I wonder if it's because gray hair often has a coarser texture, so it's harder to style, and therefore easier to wear short? Idk. My mom tries to grow her hair out every year or so, and inevitably gets sick of it and cuts it off again.

I partly blame the fact that I can't seem to take a good photo to save my life. I don't know if it's that I don't know what to do with my face, or if it's because my friends and family are all out to get me, but I usually feel that I look more attractive in the mirror, or on video, than I do in static images. (I'm…

I often incorporate it into food—a splash in some cake or brownie batter, or some crepes suzette. Mark Bittman has a black beans and rice recipe that calls for orange peel and orange juice or red wine, and would probably be amazing with a little triple sec tossed in. It'd probably be amazing in a strawberry-banana…

You sound like an awesome big sister, and I wouldn't be surprised if that coming out conversation gets a lot of "here's how awesome my big sister is" play with her friends someday.

One of the good things to come from my ex-boyfriend was the story about a female friend of his who complained that the guy she was seeing did the downward head press. My ex suggested that the next time the guy did it, she stop and ask him what experience qualified him to think he knew how to give a beej better than…

I feel like that's the recipe for pretty much any good wedding ever. But I have been to a lot of really lame white people weddings, so. Maybe y'all just have your priorities straight?

Well, I'd already looked at the engine. I think I was more just annoyed by how surprised he sounded that I was right. Also, the local Barney Fifes definitely have their own special brand of alpha male posturing going on. (I don't think they have any female officers working for them, currently, now that I think…

I've actually been in the process of making a bunch of quilt squares from sweaters I've unraveled. I had a bunch of sweaters that were gifts from my mom in high school. They were in good shape, but the styles were really dated. Rather than donate something that was a gift that I very much loved at the time, I…

It shows how insidious the message men are getting really is, that I have this problem all the time with my dad. I'd still describe him as being a feminist, but there's definitely a bit of a gendered divide in the labor in my parents' house, and he still does things like ignore me when I talk about having problems…

Paula's Choice has some good retinol and vitamin C products in the $40-$50 range—so, cheaper than most high-end anti-aging stuff, and sans-fragrance.. If you want to go for a high-powered option, I recently discovered that prescription generic tretinoin is cheaper than most mid-range OTC retinol/Retin-A products. …

I have a really lovely afghan knitted by my grandmother—the stitching is lovely, but it's made of fucking Red Heart, and it's white, light blue, and pepto-bismol pink. It's hideous and I treasure it.

Sigh. I'd take Hilary over another Republican, sure, and I think it'd be great to have a woman in the White House, but...I just wish that the Democrats had another stronger candidate. Not a big Hilary fan.

I was at some terrible steakhouse chain with a large group of people a couple years ago, one where the waitstaff periodically have to perform some sort of line dance. I was visiting my best friend from high school, and her older brother wanted to meet up with a bunch of his friends for his birthday. So I was there…

They would love you. And possibly not understand anything you say. At least, this is what happened when the local soccer league had this British soccer coaching camp come through. The parents were super friendly, but totally bewildered.

I was out on the town for a friend's bachelorette party, and the only one of us bridesmaids who got hit on was the very visibly pregnant designated driver. I did have a really lovely conversation about renewable energy with this hot Australian dude in the parking garage afterwards, though, and wound up getting his…

When I started drinking in college, it was with scotch and coffee. Because apparently I'm an 85 year old man.

Regarding the "don't bother with cheap mascara" thing—I've read in multiple different places that mascara is one of those products where the formulations don't vary much from high to low end, so that's one of the things you shouldn't really feel pressure to splurge on. I've heard a lot of heavy breathing over…

I regret not being there when my grandmother died. My parents knew it was coming, and I could have flown home a day sooner, but I had a class that I was afraid of missing. In retrospect, I should have just skipped the fucking class. These things are so tough. Thank you for sharing this.

Lactic acid might be the way to go, if you've got dry skin. You'll still get the exfoliating benefits, but it's a lot gentler and supposed to be good for dryness. I'm guessing you'd be best off with it in toner form? That way you're not rinsing off product, and you can still use a really emollient moisturizer, but…

Honestly, I'm judging her harder for saving recipes as word documents. Someone should introduce her to PepperPlate or Evernote or, god, anything. The SaveAs PDF function. Jesus.