An extremely Catholic friend of mine once explained that hormonal birth control caused abortions because it prevented implantation. For her, preventing implantation of a fertilized egg was exactly the same as having an abortion (and consequently murdering a baby).

Agreed! We had plastic cups printed with our names and the date and put little bags of Star Wars shaped chocolates in them. We got the silicone ice cube molds and did chocolate X-wings, white chocolate R2-D2, and mint chocolate Han Solo in carbonite, plus a couple of large butterscotch Millennium Falcons. People loved…

I'm an American, and I hear that phrase plenty. I think it's pretty common here, at least in the South.

You also know from part 2 that the number of WB+BB = a perfect square, and that the number of YB + DB = a triangular number (which is to say, something that can be arranged in an equilateral triangle; i.e., 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, ...).

Husband: "What are you looking at?"

I think so, yes.

Starbucks, middle of the afternoon. Exam week. Everyone is tired, but there is a lull in the action for once.

Yes! There's no generic version, and it counts as a separate form of birth control because of the method of delivery. They cannot make you take generic pills orally because that is a different method of delivery and thus is not considered a replacement.

Result: Begonia

I wore metallic gold because I'm not a huge fan of white. I had originally threatened to wear purple, and my family freaked out, but it turns out I liked the gold one better.

I feel like what we have here is bigotry upheld by the fact that people are bad at statistics.

When I was a senior in a Catholic high school, I worked at a Papa John's pizza in a very nice neighborhood run by an evangelical general manager. For whatever reason, my boss thought I should read Left Behind, perhaps because I was a 18-year-old girl heading off to college very shortly.

When we use "plain English" to describe scientific concepts, people often get confused. The colloquial definitions of "work," "momentum," and "force," for example, are far more general than the very specific and mathematical definitions physicists ascribe to those words. People hear the word "theory," and it means…

Why why why can't these people take off their shoes during the fifteen minutes that they were in the security line? Why is it a surprise for them when they get to the conveyor? There are always helpful TSA agents who keep repeating what people need to do. A fellow traveler will also tell you what you need to do (so…

Despite the desire of the tabloids to accuse Kate of hiding another pregnancy, it seems that she'd be unlikely to be able to do so, considering the likelihood of hyperemesis.

Confession: for awhile, I thought One Direction and OneRepublic were the same band, and I was super confused about how varied their music sounded. I chalked it up to the band being completely manufactured.

If the moon was full, it rose at sunset.

As a bride, I approached my recent wedding as an excellent excuse to party with old friends. So did my old friends. A rousing, well-fed, well-boozed delightful time was had by all.

I worked as a college professor for awhile, and students would drag themselves to class sick if they didn't have a doctor's note. So I'd throw them out, if I caught them in time. "Go home," I'd tell them. "There are eighty people in this classroom who don't want what you have. Get notes from a friend. I'll post things…

I found out a friend of mine in an MMO was colorblind when he whispered me asking what color some linked pants were. This led to a discussion as to whether they'd look okay with his current boots. Confused, I wondered why he wanted to know. Apparently, not only are women less likely to be colorblind, they're less…