So what would you consider to be a sufficiently genuine apology?

I love it when I read an article on here and halfway through I stop, scroll up, smile, and go, "yup, Lindy West."

I think that's a possibility. I'm just shy of 32 and remember the obsession with Hillary's hair as a thing (remember her headbands?!). I was 11 when Bill was first elected, and I feel like I was a bit unusually interested in politics at that age (I went on to major in political science in college and get a law…

This is an appropriate reason/excuse to use when one notices a female acquaintance or colleague's new haircut but not a male's new haircut.

My son is 2, and he uses our gadgets. In fact he has his own iPod touch (actually my old iPhone 3GS minus the SIM card). We don't let him use it all the time, but it sure is handy on long car trips and when he wants to just chill out and watch an episode of his favorite cartoons before nap time.

What is it with small children wanting to stand on the strangest things? In our case it's not the electronics (thankfully! although I'm a little suspicious about how my Kindle's screen got broken...). But our two year old will try to stand on blocks, on toys, on his dinner plate when he's done eating. Kids are…

This requires some planning and stealth, but look puzzled for a second, then grin impishly and reach over and hold down the "up" arrow on his machine. It'll take him a few seconds to respond, and by that time, he's sprinting (and so are you — away from him).

I guess my response would be that I don't not give gifts to people just because they are my coworkers. That is, if I'm actually pretty close with them, I will give them a gift. But I don't give gifts to all of my coworkers just because they are my coworkers and I see/interact with them daily.

Here's the thing though. If you aren't driving too fast for conditions, and you leave yourself plenty of distance and time to slow and stop, regular braking will probably be effective most of the time too.

It really depends on the age of the baby, but I agree with kcunning that getting the baby its own seat (unless the baby is so small — like under 3 months — that you really can foresee sitting through the whole flight with the baby on your lap). We flew with our son at Christmas last year when he was 14 months, and he…

I was just about to type this. It is what we were taught in taekwondo when breaking boards. It is the tiny little piece of random knowledge that I have that makes me feel most confident I could break someone's kneecap or ribs if needed. Or kick down a door.

Yes, you've missed something. This is funny.

Lindy West, one of these days I will die of you being funny.

Caudata. Google search for "photosynthetic vertebrate" revealed a type of photosynthetic salamander. A visit to Wikipedia let me click through the taxonomy from Phylum Chordata to Subphylum Vertebrata to Class Amphibia to Order Caudata.

Ice cube trays! *smacks head* Of course! Why are these things so simple and yet I never think of them?

Well, what did the lobby look like? Was the receptionist polite but distant or warm and friendly? What did the interview room look like? What were the other applicants like? These are all things that can give you an impression of the type of place you are interviewing to work at.

What's with these nicknames? Just call all the blue collar white women without college degrees "Roseanne" and be done with it.

For those discussing the relationship between tipping and minimum wage, the following is from the U.S. Department of Labor website:

We are blessed with a young child who sleeps in on the weekends also. And by sleeps in, I mean we all get up at 8:00 instead of at 6:00 or 6:30. The days of just barely making it to the campus dining hall before they stopped serving breakfast are long gone. :-(

Was listening to NPR this morning and they had interviewed Liz Wurtzel regarding this. Here is a quote: