No kidding. My Kentucky ancestors were poor mountain farmers who fought for the union. How about a statue honoring them?

This seems like the most trivial post to click on since I’m reeling with the news of the CVille terrorist riots.... but the English royal lineage may be mixed race? I bet this news will get a huge amount of racist blow-back, but it would be great for Britain for the royalty to embrace the diversity of the country (but…

Oprah sits around in her kitchen mashing potatoes and cauliflower? I think not. Or I hope not. Hire yourself a chef! Actually, I recently met someone who works at her Maui estate and they’re terrified of her. I’m pretty sure she has a huge staff at her homes.....

Luckily none of the decor stays with the house. It’s all staging for the day of the filming. It would be interesting to see how the home owners decorate all that shiplap after the Gaines and crew leave with all their giant clocks, multiple glass terrariums, and neutral colored furniture.

“You can take that to the bank” is unintentionally on-point. It must be so hard to have a career and a brand based on the impression that you are wildly/goofily in love and have the perfect family. If the Gaines marriage broke down (as many do - even good ones) their corporate identity would crash. So much better…

If you live in LA or an area with a lot of filming, you could try starting as an extra. I know someone who launched an acting career after retirement that way. He makes good money off minor parts and enjoys the work.

Apparently he missed that part...the twins are great, though. live and learn.

A friend of mine had a vasectomy after his second kid was born.  Nine months later, his wife gave birth to twins. And, yeah, they are his. So be careful bros....Apparently it doesn’t always work.

Wow, I never thought of that! Having just visited an ER for the first time in my life, I’m now terrified of having an accident and being taken against my will to an out of network hospital. My bill for consulting with a doctor for 15 minutes (no procedures, no surgery) was $3000 (just for using the corner of the ER…

I never realized how American I am until I got into a debate about the face veil with some European friends. I feel very strongly that people should be free to express their religious beliefs however they choose, even if I fundamentally disagree with their views. My liberal European friends feel just as strongly…

Kind of like “miz” the “s” sounds like a z in many American accents

Yeah, I immediately thought of disabled kids too. There are really high rates of unemployment, even amongst people who are capable of working and want to. The parents may not know how to work the system to access transition programs.

My dad was a professor and my mom also worked full time, but family meals worked the same way. We ate together at 6pm and you didn’t have a choice on the menu. Bed at 7:30, gradually pushed up to 10, but I could read or listen to books on tape until a reasonable hour. Friday was often pizza and a family movie…

How do you become a member of the Academy? Do you have to be nominated? I always assumed that it was automatic based on the various trade unions in the industry. I know quite a few people who get those Oscars screeners because they are on the business/technical side....

Alcohol is both a depressant and a stimulant. That’s probably why it is so powerful. In moderation it can have the same neurological effect as valium, which is why so many people with even mild depression develop alcohol problems. The irony is that if you consume a lot of alcohol over time, it messes up your brain’s…

Yikes, that sounds rough! I’m so glad I waited to think about kids until I stopped drinking because I would have been one of those moms in my 20s. Not out of malice, but because wine was my coping mechanism for everything. Have compassion for those other SAHMs - they may be brilliant, kind women who have bad coping…

For me it’s less the amount (up to a point) than the emotion behind it. I love broccoli but I don’t invest it with a lot of emotional weight. Do I have to eat broccoli everyday? Do I look forward to broccoli hour every night? Do I get crabby when I can’t have broccoli? Do I justify chowing down on broccoli because…

Well per capita would not be a good comparison since wine drinking is pretty concentrated in the US in urban and middle-class populations. If you divide the amount of wine consumed over the population as a whole, you will come up with an inaccurate number since a small number of people are drinking the majority of…

I would never had bought drugs or even vodka, but wine seemed sophisticated and socially acceptable. Wine works remarkably well as a mood enhancer...until it doesn’t. I didn’t realize that it is actually a central nervous system depressor until I stopped drinking. The thing you’re taking to make yourself feel…

If people IRL drank as much as Tv characters, 90% of the population would have cirrhosis of the liver. I stopped drinking, so now I notice that nearly every scene of my favorite tv shows features alcohol. Is it because writers are notoriously hard drinkers and write it into the scripts? I’m not sure, but it’s…