Or alternatively, take the sexual/romantic element out of legal marriage altogether. I have friends with whom I have very stable, respectful, loving, but ultimately platonic relationships. From a societal standpoint, it would make far more sense for me to form a family unit with one (or more?) of them than it would…

I think there's a lot to this. Depending on where you are, it can be really hard to find a place that isn't blasting music, super trendy (read: expensive), or already bursting with people. People who want to hang out and drink with their friends are better off just doing it at home, which requires more planning than…

I think you and I must have similar noses. Like you, I was also never bullied for my nose (though a couple of my friends weren't above the odd comment about it when they felt like doling out cheap shots). I don't know if we were lucky or if these people who do get bullied are unlucky. To be honest, the shape never…

My mother threatened to do that to me if I ever ditched school without her permission (which she was pretty happy to give for lame assemblies and other bullshit). My dad was the stay at home parent, so I don't know how she would have managed it, but I never had to find out.

This charity has been discussed on Jezebel before, where a girl who had a fairly normal-looking face wanted her ears pinned back and was given that along with a nose job and some alterations to her chin. The foundation paid for the surgery, which was performed by its founder. I find both these things majorly…

Two things come to mind:

This was my thought, too—how can they be sure that sexting leads to other sexual behaviors rather than that kids who engage in those behaviors are also more likely to sext?

Agreed. Also, why is he the one who gets to name them?

Agreed, though Eva is fine, so long as it's not followed by Braun or Brown. Adolf, however, has been ruined forever, I think.

I've read that absolute pitch is more common in people who speak tonal languages (like Mandarin), and that people who speak such languages have much lower variance in the way the pitch they use when speaking than people who don't. I don't share your superpower, but it totally makes sense to me that people who have…

I'm sure that they had one even before the one you posted. Clearly this story is a favorite.

I totally get why you've been crying: frustration, anger at having him screw up and ruining your present to your grandmother. If this is an established pattern with your brother, maybe it's time to stop helping him? Let him fend for himself the next time he needs something from you.

That second quote sounds an awful lot like a straw-man argument to me. Does anyone actually call themselves a "survivor" after a break-up? Yes, you might say you survived the break-up, but I've never heard anyone say "I'm a break-up/divorce survivor," or "I'm an [ex's name] survivor."

I totally agree—the first book was a very nice thriller, but the second and third ones really could have benefited from someone telling Larsson to dial back on how awesome Lisbeth and Mikael are and how evil the villains are. Towards the end, I felt like I knew a lot about Larsson's ideal version of himself and his…

This is a really interesting point. My instinct is that it's still better to have an unplanned pregnancy at the age of 20 today than it was to have one at 16 in 1991. I think the difference is not being a minor anymore when you're 20. While many 20 year olds are still financially dependent on their parents, they at…

Yeah. I'm getting a little fed up with the deification of Nigella Lawson around here. It's great that she divorced her abusive husband and is fighting back against his attempts to continue controlling her and hurting her, but it's great for her, not for humanity as a whole.

Yeah, I read that and didn't really see what the problem was. Inefficient scheduling pisses me off, too. If I had the clout to make people reorganize things to minimize the amount that everyone had to stand around, doing nothing, I would use it.

I can't find the interview, but I read one with her ahead of the 2004 election when John Edwards referenced Mary Cheney and the Bush administration's homophobia and she went on about national security and terrorism and how the Republicans are the only ones who can keep us all safe and how dare John Edwards try to use…

He's definitely one of the most fleshed-out of the Disney princes. Probably the most fleshed out of golden age ones.

My mom once overheard her grandmother speculate that a friend of hers had poisoned her husband—apparently he died very suddenly and unexpectedly and his widow wasn't all that sad to bury him. But given that that side of the family is rather prone to exaggeration (not to mention that my mother is in her 60s, talking…