My experience with mineral foundation is that it's exactly like not using makeup. As in, it does absolutely nothing for my skin one way or the other. I like Bare Escentuals' eyeshadow because of its many colors, but I still find the pressed stuff much easier to control. Plus, I don't have to scrub the spillage out of…

Oh, yeah, the Harvard-Dudley bus! Some years back, I was waiting to board it at MIT in the company of my then-boyfriend. The first bus was crowded, and the driver only wanted to let people off without taking on more passengers. He communicated the concept of "Please wait for the next bus" with inarticulate grunts and…

I don't have kids, but I've had two open pelvic surgeries. The first required pretty much the same incision they do with a C-section; it went through the abdominal wall and into the uterus. In the second, I had my uterus and ovaries removed outright. I don't know whether it was the incision into the uterus itself the…

I've always loved the story of a friend who, while running errands with her toddler, swore under her breath when another driver rudely honked at her. Not only did the kiddo immediately pick up the words, but she associated them with honking horns — and repeated them on cue the next time she was in the car with her…

I don't see this ever having the customer's desired effect. That charming and sophisticated pickup-artist persona is bound to shine through the prose of the customer's profile, in the same sense that lumps of cat crap shine through the litter box.

Great. A lady bro.

I've never expected a "dream job" — just hoped for a job that I liked a lot that paid okay. I've had two. Both started out great and then fizzled — the first because the department expanded and I was laterally "promoted" into doing by far the least interesting parts of its work, and the second because it was abruptly…

A subset of boomers/Jonesers, maybe, but not all. The filthy-rich are a minority at any age. And people who have the most power in political and economic institutions are typically the ones who have been best at working the system for the longest time, so it's not surprising they're at peak power when they're over…

One of my inflexible rules: Never take medical advice from a woman who thinks that her food can turn to toxic sludge in her uterus.

Mine is that from age 17 to age 27, I was a quirky, snarky songwriter who almost totally dodged any impulse to write love songs (which have always bored me for some reason, although I'm far from asexual.) Haven't done much with it in the intervening decades, though. Maybe I'll pick it up again when I'm 75.

I'm the complete opposite. If I drink ice-cold things, I experience pain from my mouth to my navel and I have trouble catching my breath — and that's on top of my agonizingly cold-sensitive teeth. I hated ice cream until I was around 16 and developed enough oral dexterity to eat it without extreme pain. I usually ask…

A few decades ago I had an acquaintance who was overall a pretty nice person — smart, professional, hard-working, all the things you'd want in a friend. Unfortunately, she hooked up with an entitled, immature, substance-abusing, self-centered idiot — and eventually married him.

Wow, they still make Chunky bars? Those were my favorite when I was a kid. (I'm not especially in love with raisins, but there are two ways I really do like them: One, with chocolate; two, in mince pie.)

I'm 57, and here's my experience: Best memorization skills, ages 5-10. Fastest retrieval skills: Ages 5-45. Most artistic creativity: Ages 17-32. First realization that I could learn instead of memorize: Age 36, when I started grad school. Finally learned how to best juxtapose ideas so that I actually understand…

"Rattlesnake roundups" have been around in some of the snakier parts of the U.S. for some time. They're notorious for killing appalling numbers of snakes, mainly via callous capture and transportation methods that also expose the hunters to a vastly increased risk for snakebite. The people who milk snakes for venom at…

Ah. I should probably put trigger warnings on my insect references. I adore bugs, and have a special place under my carapace for very large ones. My husband and I visited NZ in 1997, but didn't have a chance to travel to any of the islands that actually have giant weta. I desperately wanted, at the very least, a piece…

In one of the strangest and silliest exchanges I've ever had with anyone about food orders, I was actually the customer. It was about 10 years ago. I had attended a scientific conference at a small Midwestern field station, and some of us attendees signed up to have dinner in their dining hall so we could continue…

New Zealand can be pretty badass in its own way. It's the home of giant weta, not to mention tree-sized nettles.

And didn't she get angry and defensive when she was called on buying desserts from a real bakery and passing them off as her own? As I recall, she pretty much called commenters stupid for presuming that a "bakery" actually did its own baking.

Even as much as I hate cigarettes, I'd pay to see that!