THROWS LIKE A POP STAR: Call Me Maybe singer Carly Rae Jepsen threw a stinker of a first pitch at a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game last weekend, prompting mean-boys-in-phys-ed-type attention from ESPN and Deadspin, among other media outlets. Jepsen’s siblings were more supportive, her sister tweeting, “Look at the bright side … you’re the first one in the family to make it on @espn #loveyou.” Her brother was more to the point: “Oh well. #sticktoyourdayjob.”
Welcome to Talking Points, a daily roundup of digital miscellany
CROWDFUNDED LIFE
It was bound to happen: Parents are turning to the Internet to bankroll their babies. Using websites like GiveForward, GoFundMe and Indiegogo – which typically raise money for start-ups, or more pesky endeavours like that alleged Rob Ford crack video – some clever couples are now amassing funds from family, friends and strangers online for their fertility treatments and adoption costs. GoFundMe has garnered $1-million for hopeful mothers and fathers, according to CNN Money, which also reported on a more niche site called AdoptTogether that raised a similar bonanza for 300 adoptive families. "Because of the Internet, that's why we have Landon," Jessica Haley, mother to the first "crowdfunded baby," told CNN. With the help of 130 people, Haley and her husband raised more than $8,000 for fertility treatments. That's a lot of virtual godparents to thank.
NAMESAKE KEEPSAKE
Some 35 per cent of women in their 20s and 30s now refuse to take their husbands' names after the wedding – but don't worry, they aren't necessarily feminists, writes Salon's Daniel Luzer. The real reason, he posits, may have more to do with her carefully crafted professional image, not to mention the irksome paperwork. Luzer writes: "Many women already have careers by the time they marry. They have college degrees or law partnerships and published work. It's time-consuming and difficult for a woman to change all of the documents affiliated with such things and convince people from networks past and present to start calling her something else" – nevermind if you marry a few times. Luzer also cited Dutch research that found women who kept their surnames were perceived as more intelligent than women who took their hubbies' last names. Unfair, but they also earned $491 more a month.
QUOTED
I positioned myself in college in such a way that I can't have a meaningful romantic relationship, because I'm always busy and the people that I am interested in are always busy, too. – "A."
A University of Pennsylvania student explains her "hook-up" philosophy to The New York Times' Kate Taylor, who followed 60 women at the school and found that some believe casual sex – not commitment – keeps them more competitive in their studies and the race to forge big careers.
Zosia Bielski