@Ulookinatmyjunk, JOC: Yep. I can't drink anything with aspartame. It pretty much makes me look like the Joker. I never knew what a migraine was until I had something with that stuff.

@Ack: Right. Plus: taking on Oprah? What is he, nuts? And...is that the sound of posters of Chris Brown snapping off the walls at a prestigious boarding school in SA? I think so.

@chafina: I was a little peeved that I had to scroll for so long, but yes, the green and the gold, baby!

Wonderful advice. If you can work a room (reasonably, not like the Energizer Bunny), it makes everyone else feel at ease.

Salander would no doubt have some choice words on this.

@AuntieBee: Bravo. Close reading FTW!

@SmaženýSýr: (I mean, especially if you weren't a front-row person in high school. Comma fail!)

@andromedeia: Be a front-row person, even/especially if you weren't in high school. And speak up! :)

cough cough moratorium cough cough /unemployed copyed

It's Fort Carson (for the tag and header).

@dridirtitini: Yes, I've done this lots. I'm now more outgoing than I used to be. Find interest groups locally and join them. Be a good friend. Reach out. Join professional groups. Repeat. Also—find Jezzies in your town.

@labyrinthine IS DOING THIS: Basically every dude between 4 and 60 wears manpris in Europe. Trust me, they are just as baffled at American guys' love of khaki.

@FraggleIraq: Astoria, but it gets sketchy east of Steinway. Otherwise, good food and affordable rent/groceries/dining out.

@SmaženýSýr: *goes to order new prescription for glasses* Sorry. My mistake.

That's not Jamie Oliver. It's her boyfriend, Jay Barrymore. They picked up a copy of his cookbook, not the dude himself.

@FurrierAndIves: He's there for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Or, was there.

For whatever it's worth, TNS Infratest, the company that did the survey, is German.

@JZee: And here I was thinking that it looks exactly like mine—normal.

Anyone else catch the NY Times story sympathizing with Mrs. Madoff? Newspapers are going down in flames, and this is the kind of stuff they run? You are trying my patience, NY Times!

@Understater: There are lovey-dovey couples everywhere... It is painfully touristy (but so are Florence and Rome), but also amazing. How touristy it'll be depends on when you go. Are you going through/by Belgium at all? Stop in Bruges and you'll get the northern-Venice effect, sorta.