The XX Factor

We’re Talking About: Feb. 23, 2010

- Does Rielle Hunter’s silence over the last couple of years make her the picture of “quiet dignity “? Tact comes (late) to the arch-mistress? [ Newsweek ]

- Robin Wells is far more than Paul Krugman’s wife , yet she’s been consigned, along with Margaret Knox and Sheryl WuDunn, to the ranks of (almost always male) Geniuses’ (almost always female) Spouses. [ Jezebel , The New Yorker ]

-Children conceived through in vitro fertilization and other methods of assisted reproduction have lower birth weights and more “genetic differences ” than those cooked up the old-fashioned way, researchers now say. [ WSJ ]

-The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launches a Web site covering the “Palin Primaries .” The goal: to highlight the rift between mainstream Republican candidates and Tea Partiers. Each district’s name appears inked on a palm. [ Politico ]

- Martin Amis is supposedly indignant that Anna Ford called him a narcissist in Sunday’s Guardian . It’s hard to believe the narcissist finds the public flap all that upsetting. [ The Elegant Variation , The Independent , Guardian ]