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Christi Diggs
on May 23 2013 - 06:00 AM
A drop of spin, a cup of deception and tsp. politics=Apathy
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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
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He really is a smiler, just not in photos.
Just because he doesn't love to smile in photos?
Well, this is what Matt Lauer has me believing. Ever since he did a story a few months back about how a person's marital future may very well be determined based on how he did or didn't ham it up for the camera as a kid or even college student.
Smile in pictures as a kid and you'll be a happily married adult. The bigger the smile, the more happy the marriage.
But don't smile and you're pretty much doomed to get divorced. (I know, all from a smile -- or no smile -- in a photo? Crazy, don't you think?)
Not a problem for oldest. He's been smiling ever since he came out two weeks late and about seven ounces shy of 10 pounds. I mean if you ever said the word camera he'd be muggin' all happy and proud before you could pronounce the whole word.
Yay, he's headed for a good, happy marriage.
But youngest? Definitely not a smiler for the camera. (Disclaimer: a wonderful photographer was able to get him to smile in this blog photo, so maybe it's just me...) I figure he just doesn't like to be told when to smile, which makes sense to me.
For the first two years of his life when I pretty much slept with the camera, I think he was keeping his smile a secret. If you happened to get photographic evidence of it, well, I should have made you a plate of brownies.
In his first birthday photos, you'd think he was being tortured, forced to eat even a handful of cake. He cried or scowled for every photo we took.
Second birthday, not much better. He's our little thinker, I would tell people.
After a while, once we pretty much gave up trying to lure a photographic smile out of our little guy, we'd have him "make the sound a T-Rex makes." That way we figued he'd at least have to look a little alive in photos. Trouble is, we've ended up with photos of him with his mouth in an 0-shape and his back straight as a board as he reared his head and roared. (Maybe not the best planning on our part.)
Well, this past birthday we got a little better. I actually got evidence of a smile or two. Of course I've already printed these out and put them in a special photo album.
But I fear his smiles are still not enough for psychologist Matt Hertenstein and his study entitled, "Smile Intensity in Photographs Predicts Divorce Later in Life."According to the study, people with a big smile, measured by a "smile intensity" rating, were still married. Of the non-smiling group, 25 percent were divorced.
Now granted, there's not a whole lot of science in ths one. But he may be on to something.
When I look at my childhood photos they are very non-smiley. I barely smiled all, unless someone caught me in mid laugh. Now I have a whole gallery of photos with me looking like a sour puss. (Don't forget, I've been divorced and am now remarried --- p.s. He - current husband - was a pretty good smiler in his early days. Yay!!!)
Now I'm bound and determined to get our little guy to smile in his photos.
Maybe I'll buy one of those ducks that professional photographers put on their heads and knock off right before they snap the photos. Gets a smile every time.
While I'm sure that study is a total load of bull.......I also would not smile for pics (still don't) and I'm also divorced and remarried.What kind of marriage do you have if you look pained in most of your photos? I hate the way I smile. And my dad never smiled much because he didn't like his teeth -- he had a gap between his top two teeth. And yesterday he and my mom celebrated 50 years of marriage! So I think that study was just some schmo trying to justify himself.Hmm... would both husband and wife have to be non-smilers, or just one? My oldest sister is the only one divorced in our large family and she was a HUGE smiler, so go figure. Exactly how did they measure "smile intensity" anyway? Makes me laugh--and smile--just thinking something like that made national t.v. Crazy stuff.
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