled my lips out.
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minutes, I saw a reddish-purple ring form
around my lips.
I looked like I had been punched in the
mouth.
The discoloration around my mouth got
darker by the hour. My colleague advised
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home, hours later, it looked like my mouth
had been lined with black marker.
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“What happened?” my 13-year-old
daughter asked. I described the product I
had tried at work.
“You know you just basically did the
Kylie Jenner lip challenge, right?” she said,
making no effort to contain her smirk.
“No. Noooooooo.”
The indignity of being called out by
your child stings more than sticking your
lips in a vacuum. Trust.
My husband took one look at the ring of
dark bruising around my mouth and said:
“You are not a child. And you are not a
Kardashian.”
Duh.
I didn’t have to pout. I was already
there.
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announced to all parties who would be
witnessing the results of said choice for
days to come.
My ego was bruised far worse than my
lips.
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how the teenage brain operates. We may
recall that we did some foolish things in
our youth, but the plus side of thinning hair
(and lips) is that experience and maturity
make those occurrences far less common
over the years.
When confronted with some ridiculous
behavior, we may be tempted to ask an
otherwise intelligent young adult: What in
the world were you thinking?
So what makes teenagers — and, ahem,
the occasional columnist — take such
foolish chances?
A study out of New York University
suggests that adolescents are not inherently
risk-takers, but they are more likely than
adults to take actions when they don’t fully
know or understand the consequences of
their actions.
“In risky situations where you know
the outcomes and the probability of the
outcome, teenagers didn’t take more
risks than adults,” a lead researcher told
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“Teenagers went for the risky option when
the outcome was not exactly known.”
When adolescents know an activity’s
potential dangers more precisely, they are
less likely to participate.
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myself and known that 80 percent of
users end up with bruises on their face,
I would have found someone else to test
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forethought involved. I was reminded
how easily rational adults can fall prey to
marketing and peer pressure.
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damaged lips and studied the photos for
signs that the marks were fading.
“I can’t believe I did this to myself,”
I thought each time. I also took herbal
remedies, and watched videos and read
articles on how to heal bruises faster.
As the days passed, I also embraced
my humility and vowed to remember this
feeling when one of my children does
something head-shakingly dumb.
There’s a thin line between a fat lip and
a fathead.
Ŷ
Aisha Sultan is a St. Louis-based
journalist who studies parenting in the
digital age. Find her on Twitter: @AishaS.
East Oregonian
Page 9C
Half of black millennials in
U.S. know of police abuse
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ican millennials indicated they, or someone
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harassment from law enforcement, a new report
says.
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Asian and white millennials when it comes
to policing, guns and the legal system in the
United States.
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several times during the past decade, point
out that the disparities existed well before the
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54.4 percent of black millennials answered yes
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experienced harassment or violence at the hands
of the police?” Almost one-third of whites, 1 in
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surveyed said yes to the same question.
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on Wednesday, comes as the United States grap-
ples with concerns over policing in minority
communities following the deaths of Martin,
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as those of other black men and women, have
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movements, a clear majority of black millen-
nials — 71 percent — said in that same survey
they believe police in their neighborhood were
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of Asians also said police were in their neigh-
borhood to protect them.
“We know that young blacks are more likely
to be harassed by the police. We know that they
are more likely to mistrust their encounters
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political science department at the University of
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that a majority of them believe that police in their
neighborhood are actually there to protect them,
so I think it provides us with more complexity.”
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File
In this Aug. 9 photo, protesters march to mark the one-year anniversary of Michael
Brown being shot and killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson.
Another survey done by the project in 2013,
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showed that the percentage of blacks and
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guns had declined, but more of them knew
someone who was the victim of gun violence.
Twenty-four percent of blacks and 22 percent
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knew “carried a gun in the last month.” Almost
half of white millennials — 46 percent — said
they knew of someone who carried a gun.
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or someone they knew were the victim of
gun violence in the last year, compared with 8
percent of white millennials.
It’s not surprising that young blacks and
whites feel differently on these issues, given the
different experiences the groups are reporting,
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For example, white millennials don’t report
having to explain themselves to police, while
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them simply to question them about what they
were up to, he said.
“We see story after story about how this
leads into a more combative situation which has
escalated and led to, in some instances, tragic
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the experiences that these different communi-
ties have had based on where they live and the
kinds of policing procedures that are in place
there, we would argue, lead to these different
patterns.”
After arrest, black millennials also don’t
believe everyone gets fair treatment from the
legal system in the United States. They’re not
alone in this feeling, with only 38 percent of
all millennials agreeing with the statement that
“the American legal system treats all groups
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The 2009 survey was taken between October
and November 2008, May and July 2009 and
November and January 2010 and included
4,345 people 18 years old and older. The 2014
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surveys conducted between 2012 and 2014 and
included 6,118 people.
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representative of the U.S. population. The
margin of sampling error for all respondents is
plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
OUT OF THE VAULT
1936 earthquake rocks Milton-Freewater area
O
n July 15, 1936, at 11:08
p.m., an earthquake
registering between
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scale shook residents of the
Milton-Freewater area out of
their beds. The strongest shock
hit the Stateline area, cracking
the pavement there, in places
up to two meters wide, and at
one point the ground dropped
by 2.4 meters (7.9 feet). The
shaking started slowly and lasted
for 15 seconds; more than 54
aftershocks were reported by
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following the initial shock, and
they continued intermittently
until November 17.
The East Oregonian reported
the earthquake was felt as far
west as Arlington and as far
north as Spokane, and severely
damaged buildings in Walla
Walla, Milton-Freewater and
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and businesses
during the
quake.
Among
the reported
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in the area were
uninhabitable
Renee
Struthers due to large
Out of the vault cracks in the
walls, and
chimneys and
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roofs; a meat market and bank
in Athena, joined together
before the quake, were separate
buildings the following morning;
two freight cars were shaken
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Station, and large rocks the
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concrete home fell to the ground;
and the quake shook loose
artesian wells in the area — one
on the A.M. Fix ranch that had
dried up three weeks earlier, and
another new artesian well from
a previously shared well on the
farm of Walter Maxson.
In some of the places where
ground cracks appeared, water
also was present in the cracks,
signaling liquefaction of the
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soil temporarily loses strength
and acts like a liquid) can cause
extensive damage, bringing
underground infrastructure like
water and sewer lines to the
surface and even swallowing
people, buildings and cars whole
in seconds during larger quakes,
especially if the ground is
already saturated with water.
The epicenter of the 1936
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10 kilometers (6.38 miles)
northwest of Milton-Freewater. It
occurred along the Wallula fault
system, which runs from near
Milton-Freewater to Kennewick,
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that reaches from the Wallowa
Mountains to the Olympic
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Our corner of Northeast
Oregon is still seismically
active, though the magnitude
of earthquakes is generally
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The Milton-Freewater area has
recorded 66 earthquakes since
1931, the largest in recent history
a 4.3 quake in November 1991.
The most recent earthquake
was Jan. 23, 2015, centered 4.7
miles southwest of Athena; it
registered 3.7.
Ŷ
Renee Struthers is the
Community Records Editor for
the East Oregonian. See the
complete collection of Out of
the Vault columns at eovault.
blogspot.com
ODDS & ENDS
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supporting New Mexico troops.
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packages the candy along with
clothes and food in holiday boxes
to ship to soldiers in November.
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1,000 pounds of candy last year.
Finland to launch
national emojis
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is launching a series of “national
emojis” that include people
sweating in saunas, classic Nokia
phones and heavy metal head-
bangers.
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Finnish Foreign Ministry says
the emojis will be released as a
way to promote the country’s
image abroad and are based on
themes associated with Finland.
She said Wednesday that
emojis suit the character of the
traditionally reticent Finns “who
only speak when it’s necessary.”
The free emojis will be
released on the ministry’s web
publication starting Dec. 1 at a
rate of one a day, like a seasonal
advent calendar.
Emojis, unlike emoticons that
use typographical displays in
texts, are pictures used to express
emotions or ideas.
Company launches
Bernie Sanders
underwear line
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launched a side business
selling underwear featuring a
black-and-white drawing of the
Finnish Foreign Ministry via AP
These are computer-generated emojis made available by Fin-
land’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday Nov. 4, 2015. Finland
is launching a series of “national emojis” that include people
sweating in saunas, classic Nokia phones and heavy metal
head-bangers.
face of Democratic presidential
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underwear, which features the
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available for men and women
and costs $15 plus shipping and
handling. The three workers
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communications and government
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business.
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talk shows that he prefers briefs
over boxers.
The startup’s founders called
Sanders’ passion for serious
issues admirable. One founder
says the political process has
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Ten percent of the proceeds
will go toward the Yellow
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injured service members.
Albuquerque dentist
offering to buy back
Halloween candy
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Mexico, dentist is hoping to get
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New Mexico, said he is offering
to buy candy back from trick-or-
treaters on Sunday afternoon.
Wall says children 14 years
old or younger can pawn their
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every pound of candy up to $5.
The purchased candy goes
Seattle garbageman
returns $12,000 in lost
checks to school
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elementary school is thanking a
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$12,000 in checks in the trash.
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reports that Waste Management
employee Micah Speir was
picking up scattered trash next
to some bins when he found a
number of checks made out to
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says he met Speir on his route
and gratefully took the checks
back. The funds were from a
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Teacher Association member
had accidentally dropped the bag
along the garbage truck’s route.
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for his good deed, the man turned
him down.
Speir says his only concern
was doing the right thing and
returning the money to the
school.