And the other way around, too! My mother briefed each of her sex partners before getting busy that in the event of accidental pregnancy, she would not be having an abortion. My dad had some selective hearing and did not hear it when she said it... :)

I am the poster child for this! I was an accidental pregnancy, that my father urged my mother to terminate, she said nope, had me and 29 years later here I am! My father, or biological unit, was not interested in having another child (he'd already left his 7-year-old and ex-wife behind in another country—he's a gem!),…

We need an OKC support group, where we can trade war stories. My all-time favorite message was: "You are definitely cute enough. What's with all the feminism?"

Ugh, that is how I feel on OKC. Emotionally exhausted and beaten down after just a few days on there. But I keep going back, because it's free and I didn't find anything better on Match or eHarmony. OKC is a weird place, in that it has bottom barrel creeps... but also some hidden gems (especially nerdy hidden gems). A…

You said everything I wanted to say, but better! People in the comments are taking this piece at face value, which makes me Sad. Being judgey on someone for *not* having a lot of sex (or none at all) = just as bad as slut shaming. Our value as people is not measured in how much/little/kind of sex we have! How about we…

You are kidding, right? If anything, Americans see more violence than the average person and our culture celebrates gore. If it were a nude photo, maybe, but come on. I don't want to see dead animals scrolling a comments section. That's not an American sentiment, just a bog-standard one.

Um, I can deal and all, but a LOT of people do not want to scroll comments and see a dead bird. Might want to remove that photo. (I'm a kitty owner that has dealt with dead "presents" but, egads, that photo!)

Exactly! If anything, the Pollyanna attitude may lead to more heartbreak in the long-run, as you're not gradually over time learning to deal with/accept a potential reality. I sincerely hope it happens for me, but if it doesn't, I need a longgggg time to vent and process and deal (seriously, my family has multiple…

Seconded. You expressed it better than I could. Reality check is that some of us DO struggle more than others to find partners, and some people end up alone. Sometimes we need to just whine about the terrifying prospect of being alone forever (it happens! My aunt has literally been alone her whole life! It's…

I was all set to disagree based on the headline, but then I read the letter and, once again, Sara's advice is spot on. Friends trying to match-make against your will: EVIL EVIL EVIL. My boss tries to do this with these awkward old guys at work and I HATE IT. But, man, I wish my friends would try and match-make for me…

Imagining a real person's life/potential futures is RPF :P (real person fiction) If you write a fic about it, at least :)

Clever, but did it bug anyone else that it was the women giving their man the gift of bacon? I'd love to see some ladies getting down with the bacon. Cause, you know, it's totally cool for women to eat.

Aside from the activity part (wish I'd done sports!), my experience echoes yours. I was 124 lbs when I was 8, but no one gave a hoot that I'd already hit puberty and was taller than everyone else. I was fat, put on diets, etc. etc. I too was 180-ish at 5'10" by high school, but all I ever heard—and completely…

I think it has to be two major things: regulation of the way (junk) food is advertised to children and awareness campaigns targeted to ADULTS about nutrition. If you haven't seen the documentary Consuming Kids, I highly recommend it (and you can stream it free on YouTube). I believe if we enforced tighter regulations…

Maybe the writer has older grandparents? Personally, I am 29 with a 65-year-old mother and either deceased or 90-something grandparents (only have one left). So for me, relatively young person, my grandparents did live through WWII, and while maybe they can't figure out computers, they're fine on analog voicemail (not…

You are convinced that the "product" is inherently inferior; therefore, you are not worth arguing with.

I shouldn't wade into this because you are obtuse and refuse to listen, but I can't help it: are you seriously basing your opinion of YA on The Hunger Games and The Vampire Diaries? TVD are some of the WORST YA novels, and in fact were written in the early 90s, before YA was even a genre. That is like saying "The…

It is such a good book! Hopefully I haven't butchered any facts; it's been a while since I read it. There's a lot to it — the sections on holding third world countries hostage for want of life-saving drugs made me want to stab things — but all the information is fascinating.

Yes. When it comes to life-saving drugs are concerned, you cannot manufacture/sell/distribute patented drugs/tests or even do RESEARCH on patented genes without paying exorbitant fees to the patent holder. If you try to circumvent them, you get sued. There are instances in some countries where independent groups say…

I highly recommend the book Deadly Monopolies by Harriet A. Washington (sorry; comments won't let me link). It's all about life patents and how the system has gotten dangerously out of control. It talks about Myriad a lot, in fact. My other favorite (ie: makes me hate people) story is about the company that owns the…