Exactly. A lot of us somewhat older people (and not just in the South) sometimes used ethnic slurs when we were kids, almost always because we were mimicking some older idiot in the family or neighborhood who did it, and in our naivete we thought that it was the way we were supposed to talk. Then we grew up, and…

Yay! Open a can, mix the contents with butter, and serve. Now that's cookin'!

This CDD stuff is a Poe, right? Because if it isn't, whoever came up with it should be on some serious meds.

My spouse and I (who are flexitarian types, and trying to watch our cholesterol) just had one of our fave summer dinners, and it's vegan: Baked tofu, white rice-quinoa blend, and a kick-ass green salad with olive oil, vinegar, soy sauce, and herbs. Sprinkle the tofu with a little soy sauce or salt, dip it in sriracha…

My dad was a much beloved uncle and an emotionally absent father. He and my mom had lots of nieces and nephews, all on Mom's side; none of Dad's sibs chose to reproduce. My cousins — almost all older than me — all loved him, but something seemed to have shut down when he became a father. We didn't fight, but he…

Manscaping really irritates me. Especially when the guy has facial hair (which, unlike body hair, I can take or leave.) Maybe I'm finally old enough to be old-fashioned, but when I see an adult male trying to make his body resemble that of a 10-year-old boy, I just get creeped out for some reason.

It's perfectly normal to learn the details of your job after being hired. As in — while you're being paid for your work. It's an employer's responsibility to provide some on-the-job training, whether the employee is flipping burgers or sequencing genomes. Yes, it's your responsibility as an employee to learn those…

Wow, people actually still print resumes on paper? I haven't seen a job application in years that wasn't required to be submitted electronically.

I wrote my dissertation while not only 40 pounds overweight (most of which I gained while in grad school) but also teaching a double-normal course load AND walking bent over with a weapons-grade case of endometriosis. I challenge this guy to do a similar amount of work under the same circumstances. (Since he's…

This just begs to be mobbed with photos of linoleum, dust bunnies, toilets, and other boring inanimate objects.

I actually really liked the character-centered episodes, but the end of the season left so many hanging threads that at least one more season of AD is obviously needed — and would benefit from a return to the ensemble approach.

Ah, the Logs! They rocked when I was an undergrad there. There was also a women's a capella group called the Keytones in the seventies, but they never took off, unless someone has revived the concept in the meantime.

While a dry-ice "bomb" of that size could certainly hurt someone (and IMO fully warrants firing the employee in question), every biology and chemistry student in the country is probably cracking up laughing. When I was a grad student, we used to make those things all the time, except we made them in plastic Eppendorf…

To me it would be just another house. I just don't understand superstition at all. If a crime took place in a house, it's not the house's fault.

Meeting a spouse at work is practically a tradition in my family. My parents met at work, and their marriage lasted until my father's death 46 years later. One of my cousins met her husband at work and they've been happily married for three decades. I met my wonderful husband at work in 1985, and we've been married…

If you saw what looked like a big stinger, it probably wasn't. Most likely your visitor was a female ichneumonid wasp, and you saw its ovipositor (egg-laying tube). If you want to see a spectacularly long ovipositor on an ichneumonid, Google the genus name Megarhyssa. Those ladies have ovipositors that look like they…

The name "Forever 21" cracks me up. The first time I heard of the store, I seriously assumed — just from its name — that it would be one of those places that sells elastic-waist doubleknit pants in ice cream colors to the 80-and-over crowd.

I'm impressed with the fortitude of anyone — male, female, old, young, whatever — who can endure the torment of wearing a hat without cursing like a drunken pirate.

I don't care one way or the other.

If we're to be expected to dress up just for routine ventures out of the house, then someone needs to invent dressy clothes that don't feel like one is wearing a portable rack, iron maiden, and waterboard at the same time.