This may have been the thinnest NYTimes Magazine section of the summer, but it contained a plethora of interesting, eclectic articles. Some of my favorites are below.

The Political Brain: A great article examining Democratic versus Republican political values and if there’s anything neuroscience can tell us about the strong differences. “Why do people vote against their immediate interests? Why do blue-collar Republicans and limousine liberals exist?”

A Spoonful of Attitude: Great piece on Vitaminwater. I’ve seen people drinking this and I’ve always wondered what the back-story is. These are flavored drinks. “‘I’ve actually been in business meetings where people brought six different flavors,” Frankel says, ”and looked around and said: ‘Here, Jim, you need some Focus. And you, you need Balance.’ Bikoff, not surprisingly, has a different theory to explain Vitaminwater’s appeal. He says that the idea came to him when he was washing down a vitamin-C tablet with bottled water: Combine the two. And skip the pretense that drinking the stuff will help you medal in the decathlon. ”My sport is my life,” Bikoff says, meaning the sport of running to catch planes and make meetings; that’s the playing field most of us live on, and that’s what dictates the nutrients we need. ”Vitaminwater works,” he continues. ”It helps people get more out of their day. Nutrients. Actually. Work.”

Chickspeak – A funny On Language column…some sample definitions include: Blamestorming n. A meeting whose sole purpose is to discuss why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible. E-mauling v. Stalking someone via e-mail. Gu adj. Pronounced ”goo.” Acronym for geographically undesirable. (”Great guy and all, but totally GU — he lives all the way in Boerum Hill!”) Guyatus n. A hiatus from guys. (”Thanks, but no thanks. I’m kind of on guyatus.”) Mouse potato n. The wired generation’s answer to the couch potato. Stray n. A heterosexual male who everyone secretly thinks is gay. Whore d’oeuvre n. A slutty girl who is always the first to arrive at a party. Yellular adj. The loudness you adopt in response to a bad cellphone connection, in the misguided hope that talking louder will improve the connection. (”I’m so embarrassed. I went totally yellular at a restaurant last night.”)

I got some interesting feedback from my post a month ago titled “Where Blatant Rudeness is Fully Accepted“. Some people thought that people tuning out during the flight attendant safety spiel is not rude because it is not intentional rudeness – that is, they are just bored. Others wrote to me that rude or not, the safety spiel on airlines is not helpful and until they change it deserves to be ignored.

Well yesterday I was on a Southwest flight coming home from Southern California (I barely made it – I ended up running through the terminal without my shoes on after the X-Ray machine, it was one of those days) and the flight attendant did something I’ve never seen before. She said on the speaker “How many of you have never flown before?” No one raised a hand. “Good. Then you know all this.” Then she went into the 4 minute talk – there are no TVs on Southwest so the flight attendants do all the talking – at a million miles per hour. Literally, it was very very fast. Not only was it fast, it was hilarious. “The bottom cushion can be used as a flotation device. In the event of a water evacuation, kick paddle, kick paddle, kick paddle, until you are safely ashore…Oxygen masks will drop in front of you. Ladies, put yours on first and then assist the men and anyone acting like a child…Follow all directions from uniformed crewmembers, anyone acting like a crewmember but not uniformed is just plain stupid…If your shoes and socks do not match we will call the fashion police.” You get the point. At the end, everyone irrupted into applause and forgot about the 15 minute delay.

Now, there’s a way to build the brand “Airplane of LUV,” and communicate the safety information by engaging the passengers.

I just read the ChangeThis manifesto titled “How to Kill Your Children: Facts About Coke“. I was intrigued when I saw this title because I have been ranting against soft drinks for a couple years now ever since I saw some people at school who were addicted to Coke. The PDF/article is OK. It makes its point, Coke is bad for you, sugar is bad for you. Yes there’s an obesity problem among children, and yes all fat children drink Coke. I’ve heard the fun facts before, so I was a little disappointed the article couldn’t recommend a solution beyond “It’s simple: don’t drink Coke.” Clearly there’s some addiction going here so it can’t be that easy. Is there another drink that has half as much sugar that could be used as a baby step to wean someone’s addiction off Coke? Also, after the article made various health and medical claims without any citations whatsoever, the “About the Author” section was almost a joke, saying that “Tyler Lackey grew up in a family who never had a pitcher of water on the dinner table, but always a 2 liter bottle of Coca-Cola.” The lore of Coke and the tremendous amount of fiction that’s out there about Coke through email chains prompt me to want a more thorough explanation of exactly who this author is and where did the assertions come from.