I lived in a student residence that sometimes had ethnic-themed dinner menus. One of them was Soul Food Night, at which this white Northerner developed an instantaneous passion for collard greens, even when they were served from a cafeteria steam table.

The people who are recruiting them know just which emotional buttons to push. They're certainly not telling girls "Join us and be raped or forced into marriage, deprived of all familiar comforts, rights, and freedoms, and be trapped in an situation rife with brutality and warfare."

When I was eight, I asked for and got a pogo stick for Christmas. Although I was never all that athletic or coordinated, I learned pretty quickly how to ride the thing. In fact, it took me all of a day to get pretty good at it.

Are these people all fourteen years old?

I'm neither skinny nor fat — I'm usually a size 12, sometimes a 14. But I'm also a shade under 5'2", so I have very few options in places that don't carry petite sizes. I'm also somewhat thick in the thigh, so the size alone doesn't necessarily mean anything; a pair of pants that fits my butt perfectly might look like…

Mr. Sububi and I went through three very tough years in the beginning. In retrospect, I think most of it was because our families of origin had very different dynamics. Nothing terrible, but EXTREMELY different communication styles. We'd been a couple for two and a half years, and had cohabited for most of the year…

Well, since I hate tortillas and always order the tortilla-free bowl instead, I can console myself with the thought that I'm at least saving 300 calories!

People who do this should be swatted with a 10' by 10' solid concrete flyswatter.

My mother had miserable hot flashes starting in perimenopause, had her uterus and ovaries removed at 51, went on those huge high-dose estrogen horse pills (literally!) for several years, got breast cancer, had to stop the estrogen supplements, and was subsequently plagued by hot flashes into her 80s.

Lactose intolerance is similar. Fermented/aged dairy products, or those that are mostly fat, are little or no problem. Skim milk, fresh cheese, etc. = Lactaid or no fun at all.

Cooking has helped me through a lot of life stresses, especially those involving loneliness. I'm currently dealing with a family issue (aging parent in poor health) that has required me to travel, and to spend my evenings alone. I can't do a lot of scratch cooking where I am, but I can prepare simple meals here, and…

Incidentally, I have a friend who actually writes good fanfiction about her favorite TV shows (this person is an excellent writer who has published original fiction as well). But I've never known any of her readers to indulge in that kind of hate. I think the haters are motivated by the same kind of rage that spurs…

I'm a Cumberbatch fan and I do find him attractive, possibly because most Hollywood faces of both sexes are completely forgettable to me, and his isn't. What I don't understand is the imaginary-boyfriend-plus-fanfic-bait thing. I thought that most people got over that kind of thing by age twelve or so, presuming that…

Wonderful. Concentration camp chic. How could this possibly go wrong?

Restaurant workers messing with a complete asshole's food is kind of like capital punishment. There are many of us who don't support it and think it's a barbaric thing to do, but there are times when it happens to someone that you just can't feel even a little bit sorry for.

I eat and drink pretty much everything, so when I invite someone to dinner for the first time, my first question is always "Is there anything that you can't or don't eat or drink?" If a guest doesn't consume certain things, I don't pry into the reasons why; I just take that information into account. To me, that's just…

Wow, you've eaten hakarl? That's one of the few foods that I'm actually afraid of.

I love, love, love, LOVE huitlacoche. It looks weirder than hell, but it's freaking delicious; if you like mushrooms, you'll probably appreciate it. When Mr. Sububi and I vacationed at a resort in Mexico, I found an excuse to make huitlacoche part of my breakfast ever single day. It's especially good in omelets.

Seriously. For someone who just wants to get smashed fast without being burdened by anything too flavorsome, vodka shots are a lot more effective.

Exactly! I always have more of a taste for ice cream in the winter than in the summer. When the weather's hot, I'd rather have a juice popsicle.