Oh, it's not that they don't respect my preference as much as they don't even think about it. Parents do it, too. The kids are Southerners so when they speak to any female teacher it comes out sounding like "Mizz" no matter whether they are saying Mrs. or Ms. When they write my name it's about evenly divided…

Right, I didn't say otherwise, so I don't really understand your comment.

The Easter Bunny was at the Petsmart near me two or three weekends ago. The guy in the costume had to finally take off the head because the store was full of freaked out dogs!

I work in a school. At both the elementary and secondary levels I've had women complain about "Ms." It's really not be limited to any particular age group. There are also women who are unmarried who will insist up on "Miss." The standard at both the school and district level is Mrs. and Ms. which, of course,…

Yes, that's what I'm saying — basing an obituary on contributions from one of her children may have skewed what was written. You may be right about the first name thing back in the earlier days of Brill's career, but in every place I have worked since 1985 it is par for the course for women who are married to be…

Yeah, I read all the time about what suits Obama and Biden wear and what pastel golf shirt Rush Limbaugh has chosen today. My feeble lady-brain is capable of realizing that women are the regular recipients of comments about their clothing choices and men are not. That focus on women's clothing reinforces the idea…

As a teacher, I'm surprised that anyone reads more than the five books a year I force them to read. (And I don't delude myself that most of them read those, either.) Out here in Lily White Land more than 90% of the kids I teach will proudly tell you that they haven't read a book since about fourth grade, no…

Exactly. In fact, spend time with middle-schoolers (or high-schoolers) pretty much anywhere and you will see why this is news, sadly.

Does it matter if your father remembers who the secondary or tertiary (or even the primary) characters in a Harry Potter book were?

I vote we don't worry about what women wear anymore than we worry about what men wear and focus on what they think and do instead.

The full obituary has a quote from her son which indicates that she preferred to be called "Mrs. Brill" (rather than Ms., I suppose) and another quote attributed to her by the same son that she believed, "Good husbands are harder to find than good jobs." Perhaps her son influenced the obituary writer's take on his…

Thank you!

Ah, you may be just the person who can solve a bit of a mystery for me! I used to live in Jeddah and I never heard women's black garments called burqas. I believe they were called something more like "abaya." (Please note that I'm spelling that phonetically from memory so I could be all wrong.) In fact, I never…

Yes, that's me exactly. If I could just chop my stomach off I'd look like well-nigh perfect.

Imagine my surprise to see this article reference the University of Michigan's Longitudinal Study of American Youth which, apparently defines Gen-X as "Americans aged 30-50." Here I am at 50 and I all along I've been pretty sure that made me some kind of late Baby Boomer. Either I've been wrong all along or I can't…

Window dressing, in my opinion, until he actually does something that's more than just good press and/or a photo opportunity. And anyway, probably 90% of the world takes the bus so I don't really see that as a particular mark of poverty or humility. But if he turns out to be different that will be great.

I stay away from any pants that hit "at the natural waist" (God, I hate that label!) Pants that button around my bellybutton are good and I have luck with ones that zip on the side, too. By and large, though, I've found it's all about the right top. Usually things that are straight, (kind of like a tunic but not…

Having children is way more expensive to society than obesity because you are increasing the population. People who procreate are definitely "costing everyone more." On a more serious note, though, an observer can't know that any individual overweight person is more likely to be unhealthy than the thinner person…

No, because I am tall and had the pot belly thing going back when I was a skinny child and teenager. Now that I am pleasantly plump it's even bigger and I have been asked if I'm pregnant on more than one cringe-worthy occasion. My nieces and my sisters also have the same problem and, since we are all different…

One could argue that people who choose to have children, ride motorcycles, and engage in some sports are more likely to require medical care, too, but we don't. Do you think we should?