[Buenos Aires, December 1. Image via Getty]

Lesbian women dress up as brides during a protest outside the registry office as Alejandro Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello attend a news conference inside before their marriage was blocked in Buenos Aires on December 1, 2009. Argentina's Supreme Court has taken up the issue of same-sex marriage, just hours after a lower court blocked Latin America's first legal wedding of the two men. AFP PHOTO / JUAN MABROMATA (Photo credit should read JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images)

[Buenos Aires, November 7. Image via Getty]

A transexual gestures under a rainbow umbrella during the XVIII Gay Pride Parade in Buenos Aires on November 7, 2009. AFP PHOTO / JUAN MABROMATA (Photo credit should read JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images)

[Buenos Aires, November 3. Image via Getty]

Little girls play their drums during a picket by members of social organizations of the poor and unemployed who demand to be included in the Government's social plans, along 9 de Julio avenue in front of the Social Development Ministry in Buenos Aires, on November 3, 2009. AFP PHOTO/JUAN MABROMATA (Photo credit should read JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images)

[Buenos Aires, October 20. Image via Getty]

Brazilian pole dancer Eduarda Ribeiro (L) waits backstage for the start of the 'Miss Pole Dance Argentina 2009' and 'Miss Pole Dance South America 2009' competitions, in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 20, 2009. Brazilian dancer Rafaela Montenero took first place in the 'Miss Pole Dance South America 2009' and Argentinian pole dancer Maria Luz Escalante took the 'Miss Pole Dance Argentina 2009' title. AFP PHOTO/JUAN MABROMATA (Photo credit should read JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images)

[Buenos Aires, September 30. Image via Getty]

Fanny, a tango street dancer, warms up before performing in Florida street in downtown Buenos Aires on September 30, 2009. The UNESCO declared the tango tradition of Argentina and Uruguay a world cultural treasure, adding its sultry dance steps and melancholy song lyrics to its heritage list. AFP PHOTO/Daniel Garcia (Photo credit should read DANIEL GARCIA/AFP/Getty Images)

[Sao Paulo, September 8. Image via Getty]

A woman waits to cross an avenue in the surroundings of Congonhas, Sao Paulo's domestic airport, on September 8, 2009. Northern Argentina and southern Brazil, and the small countries of Uruguay and Paraguay wedged between them, were hit by a fierce atmospheric mass packing rain, hail and winds over 120 kilometers (70 miles) per hour. In Congonhas, many flights were delayed and pilots were being forced to rely on instruments because of zero visibility. AFP PHOTO/Mauricio Lima (Photo credit should read MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images)

(Photos annotated with Governor Sanford's own words.)


"In so doing, let me first of all apologize to my wife Jenny and our four great boys, Marshall, Landon, Bolton, and Blake, for letting them down.

One of the primary roles, well before being a governor, is being a father to those four boys who are absolute jewels and blessings that I've let down in a profound way. And I apologize to them."


"I would secondly say to Jenny, anybody who has observed her over the last 20 years of my life knows how closely she has stood by my side, in campaign after campaign after campaign and literally being my campaign manager, and in raising those."


"I would also like to apologize to my staff because, as much as I did talk about going to the Appalachian Trail (ph) — that was one of the original scenarios that I'd thrown out to Mary Neil (ph) — that isn't where I ended up.

And so I let them down by created a fiction with record to where I was going, which means that I had then in turn, given as much they relied on that information, let down people that I represent across this state. And so I want to apologize to my staff and I want to apologize to anybody who lives in South Carolina for the way that I let them down on that front."



I — I want to apologize to good friends. Tom Davis came over to the house. He drove up from Beaufort. And he has been an incredibly dear friend for a very long time.


"On the ride over here, I called the house, and in the background, I could hear my parents-in-laws, who had come up to be with Jenny, and I've let them down.

I had the most, you know, surreal of conversations a number of weeks ago with my father-in-law, laying some cards on the table.

And he was incredibly gentlemanly, as you cannot imagine, in saying here were some things that I was struggling with with regard to where my heart was, where I was in life — those different kinds of things.

And I let him down. I've let down a lot of people. That's the bottom line. And I let them down, and in every instance I would ask their forgiveness."


"And so, oddly enough, I spent the last five days, and I was crying in Argentina so I could repeat it when I came back here, in saying, you know, while, indeed, from a heart level, there was something real."


CQ Transcript: Gov. Mark Sanford Admits Extramarital Affair [CQ Politics]

"I was a child with thick glasses, spots and braces. The kids made fun of me at school. Later the girls rejected me in the discos. And then when I was looking for work, I felt so ugly and insecure that I was rejected again and left without a job.

Otalora hopes to find an ally in Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, outside whose residence he is currently camping: after, all, Kirchner is ugly too.

The president for me is a comrade...He also had thick glasses and spots. They also made fun of him. He was also very brave in overcoming his difficulties. The only difference now is that he's president of the country, and I'm not. And he's with an attractive woman, and I'm not...

Argentina: Ugly People Strike Back [BBC]
Related: Feo! [Editorial Lataneo]
Not Pretty [NY Times]

There's also a beauty salon, where girls can get fancy hairdos and face painting. A few Barbies are for sale, as well as pink clothes and accessories designed and made in Argentina, and only available at the Barbie Store. Loizeau wanted to sell Barbie outfits in kid sizes, but moms in focus groups nixed that idea. The clothes available at the store are "basic" with matching items for dolls, and originally were sized for girls between the ages of 3 and 9. But girls as old as 16 came in wanting Barbie clothes and Loizeau's added larger sizes. He may add adult clothing.

Loizaneau's making about 40% more than he projected he would: Girls love the Barbie Store. "There are girls who come every single day," Loizeau says. The playroom is always packed, and especially chaotic on Saturday afternoons. "When the time is up, they ask their mothers for another hour."

American Girl stores are popular in the US partly because they're one of the few places you can get the dolls. Barbies can be purchased at other places: The sole draw of the Buenos Aires store is trying out the Barbie "lifestyle": Tall, blonde, dream-house living, Corvette-driving, ambiguously employed, mysteriously funded? You know, what every little girl dreams of!

Argentine Entrepreneurs Score A Hit With The First Barbie Entertainment Theme Store [International Herald Tribune]

• Workout craze pilates isn't just for rich white women like Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston anymore! It's for rich, beefy white dudes too. [LA Times]
  
• As you may know, Oprah's school for girls in South Africa is being investigated for charges of sexual and physical abuse. Oprah says she is so sorry. You're gonna have to do better than that O! You haven't booked the audience for your "Favorite Things" episode yet — right??? [NY Daily News]
  
• Women who develop breast cancer are at no greater risk of having a more serious or lethal form of the disease if they smoke. Thank god, cause nothing would make us want a ciggie more. [MSNBC]

• Super fucking creepy. A woman who supposedly found a nanny job through Craigslist was murdered when she went to meet the poster. [KCTV5.com]
• The NY Times Magazine has an interesting story about adoptive parents who search for their child's birth mother. [NY Times]
• Argentina elected its first lady president, the current president's wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. What about Evita? [NY Times]
• Scientists are studying breast cancer through the translucent skin of the zebra fish to see how the disease grows. Nicole Kidman's milky complexion could probably work too. [Science Daily]
• Inter-sex females (i.e. hermaphrodites) do not, in most cases, absolutely need vaginal reconstruction - in most cases these women have shallow vaginas and testes that have not descended. Opting for surgery should be a choice, not necessity. [Science Daily]
• UK researchers have made a breakthrough in how infections cause infertility in cows would could lead to major conclusion in how to prevent infertility in women. [Science Daily]