One of the many reasons I am a "mean mom" (so dubbed by Chelsea)

Musical Training Makes Kids Smarter, Study Suggests

Thursday, November 13, 2008
By Jeanna Bryner, FOXNews

Children who study a musical instrument for at least three years outperform children with no instrumental training on non-musical tests of vocabulary and non-verbal reasoning. This new finding adds to a list of music's magic. Past research has shown tunes can evoke strong memories, reduce stress and even boost athletic performance.

Researchers compared 41 kids, ages 8 to 11, who had studied either piano or a string instrument for at least three years, with 18 children who had no instrument training. Children in both groups spent about half an hour each week in music classes at school. But instrument-wielding kids also attended private music lessons for an average of 45 minutes a week and practiced on their own at home. Tests showed the kids who practiced instruments scored much higher than their non-musical counterparts on auditory discrimination and finger dexterity, both skills closely tied with musical training.

The young musicians' vocabulary scores were 15 percent higher, and non-verbal reasoning scores were 11 percent higher. The longer the child was musically trained, the higher the scores. The study was done by Gottfried Schlaug of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, and psychologist Ellen Winner of Boston College and Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and their colleagues.

"Music involves grasping patterns, and the non-verbal reasoning task involves grasping patterns," Winner told LiveScience. "You have to pay attention to the pattern of sounds, and you also have to pay attention to the pattern of the notes when you're looking at music notation."
The research was funded by the Dana Foundation, International Foundation for Music Research and National Science Foundation.

Blech...

Maybe it was politics. Maybe it was food poisoning. Maybe it was stress. But whatever the cause, we all came down with the flu this week. I'd love to delve into all the delicious details about why I hate the flu, but words just aren't sufficient. So, here is a helpful, visual example instead.
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This is the flu:
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This is me with the flu: .

Any questions?

Finally...

Did you?

I must say, I cannot wait until tomorrow, or Thursday, or whenever all this contentious hullabaloo is finally counted and over. I've had enough of it already!

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Living in such a vital battleground state only makes things that much worse. Utah is everyone's crown jewel, I tell ya! We are the real bellwether state! (For jello flavors.) We are the constituency everyone is after! We vote in an 89% bloc! We are... pretty much ignored. (Unless we dare to tread on national turf and interject ourselves into the presidential primaries. Then we are decimated.)

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And yet, despite my existence on the periphery of national significance, I have found this election year to be especially contentious. In my opinion, the presidential battle (who is running again?) is insignificant compared to the Prop 8 war raging in California. And so it is to you, my dear Prop 8 supporters, you who have fought the hardest battle, that I give my greatest applause. You have rallied and worked, polled and called, supported and endured much. To you I say: D&C 121:7-8.

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This battle and those that will rage in the future are not really about determining outcomes, they are about delineating sides. My hat is off to those who are courageous enough to stand up for what is right even when it is decidedly unpopular. The rest of the nation thanks you.

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Even those of us in Utah, "The other white meat."