Oh, is it my turn?

	James Hilston, Post-Gazette Click illustration for larger image.

In the long distinguished line of champions of women's rights, we must now place Pep Torres. Pep is an inventor who lives in Barcelona, and he's come up with a washing machine that "encourages" traditionally macho Spanish men to share the burden of doing laundry. I know what you men are thinking, and no, there isn't a six-pack implanted in the spin cycle or a big screen TV rising out of the machine. No, the washing machine has software that recognizes the fingerprints of household members. It shuts down when the same person tries to use it twice in a row, and no fair forcing your kids to do it. We learned of this unique Father's Day item from The Christian Science Monitor. Torres' next project: a drill for women. "I'm not a feminist," he says. "I'm an egalitarian."

We try harder

From the AP
• Man Buys Smoker, Finds Human Leg Inside • Coach Stops Runaway Horse by Biting Ear • Man Allegedly Tries to Use 'Blurry' $100 • Police Break Up Brawl at Chuck E. Cheese • Suggestive Card Ruffles Farmer's Feathers • Nerds to Auction Themselves to Women • Toilet to Tap? San Jose Probes Plan • Seattle to Allow Pygmy Goats As Pets • Yankees Rookies Dress Up in Oz Costumes

Apparently, Pep Torres and a lot of women have it wrong. A study in last month's Journal of Marriage and Family reports that wives underestimate the amount of time their spouses spend on cleaning, laundry and other domestic chores. Women think their husbands do only 33 percent of the work, but the researchers found that the number is 39 percent. Now, if the study had only quit while men were reasonably ahead. The numbers also show that wives still spend almost double the time cooking and cleaning and equal time on what are considered "guy" chores: paperwork and yard and home maintenance. And never mind that the impressive rise to 39 percent of household chores done by men could be translated to mean that women are doing, umm, 61 percent.

Get a Ph.D. and go to bed
Women have higher rates of insomnia than men -- globally, the rate is twice as much. But then there's the education factor. The better educated a woman is, the more likely she is to get a good night's sleep. Conversely, the more education a man has, the less likely he is to sleep well. (The housework is probably a factor here, if the highly educated Morning File's experience is typical.) The study of 40,000 Taiwanese in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health concludes that insomnia tends to be more common among those who are older, divorced or separated, have a low educational level, poor health or low income. The final shocker: Children at home also increase the rates of insomnia.

Insect nightmares helped

"Were it not for those terrible nights of insomnia, I would not write."

-- Franz Kafka

Is Jerry Lewis big there?

If you happen to visit Hong Kong in mid-July and notice that everybody is convulsed with laughter, don't assume it's your loud shorts or the soup stain on your shirt. An organization known as the Joyful Mental Health Foundation is holding a laugh-in of sorts July 15-17. The idea is to get people to lighten up and snap out of their funk. An estimated 70,000 of Hong Kong's seven million people suffer from depression and few seek help, according to the South China Morning Post. It's not merely recreational laughing. It's a competition, and it's not based just on the length of the laughter. "Judges will also be looking for the quality of their laughter," one official said, "whether it is infectious, genuine." That's what we like: spontaneity on demand.

Tots online

Almost a quarter of all pre-school-aged children have spent time online, according to an Education Department report. Rest assured they're not visiting poker sites but sites with interactive stories and animated lessons that teach letters, numbers and rhymes, The Associated Press assures us. Not only that, two-thirds of nursery school children and 80 percent of kindergartners have used computers at some time.

They love school

Fewer young people want to work summers. A smaller share of youths ages 16 to 24 worked last July than at any time since 1966, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. One reason: an increased focus on academics, The Christian Science Monitor reports. A decade ago, 1 in 6 youths was enrolled in school in July. By last year, it was 1 in 3. Even those who work tend to have academics on their minds. This summer, more teens will be working to save for college than to make extra spending money, according to a Junior Achievement survey. This marks the first time in the six years of the survey that college savings were No. 1. Last summer, the teen employment rate was the lowest since 1948, with only 36 percent of those ages 16 to 19 holding jobs, down from 45 percent in 2000.

Answer that phone

Maria Sciullo of our sports department on yesterday's item on annoying cell phone rings: "About two years ago, I downloaded 'Hail to Pitt' just for fun (I'm really not that huge a fan but, hey, I'm a bandwagon jumper, so why not?) Turns out everyone in Sports HATED when my phone rang. So instead of ditching the tone after a few months, I held onto it for about a year and a half. (Current ring tone: Weird Al Yankovic's 'Hardware Store.')"