Oooh, that's kind of a major etiquette breach! Nobody should be invited to the shower who isn't invited to the wedding, precisely because it does equate to a pretty tacky gift grab. If you really want to help your cousin out in establishing her household, just pick something inexpensive off her registry and have…

(NB: I use fertility awareness!) The problem with the "typical use" numbers for fertility awareness methods (FAM) is that generally, the studies count having sex on a known fertile day as a "typical use" failure, when actually it's just not using the method at all. To compare it to condom use: it's not analogous to…

Look, I am not unfamiliar with weird fandom and fic. At all. People like weird things! I get it! But this is just.

Yeah, this seems about right. https://twitter.com/P_Tyson_Nguyen

Those were special times. "Wild west" is definitely an apt descriptor — not the sanitized, shiny Instagrams of today's teens! Fandom Wank's heyday is probably my favorite internet era.

Aw, you just filled me with a wave of nostalgia for terrible Snape MPREG fanart. Those were halcyon days.

You can get a LifeHammer, which is well under purse size and designed to allow quick escape in case of an accident. I know about this product because a couple of weeks ago my dad texted me out of the blue, "I'm sending you a LifeHammer. Be safe." and the next day it showed up in the mail. It was simultaneously…

I am both deeply amused and grudgingly respectful of this policy.

Gross. Once, when my husband and I were first dating — as in, within the first three months or so, I think — I was at an extended family gathering and they starting ribbing my husband about a birthmark he has that is apparently infamous. It is a large round one placed squarely in the middle of his butt cheek. At…

Ew! What a terrible question, regardless of your answer! What were they expecting?!?!

That may be true (I'm not informed enough to know either way). But this generation has seen many of their parents and acquaintances end up hopelessly underwater, their equity wrecked, and/or be foreclosed on, almost in the blink of an eye. It will take years, often decades, for these people to recover and make it…

Right? I actually love that about renting. I'm not picky and can make do in lots of different spaces, and damn if I don't love noticing that the screen door is broken in the morning — and calling my landlord on my way to work and NOT HAVING TO DEAL WITH IT. While having a good, responsive landlord is obviously the…

There are a shocking number of entry-level (and I do mean entry-level, like receptionist or bottom-of-the-ladder clerical work) positions, particularly in major metro areas, that flat-out require a bachelor's and are probably about 90% likely to hire someone with a Master's. No joke. Now, the issue of the glut of…

Exactly. The previous paradigm was, you get a job and stick with it for decades, putting your time in an making your way up the ladder. Now even landing a full-time job with benefits is more or less a crapshoot, and even then the chances of having any potential for advancement are minimal (after all, the middle-aged…

It was in previous generations. If the past ten years have taught us anything, it's that real estate is no longer the sure bet it used to be.

You are a beautiful treasure. I will use this spin at every possible opportunity.

One of my deepest, most shameful pleasures is eating leftover dessert for breakfast. Birthday cake, bread pudding, pie. So forbidden. So delicious.

That's actually really cool. I know it plays into so many stereotypes, but while I consider myself a reasonably intelligent and informed person, I know NOTHING about cars. Seriously nothing, beyond "make sure the oil gets changed!" and "rotating tires does something good!". My parents were clueless as well; I just…

Now I am as much a lover of a huge traditional breakfast spread as anyone, but I have been known to make a smoothie or two on occasion as well. The trick is finding an ingredient combo that you really love. I am a huge fan of oatmeal, banana, and peanut butter with a dash of vanilla and cinnamon. It's reallllly…

Because two breakfasters would never accomplish anything! You need a motivator in every couple. Otherwise it's lingering over omelettes for hours!