I just had 36 (I think?) high schoolers move onto my floor. In twenty minutes I'm holding a meeting to tell them all the rules and such. I'm already exhausted, and I still have to be cheerful and energetic for another three hours. Agh.

Glad to hear it. I'm also glad you're doing what's best for your family, since it sounds like this isn't a home where the dog should be.

That's fair. My thought was that maybe something weird was going on with the dog since it sounds like this is a recent thing, but I've also never had a dog that bites (at least, not hard enough to do any damage). And if I were a parent with a small child in the area, I would probably agree with you without…

Honestly, I'd just start calling around. I know they're out there; I used to go to one at my college's counseling center who would see me after work hours when I was working full-time, and sometimes he even had (non-student) clients after me.

Basically, play nice! Make thoughtful/entertaining/gif-tastic comments and be a constructive member of the community. Good comments get recommended by other commenters, and enough recommendations/a recommendation from an approved commenter will pull your comment out of the grey zone. (Sometimes it feels like you're…

Please talk to some shelters first. If you've had the dog for 5 years, waiting a little longer won't hurt, and this isn't a decision that should be made lightly. The only reason to put down a healthy dog should be if he's a major threat to others, which it sounds like he isn't—in 5 years, he's only bitten two…

I'm sure there are "Southern pride" things to be said and there were definitely reasons for the Civil War that weren't strictly racist. That said, there's also such a huge racist connotation that it's just never okay. You can't call someone "faggot" and then say "oh, I meant you were a literal bunch of sticks" EVEN…

It sounds like you already know that your doctor and her scale are full of shit and that her lecture was clearly unnecessary. As someone who is currently trying not to fall back into disordered eating herself, I know it's hard, but hang in there. What you're doing works and not only does starving yourself not work,…

I'm also a bitter person but having trouble finding specific ones I hate the most. So until I come up with some, I'm leaving this here, because it's relevant.

If this is the case, then I may be living on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

Come now. He's kind of oddly-shaped, sure, but look at that face!

My little sister was terrified of Sam. Like, would cover her eyes and shriek when she saw pictures.

My favorite story about hand-washing (or the lack thereof), courtesy of a middle school friend:

I have considered it, rather a lot. My personal opinion is that Vice didn't intend it as art, but even if it was intended as such, it was not done very well.

Being published online doesn't reduce them as art, and if you reread my comment you'll note that I very specifically take issue with the presentation of these images as fashion. I actually say nothing whatsoever about them being published online.

The internet tells me he was born with a severe cleft lip and palate. Probably best to focus on attacking his ridiculous idiocy.

Gemmabeta and PineappleWoman hit most of the issues: money, time, distance/lack of access, lack of information, not knowing about the pregnancy... The reasons aren't the focus of the piece, but this NYT piece a while back touched on a lot of them.

I'm vegetarian and I swear one of my friends has asked that question about four times now. My answer is always "um... everything but meat?"

I think for me it's both. The commercialism does rankle me, and I think that's the most immediately bothersome thing about it. But the deeper level of it is that while we as a society do celebrate celebrity suicide, we at least pretend not to make it a glamorous thing, whereas the Vice spread did that on the…

To me that makes it worse, no matter how long and storied the history of controversy in fashion/art is. Vice knows that controversy sells and attracts attention (and from what I can tell, is no stranger to using it as a sales tactic). Controversy with the goal of starting dialogue is one thing, but controversy with…