Odds are you neither owe $10,000 in back taxes nor have sold a Senate seat.
You’ve probably never tried to birth eight babies at once nor dumped your fiance on national TV.
But at some point in your lifetime, maybe you’ve used a drug off-label, burned someone by BlackBerry, overvalued your charitable contributions and underestimated your age. Yes, for personal gain.
Leading up to Easter, a time when some God-fearing people are repenting for their sins, rule-breaking remains rampant. And it ranges more widely and wildly than ever. Which may explain why Weezer’s song “Troublemaker” is an ear-pleaser on Chicago radio station WXRT, says disc jockey Jason Thomas — who insists that he, by contrast, is “a decent law-abiding citizen that pays my taxes and uses public transportation quite often. I would be the antithesis of a troublemaker.”
Still, a little rebellion is good for the soul, mind and body. Which is why we’re celebrating some of our minor offenses against conventional wisdom. (We’ll skip any major transgressions.)
Why share?
A little rebellion isn’t the only thing that’s good for the soul.
Confession is too.
(So, share back. E-mail smart@tribune .com.)
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Feeling frisky? Toss out the rule book
We’ve finally figured out why good guys finish last: It takes forever to follow all those rules. Here are a few rules that we regularly flout without losing a wink of sleep. In fact, we think our lives are a little better for breaking them.
Pass the remote
Two dieting “rules” drive me crazy: Don’t watch TV and eat. Don’t eat after supper. Eating while I’m watching television, which usually is at night (um, I work for a living), is one of my great pleasures, especially when I’m home alone. The idea is to not overeat and watch TV, and not overeat after supper. It’s the calories, stupid! Now leave me alone, “American Idol” is about to start.
— Renee Enna
We rest our case: The “don’t eat before bed” rule has been largely disputed by many health experts. In one study from Oregon Health and Science University, researchers studying weight gain in female monkeys found no link between when the animals ate and how much weight they gained. “There isn’t a lot of research to back up this commonly held belief, which may in fact be somewhat of an urban myth,” researcher Judy Cameron told the Washington-based Society for Neuroscience after the study. More important is how many (and what kind of) calories you consume throughout the day.
Toss that floss
I lie to my dental hygienist about my flossing habits. Not a big lie — I tell her I’m a bad flosser, twice a week if I’m lucky. Truth is, it’s maybe once a week. Every six months, the hygienist lightly reprimands me, and I say I’ll try to be better. She uses positive reinforcement by admiring my super-brushing abilities (she actually called me a “super-brusher”), but it only validates my laziness about flossing. My gums are healthy, I brush several (super) times a day and I haven’t had a cavity since I was in grade school. Sorry, dental team, and thanks for the bag of free toothpaste and other goodies, but the floss is piling up in my medicine cabinet.
— Lara Weber
On the other hand: The American Dental Association recommends flossing at least once a day, of course. The plaque that gets between your teeth, and isn’t reachable by brushing alone, turns quickly to tartar, which can only be removed by a dentist. Left alone, tartar leads to gingivitis, which affects not only your gums, but the bones and structures supporting your teeth. As saveyoursmile.com says, “Brushing without flossing is like washing only 65 percent of your body. The other 35 percent remains dirty!”
Morning bedlam
“Make your bed before you leave for school.” I didn’t always comply with my mother’s request, and now I never do. My bed remains rumpled — except for the day the cleaning ladies come. A psychologist could have a field day with that. To me, it’s a no-fault foul, and one fewer thing I need to worry about.
— Linda Bergstrom
On the other hand: In “Miss Manners’ Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium” (Simon and Schuster, 1990), manners maven Judith Martin bemoaned the trend of leaving your bed a rumpled mess as a woeful shirking of the importance of ritual. “It isn’t bed making or the lack of it that bothers her so much as the worry that this is yet another contribution to the Why Bother School of Disappearing Domesticity that is turning homes into mere indoor parking places,” she writes. (“Her,” of course, refers to Miss Manners herself.) Next up, she worries: “Breakfast can be eaten directly from the refrigerator or skipped entirely. Not saying good-bye not only saves time but distracts attention from the fact that one has grabbed other people’s possessions because there wasn’t time to find one’s own.”
In defense of peeking
I’m sure this is some sort of book reader’s Rorschach test, but I always read the end of a book first. It’s not because of Harry in “When Harry Met Sally,” who skipped to the end because he was worried about his mortality. I just don’t want the distraction. I don’t want the suspense. I don’t want to be skimming paragraphs and pages, always straining to read ahead and see What. Comes. Next. I just want to take my time. And I’m not even talking about murder mysteries; I’m talking about Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Namesake” — do father and son reach some sort of detente? Or do we get to the last page with them never speaking? Or Dave Eggers’ “You Shall Know Our Velocity” — does he end up dead in a ditch in Egypt? I’d just rather know.
— Doug George
On the other hand: You wouldn’t want to mention this habit to “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who once told MSNBC, “I loathe people who say, ‘I always read the ending of the book first.’ That really irritates me. It’s like someone coming to dinner, just opening the fridge and eating pudding, while you’re standing there still working on the starter.” Then again, maybe that’s another reason to read ahead.
Seriously, good night
Every sleep expert in the world instructs new parents to teach their kids to self-soothe. Whatever you do, they warn, don’t feed them to sleep or rock them to sleep or lie next to them until they’re asleep, lest they become fussy, demanding preschoolers who can never fall asleep on their own. I fed, rocked, sang and cajoled my daughter to sleep from Day One. Three years later, I’m still lying in her room with her until she’s asleep. And here’s why I don’t mind a bit: Our best conversations happen just as she’s about to drift off to sleep, just the two of us in the dark, no distractions. After her first day of preschool: “Mom? One boy’s shirt is ugly. And I don’t know the kids’ names. Did you know the kids’ names when you went to preschool?” After watching “The Little Mermaid”: “Mom? If you die, will Daddy turn mean to me?” And a few times a week, just as I’m starting to lose my patience after the fifth or sixth “Mom?” … “Mom? I love you.”
— Heidi Stevens
On the other hand: The sleep experts do make a number of good points on the importance of kids’ soothing themselves to sleep. In the newly released “Break the Co-Sleeping Habit” (Adams Media, 2009), author Valerie Levine says the “tucking in that never ends” can lead to separation anxiety when you try to leave your child other places besides the bedroom (school, for example); a child who interrupts her parents when they try to talk or do anything else that doesn’t involve her; and parents who feel helpless in setting boundaries.
3,000 and counting
Mechanics are always putting a sticker in your car window reminding you to change your oil every 3,000 miles. But I don’t. I wait until 5,000. I’m convinced the convenience oil change dudes — who always, always tell me my air filter is dirty and needs replacing, even if it’s five minutes old — use 3,000 as an interval to guarantee steady business. So I won’t be swayed from breaking this rule; it saves me money, and I’ve yet to have any of my car engines fall apart because of it.
— Louis R. Carlozo
We rest our case: Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the hosts of “Car Talk” on National Public Radio, recommend an oil change every 5,000 miles: “For the vast majority, 5,000-mile oil changes will help your engine last to a ripe, old age.”
Read ’em and sleep
Many sleep experts advise against reading in bed before hitting the sack. Hooey. I love to read, and reading provides just the transition I need between the hum of the working day and the call of the fluffed-up pillow.
— Louis R. Carlozo
On the other hand: It depends on what you’re reading. Experts from the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School say there’s nothing wrong with reading before bed as long as it’s light material: “Avoid stressful, stimulating activities — doing work, discussing emotional issues.”
Hamburger-free and happy
I was a high school senior when I figured out I didn’t have to eat beef and poultry, which means I don’t have to worry about nitrates, saturated fat or growth hormone. Animal protein, even more than saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, raises blood cholesterol levels. Published data show it promotes the growth of tumors. And diets containing excess animal proteins can destroy our kidneys. Meanwhile, a mountain of empirical evidence has shown my plant-based diet is best for the heart and for warding off cancer. Where do I get my protein? Beans, nut butters, peas and soy products.
— Julie Deardorff
On the other hand: Strict vegetarians who avoid all animal products can develop a vitamin B12 deficiency because most food sources of vitamin B12 come from animals. These people should consider fortified breakfast cereals or supplements.
Shades of gray
When my couple of gray hairs act up and fight for a spotlight on my head, I must confess: I have silenced them with a few skilled swipes of a Sharpie. I whined about my gray hairs to my hairstylist, Libby Jarvis, at Milios Hair Studio in Lake View, but she set me straight, and I left feeling much better about my future hair maintenance, or lack thereof. Jarvis is a big proponent of not covering gray with hair color. “Embrace your age. I love it. I think it’s cute on people, no matter what your hair color is. It’s nice to let it show,” she says. Lovely idea, but have her clients ever heeded her advice? “Yeah, many times. I had a lady — she was probably 55 — and she’d been coloring her hair for probably over 20 years, and I talked her into growing it out,” said Jarvis. “She was reluctant at first, but ended up really liking it, and said it felt good to let go. It’s almost like an addiction.”
— Fauzia Arain
On the other hand: Until you develop a charming balance of gray and your natural color, pioneer grays can be a distraction from an otherwise monotone ‘do. So don’t knock the Sharpie solution till you try it — but try it only if you can count your grays on one hand, or you’ll risk perfuming your hair with permanent marker scent.
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smart@tribune.com
