For me it's coats and undies. I'm sort of blah on a lot of the layers in between- most of the time I'm wearing Old Navy jeans and tee shirts from Goodwill. But I just HAVE to have the perfect coat for every imaginable combination of temperature, precipitation, and formality. And I live in New England, so that's a lot…

If you (or any other impartial, none-fashion-challenged observer) think he's pulling the look off, it's probably fine. A lot of the fedora hate is for guys who want to look interesting and fashionable but have no idea how to do that. Instead of having a plain but boring look, they buy a fedora and end up looking…

It seems to have messed me up a bit, even though I'm 5'6" with a 6' *brother*. He's two years younger and we were very close growing up, so I guess I got used to being the biggest, strongest sibling. Especially since we had stopped climbing trees and playing tug of war by the time he hit his growth spurt, so the…

It's pretty common for some doctor's offices to give people unofficial results from a blood test if it looks like they'll need to take something. He worked at the clinic with his father, so it's totally plausible that he would have some preliminary information about the bloodwork.

Is it really so strange though? They go see his father for a blood test and the next day the boyfriend comes home and goes "Hey, I ran into my dad, he says you have a bit of an infection. Here, he sent you these leftover antibiotics samples, so you don't have to spend $50 at the pharmacy". Of course it wouldn't be…

Thank you for sharing your experience. I don't see weight-loss technologies as any more morally objectionable than nicotine gum or patches. It's an unnatural, technologically created problem to begin with- we've got people in labs working to build highly desirable but unfilling foods, and making them as craveable and…

That would be my guess, although there might be an urban/suburban thing going on too. City dwellers tend to be thinner and have lower heating costs than non-city dwellers. Many apartments include free heat and even the ones that don't are usually cheaper to heat than standalone houses.

It might been along the lines of "Well, you shouldn't use this kind of product at all, but if you're determined to use a douche despite medical advice, this brand is milder and less harmful than some of the others".

I don't think it's silly- that is really romantic. I was incredibly touched that my boyfriend read some of the books that were my favorites growing up. Especially since I'm much more into scifi than he is.

Have you seen the Dr. Nerdlove blog? He has some good fashion-for-nerdy guys articles, with solid, quantitative advice for guys who know very little about choosing clothing. It was really helpful when my brother had to dress for interviews and his internship.

But your interpretation of that io9 article is just plain wrong. The chemical compounds listed on the label are substances that naturally occur in the foods listed. It's just the fancy chemical names for the stuff that makes up a natural, untouched banana.

I used OKCupid, which is a free site, and I liked it a lot. I got messages from creepers, but found it easy to weed them out. The guys I met in person all seemed like decent human beings- sometimes boring, sometimes unfunny or just without any chemistry, but I didn't have any terrible dates. It was kind of a tedious…

My first relationship was at 23, at which point I certainly believed I was perpetually single. Then a friend got me to try online dating. I went into it with the idea that I'd just learn how to date- I'm terrible at flirting and figuring out a) if I'm interested in someone and b) whether they're interested in me. I…

There are a number of activities in the Sims games that are safe most of the time but occasionally spectacularly fatal. For instance, in Sims 2 Sims could lie on the grass and watch the clouds, which amused them for free but carried a small risk of being killed by a meteorite (meteorites never hit unless you were…

A lot of the 'marriage prep' stuff I've seen has been geared towards couples who don't live together before marriage. Lots of advice on negotiating shared household responsibilities, talking about finances, balancing 'alone time' and 'together time' and expectations about sex. It's important stuff, but sort of awkward…

I don't know about mandated, but I would love to see a tax credit or other incentive for taking an approved parenting class.

In addition to different fabrics and cuts, buying a size or two up can give you a little more room. I get shapewear in the next size up for wearing with clingy dresses or shirts- situations where I care about a smoother line, not about looking smaller. I tried spanx on in my actual size once and couldn't stand it.

"No one" is a bit extreme. There are judgmental assholes everywhere. In my experience the gym has fewer judgmental assholes per capita than most places, but that's not very comforting if you're unlucky enough to run into one. I once saw a guy MOOO at a larger woman on a treadmill. Just walked behind her on his way out…

You can do a lot with makeup and lighting (and a model with good genes). They may have just painted her whole body with foundation, to ensure an even skin tone and hide any hint of a blemish.

One thing that worked for me was trying different brands of floss, and spending a little more money for a name brand instead of generic. I hated flossing growing up, because my parents bought the cheapo store brand of unwaxed floss and it left little shreds of floss stuck in my teeth. It took me awhile to discover…