You win. I cannot think of a worse gift than a travel-sized bottle of Axe body spray.

That actually sounds awesome. I love things that are disguised as other things. It's like you're James Bond!

My grandmother gave me a 12-pack case of Diet Dr. Thunder for Christmas one year. Not Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper's watery, generic colleague, Dr. Thunder.

Thank you from another person who took pains to shed her Southern accent because of BS stereotypes like the ones in this article. Phil Robertson's redneck schtick doesn't define everyone in the South, even those of us who grew up in rural areas.

I understood the OP as saying that you throw out the used sex toys of the deceased (in response to the question in the headline), not all used sex toys.

Er. . . I think the fact that the toy belong to his dead wife makes it more complicated. What if the letter writer was like, "Hey, New Girlfriend, how do you feel about wearing my dead wife's cashmere sweater?" I would be supremely weirded out by that on an emotional level.

It *does* hurt when someone implies, even unintentionally, that not having a child makes you feel something less than someone who does have a child.

Yeah, I wouldn't be okay with someone trying to get me to wear his dead wife's clothes, much less use her vibrator. It's just too personal.

Good grief, your family sounds insanely difficult. Offering to celebrate with them on Christmas Eve (or any of the other days you offered) is a totally reasonable compromise.

JustClickYourHeels and Medusa said what I wanted to say, so I'll echo them. I'm glad you're here, and your post made me laugh/cry. I also struggle with depression (yay, antidepressants!), and the next time I'm feeling like the world would be better off without me, I'm going to remember what you wrote. Please stay…

Could be the flu. Gatorade is the way to go to keep him hydrated. (It has electrolytes.) IEII is right about going to the doctor taking him to the doctor if it's been at 102 for more than 24 hours.

I had a twin bed until I was 20 and bought a cheap futon from Wal-Mart. Incidentally, has anyone ever encountered a comfortable futon? Either all of my futon experiences have been with low-end futons or they are universally uncomfortable.

I wouldn't worry about a non-US address turning off a literary agent. One of my best friends is a YA author, and her agent represents people from Canada and Australia. Following the agent's submission guidelines and having a kick-ass pitch are way more important than your mailing address.

I just watched this last night. Someone needs to create a drinking game where you drink every time she has a costume change or gets laid.

I have to try this! My husband does the same thing all the time. If I don't come running into the room to check on him, he'll keep moaning until I do, and if I just call out, "Are you okay?" he won't answer.

This. My husband get sick much less often than I do (I work with children a.k.a. major virus vectors), but when he does get sick it is THE END OF THE WORLD, whereas I just want to go off by myself and be left alone, like a wounded hyena.

It's a marking behavior. In the wild, they claw tree trunks, and the shredded bark, plus the scent from the glands in their feet, lets other cats know they are in your cat's territory. (The visual of the destroyed thing is really important to them for some reason.) In the house, they turn to cardboard/paper…

We put up a sign at work about the days we'll be closed for Christmas and New Year, and it has pretty much turned into an invitation to bitch at us and/or be passive-agressive.

Agreed. Being a nerd doesn't mean you have to love every hyper-commercialized thing marketed to you. I watched the first Hobbit movie, despite my Tolkien fangirl reservations, but it was so bad that I don't even have any nerd guilt about skipping the second one. I don't have any interest in paying $10 to see The…

Maybe you guys can weigh in on a situation my mom told me about a few months ago. She's a nurse, and one day while she was at work, she walked up to a bank of elevators where there was a small crowd gathered waiting for a ride. There was a little boy with light-brown skin standing by himself next to the call buttons.…