Yes, for people who don't get the show I always recommend Tom and Lorenzo's recaps. They are amazing.

I always looked at both the male and female Mad Men characters as great examples of the victims of a patriarchal system. Most characters are unhappy because they're stuck doing things they don't want to do, or playing roles that are limiting or at times demeaning. (Before I give examples let me just say I don't have…

This is encouraging. It's good to know that others are farther along this process and that it is possible to resist or ignore the messed-up concepts of food, fat, and health in our culture.

This sounds like actual decent advice. I am in the process of retraining myself in how to eat. When I was a teen and young adult I suffered through years of dieting (generally 1200 calories a day, which is just above starvation level) and daily, manic exercise (and during this period I managed to just barely keep my…

I think one of those columns should be about the situation where someone is just complaining about their problem, they don't need you to solve it for them. My husband does this relatively often and it sounds like this is what is happening in this case. Woman complains (in probably a semi-amused, self-deprecating way)…

This school does have this level of Greek participation. 90% rush rate.

I cannot recommend this post strongly enough. Nailed it.

Please start that blog, I would read it! For some reason Disney fascinates me. The fake/real smiles... it's like a cult.

Matilda was my favorite too, I read my copy of the book until the spine fell apart. I always loved Disney (and henceforth Disney princesses) when I was little, but for some reason that never really translated into wanting to *be* a princess. I think I was lucky to grow up before all of this crazy "princess culture"…

I humbly request more batshit crazy Disney stories. Pretty please?

I think pretty much everyone thinks their siblings had it easier. :)

Huh. As the oldest I had the opposite trend. All of the discipline was spent on me and then by the time the younger ones were old enough to get into trouble, my parents were tired of bringing down the hammer and let them get away with WAY more crap.

This was also my first reaction.

The only thing I would add to what has already been said is that species are socially constructed (in a matter not entirely dissimilar to race). What I mean by this is that humans have created categories of animals, called them species, and then set about finding justifications for the categories we created. Now,…

Yay, I thought I was right! Anthro high-fives all around!

I agree. Everyone is chiming in with their personal recipes for looking young, which from my perspective totally misses the point. And sure, most of them are at least giving lip service to genetics and luck, but still everyone has to talk about sunscreen and etc.

Now, as a teacher who spends some time in class discussing dehumanization and why things like the Holocaust/slavery/etc occurred, I think there is value in realizing that everyone justifies their beliefs, everyone thinks they're the good guy, and that the Nazis were no different. But this ain't the way to go about it.

There's nothing wrong with it unless your wife tries to convince everyone that all women should pursue similar relationship dynamics with their husbands.

Ok. Here's my technique. Firstly, lots of water before bed. When you wake up and it's light out, get up, take some ibuprofen, and then go back to bed (set an alarm for 5:00 if you must in order to go back to sleep and give the pain meds some time to work). When you wake up for realsies, take the full-calorie athletic…

Ugh, no kidding. My hangovers now last days, it seems like.