One of the most horrifying things I’ve ever read was the story of Christopher Bizilj, the 8-year-old boy from Connecticut who accidentally shot himself to death in 2008 because his father and the staff of a gun show allowed him to fire an Uzi. The incident was also witnessed by the little boy’s 11-year-old brother.…

I’m sure that any time little Donny Trump couldn’t get promoted to the next grade on his own merits, his daddy bought a promotion for him.

... Donald Trump, a desiccated, hollowed-out pumpkin stuffed with wasps ....

She once told an interviewer that having an alternative plan was an admission of failure. This is not someone I would trust to remain in touch with reality.

Obligatory Entomological Pedanticism(tm) here: “Lady beetle” is often used synonymously with “ladybird beetle” or “ladybug”. Burying beetles, like those above, are in a different taxonomic family. This is analogous to the difference between cats and dogs.

It has plenty to do with rape culture — the two crimes share a root. Someone — either a jealous ex or an obsessed fan — felt that he owned a woman’s body and life, and wasn’t going to let her take it away from him.

Now I’ve got a terrible earworm of “Yellow bird, high up in banana tree ....”

When I first read that quote, all I could think was, “Holy Zarquon, this woman is really about eleven years old.”

Beat me to it. Damn!

Agreed. I’ve never had it, but two friends of mine had nasty encounters with that condition.

It’s reputed to increase the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome after infection, but that’s still pretty rare. Supposedly, many people who contract Zika have few or no symptoms at all.

They did, although “sweet and savory” was a better way to descibe them. They made celery, tomato, and mixed-vegetable Jell-O briefly in the 1960s.

I’m pulling for Al Franken, who would dismantle Trump with relish and maybe a little mustard. Plus, he’s from a state that has a Democratic governor; if Minnesota is a state where the governor appoints a senator’s replacement, that would be another advantage.

Tents, sleeping bags, and alcohol left behind? Their parents must be rich as hell.

Is there anything in this report that’s even remotely new?

I think she was around 12 in the book. Her mother delivered her straight to Woltz’s casting couch. Also, earlier in the story, Woltz was also described as being attracted to “very young” girls. Hagen (I think it was him in the book) sees the mother and daughter leaving the house afterwards, with the daughter stunned…

One bottle of Clinique foundation. One bottle of slightly darker L’Oreal foundation for those tan days. An old tube of bronzer that I should throw out. A couple of powder blushes. One or two lipsticks, and a few dark powder eyeshadow colors because I look better with smudged powder for eyeliner than I do with either…

I think the airlines should require each tarantula to purchase a ticket before flying!

Nope, you’re not! I’m a biologist and I love arthropods. (Well, most arthropods.) Tarantulas are not especially dangerous to humans. Not that I’d want one running up my leg on an aircraft, but I’d much rather have a tarantula in my lap than a house fly in my soup.

I’m long past their demographic, but when Forever 21 started advertising their imminent presence in malls some years back, I immediately presumed from their name that they were purveyors of sturdy doubleknits, in dozens of coordinated ice-cream colors, to the octogenarian set. (Anyone who has ever encountered a…