Since I've never had measels, mumps, polio, or any of the things my mom and grandparents had but I was spared because I was vaccinated, I've been thinking a lot about chicken pox and ppl who say it's a rite of passage since we had it as kids (I can't even get as far as grappling with ppl saying it's a kid's RIGHT to…

I had the opposite experience. The first time I had a non-Starbucks latte (or from similar places like whatever was in my campus student center) was during a trip to Seattle. I remember thinking "I have no idea what I was drinking in Starbucks but it clearly was not a latte, at least compared to this." It was such an…

If anyone's curious, I think I found the original "hit piece".

So that's what I thought too (I could have sworn I read it in an undergrad con law class), but the Internet tells me it was just randomly attributed to Holmes. Not the the Internet is always right.

I think the saying is "your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins" and while it's been attributed to all sorts of people, it seems to have been a slogan of sort for the temperance movement, the people who wanted the government to ban alcohol. I'm sure this guy is all for more gov't intervent— oh wait. Not…

I was helped this time around by setting an alert with VisualPing, which tracks changes on webpages. I set one up for JetBlue's weather alerts page and knew as soon as my city pair was listed. I called JetBlue and changed my flight to Thursday morning for free, and I got the make-up flight of my choice and won't have…

"The idea of 18-year-old me (with all of the crazy and stupid shit I used to believe at that age) having serious decision making authority over people's lives makes me shudder. " is also a good reason to not let 18-year-olds serve in the military. (though I agree with the person below (can't see who while typing this…

it's a podcast from Sarah Hoenig from This American Life. Over the course of a season she is reinvestigating a murder to see if the guy in jail actually did it. It's great, and we should totally have a groupthink thread (or main page!) to discuss it! Jump on board! There have been six episodes so it's still doable to…

just finished listening to yes,, please as an audio book and it was great and now I want to read it too (again?)

I'm reading Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and will be looking for a gripping novel next. ( recommendations that err on the literary fiction side, anyone?)

And they appear to have somewhat toned down the rainbow. As per my avatar, I object to the changes. They've better keep that horse.

I mean, each person has the shortcuts they are willing to take and the ones they aren't. For me, I hate peeling and crushing garlic, and these pop out with a push of a thumb, so "time it takes to open and extract" is about five seconds. I'm just not that speedy in my garlic prep.

I've had this worry a few times. I recently snapped at a car full of men who catcalled me. They said they just wanted to talk, and I yelled, "just because I'm walking down the street doesn't mean you have a right to engage with me." and then I worried that they would misread the situation and think that my issue was…

Crushed Garlic (or other herbs and spices) cubes.

yes, like how Mike Daisey, I think, hurt his cause by adding embellished parts to his otherwise very effective Foxconn monologue. http://m.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives…. But it seems so odd that a random person, as opposed to a performer, would fake something like this

I didn't see the years at first and thought that the non-appropriation magazine was the newer one. Silly me for thinking that in the last 40 years we would have progresses rather than regressed. Sigh.

Thanks! I like hearing that!

I had a terrible 29th birthday, for reasons unrelated to it being my birthday, but it ended with me in my childhood bed listening to my mom tell me about the day I was born. Of course I'd heard the story before, but it was still a wonderful balm, more so than I would have expected. But I think hearing it is enough. I…

INSANITY!

You didn't! I was worried that I came across as snarky and judge! We are totally on the same page here; don't worry I see that (and in a different iteration of the commenting system, I'd heart you!) As I just said in a different post, life has stages, not everyone goes through all the stages at all and certainly not…