Here in Michigan, I like a wool peacoat or a duffel coat (the kind with toggles) with a hood for doing stuff in the coldest winter months. If you get it slightly loose, you can layer a lot underneath to make it warmer and it’s still okay for doing activities like shoveling. It can look dressy enough for work, but…

Berkley, Mi and Oak Park, Mi are not Detroit. Drives me nuts about ICP, and their fans. I lived in Berkley, and it’s super white and super middle class, but still has Violent J fans visiting and annoying people at The Berkley Front (only decent bar in that town). Ugh.

P.S. I love the podcast Jolie. Thank you. Enough people maybe don’t say thank you for the amazing work you do helping us. I’ve been following you around since The Hairpin, lost track of you and found you again once or twice. Again, thanks!

Hey Jolie, I have a laundry related dilemma that is recurring and happened just today, again. I am lucky enough to have a washer and dryer in my basement, but the problem is the washer’s drain line (in the basement floor) keeps clogging and flooding my utility room. I am a renter, so I call my landlord and they send…

It’s pretty nice in Michigan if you don’t mind four seasons. But we are responsible for Betsy DeVos, so...

I’m so frustrated with white people complaining about illegal immigration when my ancestors (I’m white) and many of theirs came here illegally too.

Or waiting for those tees to drop to $5, which they do every other month. I live in those v- necks in light grey.

Starred for “uff da.”

I’m having my first coffee of the day, grumpy, and I must say I love the anger in this comment. Thank you. My bitchiness likes you.

Me too! If I had gotten mine in high school it would have saved a lot of money and five years of frustration when I was trying to find a birth control that wouldn’t trigger migraines or make me break out in cystic acne. Not fun.

I’m 7 years into a 10 year Paragard IUD. I love it for ease of mind and reliability, and I can’t be on hormonal birth control as it triggers my migraines. The insertion did hurt. I took ibuprofen before, but still spent the rest of the day in bed with the equivalent of awful menstrual cramps. For the first few…

Loud argument or domestic violence?

But you didn’t really answer the question of what to do if your dog bites you, and you know it’s up to date on vaccinations. I have a loveable klutz of a dog, and sometimes we rough house and she’ll nip me when going for a toy. It’s broken the skin enough to bleed once. I’m guessing I’m fine with a little…

I teach ESL to primarily East Asian learners, so for them, accent reduction is really key to being both understood clearly and avoiding discrimination. Communicating with other non-native speakers (for example their counterpart engineer in India) is very challenging, especially when both have thick accents.

Cleaning question: how do you de-funk a house from dog smell and housemate’s weed smell?

I only have herbs in the edible department: dill, chives, parsley, and basil. The dill is bolting now so I hope the swallowtail butterflies enjoy it.

I am a gardener, and I’m also a huge introvert. This week, a woman posted on Nextdoor that she had native wildflowers she wanted to get rid of to good homes. I am currently working on removing chunks of lawn in my backyard to make room for native meadow plants, so this was wonderful news. We arranged a date and…

I am away from my beloved black Labrador retriever today to attend a wedding, but it turns out our hotel allows large dogs. Wish I had known. At least when I was outdoors while my husband vaped, we met another hotel patron walking his beautiful black lab that’s was so similar to ours, we had a quick conversation and…

Counterpoint anecdote, I also attended a Midwest wedding today. Michigan. I expected my father in law, who was seated at my table for the reception, to make a Trump comment I disagreed with, as he is a mid-sixties white guy with conservative ideas. In fact, he actually went on a rant about how upset he was that…

My house has attic doors just like those without the outside latches. They swing open all the time if you open a door or window in another room. My guess is they are innocuous. I hope, at least.