By BONNIE ERBE, Scripps Howard News Service

The legacy of the '09 off-presidential year elections is still to be determined as politicians, pundits and partisans debate whether Tuesday's gubernatorial massacre of Democratic candidates in Virginia and New Jersey was a backlash against President Barack Obama's governance or not.

Yet another study on American family life shows that the more time fathers spend at work, the more time children at home spend on household chores. The study was produced by Contance Gager of Montclair State University's department of family and child studies and appears in the November issue of The Journal of Family.

A funny thing happened on the way to, or actually at the Democratic Women's Working Group in the U.S. House, which invited journalists in for breakfast this week. The breakfast, which consisted largely of coffee, was held in the otherwise elegant Speaker's Dining Room in the U.S. Capitol.

Who'd have thunk it?

Women voters are the most coveted demographic in not one but two gubernatorial races this year. And women candidates could be leading the GOP pack as it struggles to remake the party and regain control of Congress and the White House. All of this is surprising, even to this longtime observer of women's issues.

A recent article on salon.com attempted to sweep away legitimate criticisms of the downside of high-tech on human intelligence:

There used to be a water-cooler line the gist of which was that women had to work twice as hard as men to get half as far in the workplace. Peggy Lee sang the song, "I am a Woman" including the lyrics, "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan."

I have combed the now-infamous school speech President Obama delivered on Tuesday for comments that might be objectionable to conservatives. Mostly it was a personal pep talk by the president, given by a man who transformed himself from typical middle-class kid to world powerbroker.

With great fanfare the infamous Duggar family this week announced (on the "Today" show, no less) the upcoming birth of a 19th child.

Without engaging in histrionic gymnastics about the parents' Herculean appetite for children, I would like to use the Duggars' 19th child as a teaching moment about the environment.

Sen. Ted Kennedy's death will overshadow and push out of the headlines a very important story of which Americans should take note. A stationary nimbus of self-dealing hangs over one of President Obama's key staffers, exposed this week by the Associated Press.

Why am I not surprised by the results of the following poll? A Marist poll released this month shows men are more likely than women to approve of the Philadelphia Eagles' controversial decision to allow Michael Vick back into that exclusive club otherwise known as the National Football League.