No he wasn’t. He was more of the same he was just much less charismatic. Ratzinger was clear message that the shifts at the end of JP2’s life were there to stay and the church would continue to move away from social justice issues. That blew up in their face really badly. They lost a lot of young people. Now they’re…

My poor MIL keeps sending emails with random links to “Cool Pope” stories as a PS. She’s really hoping that we’ll change our minds and decide to raise our son in the Church.

He’s very very good at PR. Ratzinger was awful in so many ways that it would be hard not to look “cool” after that.

Maybe it’s a Catholic ceremony? Catholic brides kneel a bunch.

Damnit, I need to do a better job of checking that stuff. I have 700 points burning a hole in my pocket.

I get not wanting to go to Silver Spring if you’re living in NW but it’s a little ridiculous to say that Downtown Silver Spring is “super far” into the suburbs. It’s like a quarter mile from the DC line.

Are you near the Congressional Plaza one? That is the nicest Ulta I have ever been in. It’s one of the very few things I miss about living in Montgomery County.

Charles was probably raised to see abdicating as the worst thing ever. The abdication of Edward VIII was really scarring for Elizabeth’s immediate family.

The sale of cyanide crystals is supposed to be controlled. It’s not clear but I think the sale might have been illegal in the first place.

Yup. My cousins on the South Shore always had thicker accents than we did, living in Boston.

Aw, reading all the comments on this post about extending nursing is the first time I’d missed nursing since I weaned my son two months ago. Extended nursing is so wide spread in my world that I forget how unusual it is in the US.

Most of the women I know who breastfed past 18 months did it because it was the past of least resistance. Toddlers nurse so infrequently and quickly that it’s less work to keep doing it than to try and get them to stop. I know many women find it pleasant but I’ve never heard anyone in real life talk about it sexually.

I’m 30ish and from New England. I’ve only ever been to one service where there wasn’t a body present. I’ve been to many open casket wakes where the deceased is later cremated.

Nope. He was basically convicted of statutory rape. In NH, since there was less than a 4 year age difference, he will not be a registered sex offender.

It's weird that you are aggressively dumping on this couple, saying things that are clearly not true. The wife has a full time job, if she was home with the baby it wouldn't be when they had childcare. People who work have childcare.

Depends. My insurance will cover it and my best friend’s did, too. But we have better than average insurance.

Cold medicine. You can’t drink because you’re getting over a cold and the combination of Sudafed and booze makes you sick(er).

Right, but GOOD doctors make up like 2-3% of all doctors. I had one once. It was amazing.

It’s like white privilege on steroids. It’s so ridiculous, it’s practically self-parodying.

Probably 90% of it is that he was an excellent sleeper. By the time my son was 4.5 months old I was so hysterically sleep deprived I was afraid to drive. That level of sleep deprivation makes it really hard to do anything at all.