When the orthodontist finished putting braces on my teeth, he asked if I had a water pick. I answered yes because we had a moldy old one under the counter at home that nobody used. He said “Good, then I won’t give you what I was going to give you.” I was too shy and awkward to ask what it was and have never stopped…

I had the opportunity to read aloud to a wealthy woman with failing eyesight who wrote novels under a pen name (still don’t know which) when I was an early teen in Western New York. Since I was cruelly shy back then, I did not take it. I wonder what Dickensian life I’ve lived in the other dimension?

In high school (let’s say 10th grade), I dumped my face in a bowl of chocolate pudding in the middle of the school cafeteria so my crush would be too distracted to hear my friend tell him I like him. Yeah....

I spent most the first George W. Bush term living overseas. So I missed all of the buildup to the Iraq invasion. I came home at one point for about a week and went to a baseball game. As I was walking through the parking lot, there was a guy selling t-shirts with “France Sucks” written on them with a drawing of…

Sat Hari Khalsa, a “jewelry designer and holistic healer.”

Happy birthday, indeed, Baba Wawa!

I’m still laughing. Imagine an Indian woman moving to the US, giving herself the name Jesus Mormon, and then claiming to be a spiritual leader within the Mormon tradition. And, then imagine she gets to be successful, famous, wealthy, and plays with powerful people because of that identity. It strains the imagination…

If it’s any consolation, I was born into a Buddhist household in Vietnam before coming to the US as a 4 year-old war refugee in 1975 and adopted Christianity. I guess that makes it a wash..?

God, how I miss Tours! The college students were there but it was not yet discovered by the Cool Kids- same with Marseilles, which people up north would say “So dangerous!“ but it is so beautiful and diverse and sunny!

Orphan remains my greatest moviegoing experience. It was just a so-so thriller, but at the big reveal a tween/early-teen girl sitting down the row from us stood up and shouted ESTHER GOT TITTIES at the top of her lungs. It was incredible and probably the hardest I’ve ever laughed in public.

We Need to Talk About Kiev

I am in this exact situation at work now.

I wish that the media would quote the lazy corrupt racist orange santorum-covered enemy of the people directly more often. Too often they try to create coherent narratives out of his rambling, dissembling dreck.

I totally understand what you’re saying. Personally, I try to do a lot, as well as attempt to educate others, as a science communicator, about just how massive and life-threatening a problem this is. Should I pat myself on the back? Is it “enough”? No, of course not. What could possibly be enough at this point?

The true deathmatch will come when it’s time to settle the estate.

We need Trumps kids deathmatch

1)Why, yes, I lived in France for 5 years. I worked for the UN and lived in Paris and Tours.

Are you french? Have you lived in France? Yes, there is pressure on french women to stay thin, just as it is in basically every part of the western world and it’s terrible. But please don’t pretend that the overall diet in countries like France and Italy is not healthier than the American Standard Diet. It’s not about…

It really isn’t a joke: from the time they are LITTLE, French girls’ appetites are policed and shamed.

I prefer the traditional French appetite suppressant: cigarettes.