Yeah, something about pulling yourself over a fence by your bootstraps, if I remember right.

Very much so. I've never worked food service or waited tables, but I've worked a lot of retail, and it's the same sort of thing. You're a servant or babysitter or whatever they need you to be at the moment, but never a real person with a real job.

Exactly! Because, of course, it's *also* their fault for having fallen on hard times, so they should take what they get and be grateful.

Funny thing...I just read something recently that says the expression "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" was originally meant to describe something impossible.

Damn, that's harsh.

Yeah, I decided I'm just not that much of a masochist.

That's what I got from it, too.

A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch!

If she hires Stanley Spadowski to do a kids' show, I might actually watch.

That's how they justify it, though. If they classify minimum-wage jobs as "stepping stones", then anyone who's in them for any length of time is CLEARLY a lazy uneducated loser who doesn't want to put in the work to improve his or her lot. That way, they get to absolve themselves of having any sympathy for exploited…

Did...did you find someone who cares about boners?

It's pure snobbery. They think they're smarter and better-educated and, well, just BETTER in general than low-wage workers, never mind that a lot of people in service jobs have or are working toward degrees (and it's required for most supervisory positions). Never mind, also, that education doesn't measure the value…

Not necessarily. Maybe what he meant was it's a secret room in which he can later stash his treasures.

That's certainly the way I read it! I would looooove something like this. I'd fill it with squishy pillows and blankets and it would be my reading nest.

Actually, with the dimensions of the room, I think it works really well while he's still small.

You're probably right.

I've been reading about this, too. What an awful story :(

Playtex expands differently than other brands, blossoming out evenly instead of mostly expanding in two directions like Tampax, et al. So they end up fitting better for a lot of people (myself included).

That's how it was for me, too. Thank GOD for birth control. I wish I'd gone on it sooner.

Yes. Like, say, people working minimum wage. Or people like me, who are currently unemployed but still have a working (for some values of the word working") uterus.

That's how it was for me before I started on birth control. I went through both pads *and* tampons at a pretty high rate.