Thought experiment: Whenever you hear or read "consumers" (one of the most common words in the news), try substituting "citizens".

It's particularly interesting/telling when discussing policy or legislation (say, S.1052, the Patient's Bill of Rights), but really, it's a useful frame-shift in any situation. Instead of the active, useful 'producers' over here (which in most cases aren't even people any more, just corporate entities) which are intrinsically worth more than the passive, powerless 'consumers' over there, you have equally-valued "citizens" with rights and responsibilities who choose to trade with each other but have many fine qualities besides their spending habits.

Also instructive is the reverse: take out 'the people' from important documents and replace it with 'consumers', and see what a different response you have to it.

"We the consumers, in order to form more perfect market conditions..."

"Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of consumers peaceably to gather..."

Yes, yes, not all consumers are citizens, and not all citizens are consumers, but there is surely a significant overlap.

An interesting gallery exhibit of women of all ages playing sports, with comments and quotes (requires Flash, unfortunately): Game Face [Washington Post]. More women play sports than I thought.

Macintosh Web Software on a Budget by Dori Smith

Should the big newspaper come on Saturday instead of Sunday? [Chicago Tribune] I think that's not a bad idea.

Gotta run. More next week.