Tool-Wielding Women, Ranking Disasters, Etc.

It might be nice to have a man around the house, but not because women need his home-repair aptitude. A poll conducted for the Lowe's home-improvement chain documents women's growing confidence and skill in such matters. Sixty-seven percent of female homeowners said they "feel prepared to be solely responsible for their home, including maintenance, repairs and improvement." Many of them started young: 49 percent said they "tackled their first home-improvement or repair project between the ages of 21 and 30." They're also at least somewhat equipped for the role, as 78 percent said they own a combination of hand tools and power tools.People are notoriously misguided in their assessment of risk. They'll drive to the airport without buckling a seatbelt, fretting all the way about the minuscule chance that their plane will crash. A survey commissioned by the National Fire Protection Association quantifies this tendency. Respondents were given a list of hazards (including the common one of fire) and ask to pick the one they feel most imperils them. A plurality of respondents (31 percent) cited tornadoes, with fire as the runner-up (27 percent). Filling out the list were hurricanes (14 percent), earthquakes (9 percent), floods (9 percent) and terrorist attacks (5 percent). As the NFPA notes in its analysis of the findings, tornadoes cause about 70 deaths per year in the U.S., vs. nearly 4,000 last year from fire. On the plus side, fire is the disaster for which people are most likely to say they're prepared—partly because 96 percent have smoke alarms in their homes.If back-to-school clothing sales were lackluster this year, as some reports indicate, what's the reason? WSL Strategic Retail polled students age 13-17 to get their retrospective view. Selection was a big factor. While 30 percent thought this fall's clothes were "more interesting," fewer than half "found clothes they really wanted to wear." Moreover, there was other stuff that seemed more fun to buy. Twenty-eight percent of boys and girls said they spent less on clothes this year "so they would have money for other things."As if there weren't already enough reasons to think ill of smoking, a new study finds yet another way in which it's blameworthy: Even passive smoking increases the odds a person will snore. As reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, research among people age 25-54 found 24 percent of current smokers are "habitual snorers," as are 13.7 percent of those who never smoked. Among those who never smoked but are exposed to smoke at home on a daily basis, 19.8 percent are habitual snorers, vs. 13.3 percent of never-smokers who don't suffer exposure to passive smoke.If you're offered a job in La Jolla, Calif., better make sure it pays lavishly. In a Coldwell Banker study that focused on "typical, middle-management transferee neighborhoods," La Jolla was the priciest market: Average house price there: $1,708,333. On the opposite end of the scale (though, sadly, not a hotbed of ad-agency hiring activity) was Minot, N.D., where a house costs $130,300. For the 322 neighborhoods covered in the research, the average price this year is $354,372. Seven of the 10 most expensive housing markets are in California, including Beverly Hills, Santa Barbara and Palo Alto. Greenwich, Conn., Wellesley, Mass., and Kailua Kona, Hawaii, are the non-California locales among the top 10.Intolerance is good for business, so long as the business is selling foods to people who can't tolerate certain nutrients. A Packaged Facts report forecasts that sales of products catering to consumers with food allergies and intolerances will reach $3.9 billion by 2008. It's not just that the number of such people is large and increasing. The research firm also notes "a crossover of interest" on the part of those who don't have problems with ordinary ingredients but are attracted to the aura of "wellness" surrounding foods that are free of lactose, gluten and such.You may have seen the summer's top ursine-interest story: A bear raided a campground in Washington state, where he drank one can of Busch beer and ignored the rest—instead switching to the local Rainier beer, of which he guzzled three dozen cans. Naturally, Rainier and its ad agency (Seattle's Cole & Weber/Red Cell) have seized on this event for an ad campaign. In the brand's first new TV spots in years, a man in a tatty bear costume pretends to be the Rainier Bear. It's all a ploy to get his hands on some of the beer, but who can object to that? We're glad to see that brand loyalty lives on, even if humans have outsourced it to another species.

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Tool-Wielding Women, Ranking Disasters, Etc.

Mark Dolliver

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Mark Dolliver