Fun fact about steak tartare: Thus named because it was adapted from the Tartars (cultural cousins to the Mongols), who “prepared” it by sticking hunks of raw beef beneath their saddles before the days’ ride. So the original was raw beef marinated in 8 hours of horse sweat and saddle leather, squeezed down by a steppe…

There’s something eerily similar about all of these people, but I just can’t *quite* put my finger on it...

Cousing Verity! Yus!

Oh god, the “I’m just *testing* you!” assholes are the worst kind of assholes. You are NOT a drill instructor or a gunnery sargeant. This is NOT the military. You don’t have to break service people down to build them back up into stronger and more efficient killing machines. You are paying them to rent a room, not put…

It’s a reference to a certain type of male atheists who are really really into debunking uneducated Christians and Creationists and sneering at Islam, but don’t have a... shall we say strong grasp? on the social niceties of treating women like people.

The reference to “Rebecca Watson’s Nightmare” in the second…

Let’s not forget, in the Ralph Wiggum crushing on Lisa episode, his father used his power as Chief of Police to coerce everyone, including her teacher, to throw them together. Mr. Really Nice Cake could have had a similar power of coercion over Ms. Cancer Survivor. In fact, the situation only makes sense to me if he…

My guess is he had some professional relationship with her she didn’t feel she could jeopardize by being blunt. That’s the only situation I can think of that fits with him A) Knowing her well enough to know she not only had cancer, but when she was declared cancer free B) Still being in touch with her enough to “make…

My style is more negation of other styles I don’t like than a positive affirmation of things I do want. I hate patterns and I *hate* wearing clothes with brand-names on them (I pay your company for the privilege of advertising their brand, and it costs more to do that than to buy a plain garment? Wait, explain this to…

Their lifestyle on the TeeVee only captures what they want it to capture. Living the Quiverfull lifestyle isn’t all home-canned pickles, home-perms, and matching jumper sets. It also includes a lot of very unhealthy family dynamics, like children raising children and the denial of children’s agency, especially female…

I didn’t say every child raised this way ends up committing incest. I said I’m not surprised it happens in extremely sexually repressive upbringings, and that I for one would expect it to go on. Also, the Duggars and the Phelps have a lot more in common with each other than either group has with me or anyone else I…

Maybe I see too much sex in everything, but I don’t think it is unusual or uncommon at all. This is why parental attention is so important during adolescence, and why I think competent, comprehensive sex education should be mandatory. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that withholding proper sexual education from your…

My first thought whenever I see one of these “we don’t fuck until marriage and we date the way god intended, with two or three adult family members in the room at all times” families going on about their virtue and purity and all that, this is all I can think. This kind of weird, embarrassing sexual exploration…

I lived in a place with limited access to showering and water for several years. I’m not saying those years were one long yeast infection or anything, but something was often a little out of whack in the crotch. UTIs and ingrown hairs and itchiness, what-have-you. I figure in pre-indoor-plumbing days, pre-gyno days,…

There is nothing about that I find unbelievable; I’d be surprised if people who believed that *didn’t* exist.

Not only are ectopic pregnancies not viable, they are also life-threatening. An ectopic pregnancy is a medical emergency, and the recommended treatment is abortion. If left unchecked, the pregnancy will develop until it bursts the fallopian tube, causing internal hemorrhaging. There are a few documented cases of an…

Huh. I was not a bar-goer during my black-haired year, but I didn’t note any major change in my romantic success during or after my black hair period. The cat-calling I got was equally the same and equally vile in both hair colors. I make it a policy never to let anyone buy my drinks for me, so there’s that.

Thanks very much. Having seen the toll substance abuse takes on addicts physically and emotionally, I also grit my teeth a bit when people claim “addiction” to things like online gaming. Not saying that kind of thing can’t be a problem, but it simply isn’t the *same* problem, and it doesn’t have the same effects.

Been blonde my entire life except for one year of black hair. It made literally no difference.

Oh yeah, Vitamin D deficiency is no joke. In early childhood, it is called “rickets” and it leads to serious and life-long body and bone deformations (bowed legs, “boney necklace”, etc). As with everything, sunlight in moderation is good.

“to put in an effort and cut your hands open when you was a knife manually”

Is this poetry?