Squee, I want one, and didn't know there was anything but Le Creuset, which, I'm sorry, $250 for a Dutch oven isn't happening for several years to come, in this household. That is fantastic!

Oh please, I need to get out of the greys, because you all need this:

Agreed, now, but in early 2012 I don't think it was nearly so clear - a term as VP would then have seemed as a clear step towards the presidency. It would also imply strong support by Obama for her as his successor, which is a) by no means clear, and b) a mixed blessing now but less so back then.

I think maybe the better parallel is a fat suit played for laughs. "Oh look at me, I'm unattractive, and it's funny because I'm actually gorgeous!" Yeah, not so funny for people who can't take off the fat/wrinkly suit at the end of the evening.

I think most politicians are at best tolerable in small doses. No surprise to me if politicians feel that way about each other. All the ones I know socially admit they're either snakes or remarkably good at impersonating snakes.

And of course this would have given her an utter lock on the nomination in 2016. My best is a lot of Democrats who didn't want to see that happen would have campaigned heavily against this, for that reason.

Damn you guys. I read these in the evening, with the lights on and the family was running around being noisy. Awesome, creepy stories!

Thank you, that's really helpful. I've been looking at one that's about $100 at the Apple store, but that's a lot of money if I don't like using it. If I can get one for ~$20 that's something I'm happier taking a chance on!

I agree that it is not primarily about the needs of the cats. But I know exposure to cute animals can do a lot to lift people's spirits. My grandfather's care home, where he spent the last year of his life, had two resident cats, and regular visits from (very well trained) golden retrievers. It was surprisingly well…

Oh, can you tell me the brand?

See I'm trying to figure out if there's an iPad keyboard I like, so I can never again take my laptop with me out of the house. All I really need my laptop for 99% of the time is email, web and word processing; with dropbox and Pages I can approximate all of that on the iPad, and replicate it entirely with a decent…

Given that the iPad replaces 1-2 magazines, a novel for leisure reading, and about 200 pages of PDFs, as well as my calendar/phone book (that last one doesn't really count, because my phone has that info too) it actually saves me a ton of weight and space.

Well, grief after the death of a loved one is now diagnosable as a disorder in DSM, not, y'know, PART OF BEING HUMAN, so take it for what it's worth.

Yeah. It's reasonable to think that someone with a shitty family of origin, in marrying into a large extended family, might find something he's been searching for. And when they turn out to be nuts, even if that's totally predictable from the start, that's very stressful.

You know, I really found that the least of it. It's not pleasant, but it wasn't *painful*, the way the transition phase was painful. Plus you totally know the end is in sight, at that point. And in terms of after, it's less painful than a UTI in my experience. Even the time I had tearing and stitches (precipitous…

Eh, I'm not seeing anything egregious here. It's not a question of blame, as such, but stressors are a well established risk factor in triggering self-destructive behaviour in people with addictions or mental illnesses, and marital problems/in-law shenanigans can be mighty potent stressors.

Oh absolutely. I was in contact with some people at the research hospital in Toronto when Nancy Olivieri's work showing that certain drugs were harmful to kids of certain ethnic backgrounds was being suppressed. It was shameful stuff, and I'm not sure things have improved much since.

Exactly. Nobody's going to do it for kicks, but it's also not the end-of-the-world-suffering that's often portrayed.

Agreed on the "worst pain of my life." But the endorphin haze worked wonders after, for me!

I was too. The nice thing about fearing the absolute, Alien-inspired worst is that the reality is never as bad. Who said pessimists never win?