she had to leave sunday as there a 48 hour pilot strike, in the UK as BA pilot on a 100 grand a year turned down a 11.45 per cent pay rise over 3 years reports BBC news.

Wingless, I’m turning to you for guidance. Jezzies you too. I’ve entered the phase of my life where losing my parents has become a reality. 89 year old Dad has cancer, is bone thin, fell Friday and is in the hospital. Hairline fracture thigh bone. He’s now moving from the walker to wheelchair. 87 year old mom -…

Hi there - I work in the importation & distribution of high end Italian porcelain tile, so here’s a few pointers regarding the tile portion of your reno: Ask a million questions of both the tile salesperson & your contractor. Make sure that you understand the products, the amount of variation you should expect, & the…

What might you do for a friend that you don’t really like and but going through a rough time in their life - partially because of their personality but also bad personal choices that have been some what programmed into her by shitty parenting? I’ve known this person for a long time and we had some shared interests 15…

Today was my friend’s memorial service. I had planned to take public transportation, but when I got up this morning, I realized that construction on the tracks was going to make my trip take about 3 hours. I sat on my couch moping and had pretty much decided I wasn’t going to be able to make the trek. Then I hear my…

Aw, thank you. I am on high ground and while this is nerve -wracking and inconvenient, we are nowhere near in the trouble that the Bahamas saw. It is frightening with the house shaking from the wind but we are hunkered down with plenty of supplies.

Gotcha—and I hear ya on the self-worth thing, for what it’s worth. I also can’t imagine myself doing work other than academic or academic-adjacent work, and this is central to who I am. I took a year off between my MA and PhD and it nearly gutted me. So I know you know this, and I know it too, and you’re working…

Oh clever. I got a call-out in a Pissing Contest once, I should have done that then! Maybe I’ll start posting cat photos to try to lure a writer’s attention...

Hi Maya! How are things going?

I’m so sorry about the pain and frustration. I have nothing worthwhile to say about the baby (although congratulations-to-be!) or the pain, as I have no children of my own. But I can speak to the PhD. It’s never too late and you’re never too old. I finished mine at 37; one member of my cohort was in his fifties when…

I’ve never seen Beaches.

Some (possibly) good news after the year from hell in which I fought to get my mother the very best cancer treatment and traveled with her for months, and then lost both my mom and my dad within six weeks of one another - I might be a grandmother soon! I say “might” because this was unexpected and my son and his…

Apologies to everyone who replied with lovely baby sling advice last week; I posted in SNS Saturday night but couldn’t stay up to catch any of the replies, usually I get to them on Sunday when that happens. On Sunday I got up miserable and spaced-out and I’ve been more or less miserable and spaced-out all week. I read…

All the best youths are misspent.

Honestly, this is another universal New Yorker cartoon caption. 

On a square bale. In a turkey barn.

On an ATM in Herald Square. 

I don’t have any bugs/dirt/vermin dirty places, but I have done things in places people would definitely consider a kind of dirty.

“That would be in the butt, Bob.”

Croke Park, Dublin. Simple Minds concert. Restroom. I was 16 or 17. Dude was invited by a quasi in-law of mine; she really fancied him & invited him with the sole intent of having it off with him. I don’t know if she ever found out that it happened.