The only nuns at the Catholic K-6 school my sister and I attended in the early to mid 90s were the librarian and the preschool teacher, a pair of sisters in real life as well as vocation. The preschool teacher was in her 70s and didn’t have the physical stamina or temperment to deal with young children. My sister…

Even in the more “progressive” parish my family attended in the late 80s and late 90s, tithing was seen as mandatory. It was in Minnesota that was attached to the school. Ironically, the head pastor was more progressive than some of the laypeople in the parish. I remember one teacher publicly shaming us if we forgot…

I’m pretty sure that the sandwich shop in #1 is Jimmy John’s and the store is one of the older ones in the Champaign-Urbana area.

Northern Illinois. There was talk of closing the camp down several times during the past 15 years, but it’s still operating. I believe that land was sold off to housing developers to prevent it from shutting down around the mid 2000s.

The change from door to door to selling at set points is a safety change. The girls are usually supervised by multiple adults when selling at a grocery store. I understand why most aren’t sold door to door anymore because of the difficulty of delivering the cookies and collecting the money.

I do remember when they were $2.50 a box back when I sold the cookies in the mid 90s. They had gone up to $3 when my sister sold them several years later. My mother was the troop co-leader and hated cookie selling time. At the time in the late 90s, about 30 cents a box went to the troop. The rest went to pay for the…

That would make sense considering it’s North Dakota.

I’m a recent Wisconsin resident who has a lot of family in Wisconsin. I’ve lived in Minnesota and Illinois, two states some small minded Wisconsinites love to take any chance to shit on. I’ve gotten used to the Bears/Vikings jokes, which don’t bother me because I never cared for either team. The college athletics digs…

As a recent Wisconsin resident, this is priceless. My dad is from Wisconsin and it was ironic hearing my mother deride them as Wisconsin hillbillies. This is coming from the woman whose family in Nebraska worships NASCAR and the Cornhuskers. Same woman also attended the University of Nebraska and went to most football…

Making the decision to have a child when you know there is a family history of mental illness, genetic disorders, and severe illness is something that should be up to you and your partner alone. I’ve made the choice not to have children because of mental illness that runs through my family and having a mother and…

For some in the pro-”life”/birth crowd, it seems to be a badge of honor to have a special needs child. Look at Sarah Palin and her youngest child who was more like a prop than a kid. In one parish my parents were part of, there was one family with an adult son with severe Down’s Syndrome. The young man was probably in…

As a customer and someone who appreciates the consistency and customer service from Starbucks, after the first couple times, the manager should have stepped in to defend the barista. Starbucks was my coffee place of choice for black coffee and tea up until earlier this year. I don’t like the new Teavana teas,…

She should think of the male journalist whose spot she took away when she got that show.

Schulz’s legacy is complicated to say the least. David Michaelis’ 2007 book Schulz and Peanuts got a mixed reception, possibly because it wasn’t the hagiography that the Schulz estate expected. The Schulz estate and United Features Syndicate, which holds copyright for Peanuts, gave him near complete access to Schulz’s…

I didn’t think Coven was that much of a mess. The first part was somewhat coherent and the characters were engaging. The last half felt forced and rushed. It had some fantastic performances from Bassett, Lange, Paulson, and Roberts.

My mother likes to buy kitchen things both in store and online, as well as bake. She thought a hot dog bun pan would be a great idea. I don’t think she has used it once since she bought it 4 years ago.

My mother started getting more interested in improving the quality of her already delicious pies several years ago. She had been using the same recipe for pie crust her mother has used for 50+ years, with some modifications, most notably Crisco instead of lard for health reasons. She started experimenting with pies…

I had a good laugh at the Hardee’s fish sandwich story. That guy has to be related to my dad in some way. When my mom would make fish that you could pair with tartar sauce, he could use up an entire container. She would ask him if he wanted a side of fish with the tartar sauce. When she’d serve fish when his family…

My late grandmother was the type that expected the $10 toaster, $5 coffeemaker, etc, to last 5 to 10 years, when because of their low price and quality, she’d have to replace them every year and a half. That annoyed her and she was the type to keep every box, instruction manual, and receipt to try to return it. It got…

I’m sorry for your daughter. I had similar issues in high school because I had an adult woman’s shape. My mother taught in the district and stood up for me. It also helped that the superintendent lived in our neighborhood, which helped.