Ok as a medievalist I need to make a minor correction. When you look at the life expectancy rate of pre-modern and early modern Europe, you need to take into account the high infant mortality rate. If an individual survived childhood, the life expectancy was 50-60 years old. Not great, but certainly better than the…

I have nothing to add except Jessica Williams is the fucking greatest and I will follow that woman in any endeavor she sets out to do.

Same. And even then, I'll probably still tip 18% because maybe they were just having a bad day?

Representative from Seattle University class of '08 would like Princeton Mom to Just Stop, Please.

I've seen photos of people who survived Auschwitz who have gone back. They seem like the exception to the rule. There is something wonderfully victorious about a picture someone who survived literal hell coming back years later. I think of them as the ultimate "Fuck you" to the Nazis.

Saaaaaame. I always keep my shoulders and knees covered in cathedrals, my head covered in mosques, and my shoes off in Buddhist temples. It's the fucking polite thing to do. I also try and speak very softly and keep my hands close to my body (I'm paranoid about breaking or smudging something). It's always important to…

So it's a glass floor? No matter how much a white guy sucks, he still can't descend any lower? Anecdotally, that seems like how it works :P

Me, right now:

Preach. I have a cat. I will happily refer to her as my furry buddy, but she is not, NOT my child.

I had a life threatening complication from the pertussis vaccine (encephalitis). I put that out there because I want everyone to know that inspite of my brush with death, I am with Roald Dahl 100%. Vaccinations save lives. Yes, I had an awful complication. I am, however, alive (last time I checked). I am a fully…

I've become convinced that Michelle Rodriguez would play a great Ramboesque type character. The major difference between her and Stallone would be that she can, like. act.

As someone who had a near-fatal reaction to a vaccine when I was a child, I reserve the right to kick anti-vax people in the shins. I feel that it's my consolation prize for the years of physical therapy I endured. I got encephalitis from the pertussis vaccine and I still, to this day, get vaccinated against…

Exhibit 47 of why I could never study contemporary art. One of the perks of studying medieval art is that the creators are long, long dead.

It used to take 5 minutes give or take to be photographed. Imagine having to hold a smile for that long. It's why a lot of sitters are seated or are in a relatively neutral pose. Often, the only time a photograph would be commissioned would be after a person had died (yes, there are lots of corpse photos from the…

I thought about applying for that when I was in high school because hey, money! and college is expensive. I got through 5 pages of the Fountainhead before abandoning the project. Needless to say, I did not apply for the scholarship :P

She does get a lot of legitimate inquiries from people who are interested in pathology, etc. She likes to encourage people, especially women (there are very few women pathologists) to go into her field. Obviously, the families of the deceased need to be able to get in touch with her and her partner.

My mother is a medical examiner. She has people contact her about wanting to observe an autopsy. She has to explain every time that autopsies are not a form of entertainment, that the person she is performing an autopsy on was once alive and has family, friends etc still living, that it's a gross violation of that…

I thought I was the only one!!! "Hubby" is the linguistic equivalent of nails on the chalkboard to me. It doesn't help that everyone I know who uses has made the my eyes roll to the back of my head on more than one occasion.

I assume everyone who was raised by the Disney corporation and a feral childhood to a greater or lesser degree.

"Also Tom's nonGF is the absolute worst, I hope she dies. Death by Bates would be ideal."