I've been meaning to choose and make one of these. I'm thinking if I start one after Christmas, I'll have a holiday-like pick-me-up in utterly dreary late January. http://www.marthastewart.com/268180/fruitcakes

They are dyed, I guess so that there will be red and green colors. But they taste disgusting, and just look too weird. Like, just make the fruitcake with gummi bears if that's the color you're going for. Blech.

The only fruitcakes I've ever seen are those really narrow, cellophane-wrapped ones with the horrendous red and green cherries and not even any booze in them. Eventually, I'm going to attempt one of Martha Stewart's, which look fucking badass and delicious, because I know she will never steer me wrong about Christmas…

That, and he's not just some random over-privileged guy. He's the mayor of a city where a significant proportion of the population survives this way. There really isn't a better way for a law-maker to grasp the realities and logistics of living on a SNAP budget. I think this is an important way for Booker to…

Most people end up dating someone terrible for some period of time in their lives. Nice men date terrible women sometimes. Nice women date terrible men sometimes. Most of those types of relationships occur when one or both parts of the couple are young and immature. Some younger women date jerks when they know…

THIS. A lot of Nice Guys create self-fulfilling prophecies because they'll manage to "get" at least one terribly insecure, immature, toxic woman in their time, and eventually use her as an example that proves that all women are gold-digging sluts who use and confuse all men (because it couldn't just be their poor…

I'll just direct you to the second paragraph, which we all read, absorbed, and then proceeded to discuss our opinions of the capital-N-G Nice Guys, which explicitly does not include all guys who are nice, and toward whom the article and subsequent comments are directed. Read before ranting, please.

I just assume that infrequent kitchen cleaning and pet ownership will keep my guts sufficiently populated with a wide enough variety of microbes that both digestion and immune function will keep on truckin', possibility of catastrophic illnesses and treatments thereof notwithstanding. I am at a loss as to how to…

...the mountain-top-mining runoff, escaped "produced" water from hydraulic fracturing, the methane released into streams via mining and fracking, the untreated sewage from your 80%-over-capacity waste water treatment facility or the neighboring subdivision just outside the city limits that has all septic tanks with…

"Where are you from?" because if you're not white, you couldn't possibly be *from* the U.S.! Oy.

A white person asking a person of another race about their "nationality" says, "You're not American," which is a dangerous attitude (see: WWII, U.S. citizens of Japanese background detained in internment camps). Sometimes people ask me questions about the various European countries my ancestors lived in, but they…

Don't give me too much credit. I know because I lived it, and at least when I was 15/16, I was absolutely that kind of Nice Guy girl. "He doesn't even know how happy he would be with me! Let me ruminate on how shallow and lame she is! Waaaaah!" Total hater. And thinking about it makes me facepalm. If I'd only…

Oh, ugh. Most of my reading/research has centered on low-income children in rural/mostly-rural areas because of a particular project. But knowing what I now know about both the housing supply and the ubiquitous presence of lead in housing (STILL! Because we won't write laws that say you absolutely must remove the…

Awareness is where it's at! And everyone had some sort of immature asshole phase, often fueled by good intentions and privilege-blindness. (See also: Smiling white girl asking a U.S. citizen of another race—usually Asian—"What's your nationality?" because someone told them it was an inoffensive way to ask about…

Ugh, and he invariably doesn't stretch or do any sort of work on his range of motion, or even any cardio, yet takes 2+ hours at the gym to sit on his ass for ten minutes between sets and *gossip with the other bros. Oh, and doesn't wipe down machines or mats after he's used them.

The Taylor Swift reference is a stroke of brilliance. Yes, Taylor, it's because of your sneakers instead of high heels that he doesn't notice you. It has nothing to do with your obviously stalky non-relationship, and sitting in your room "listening to music she doesn't like," because you took the time to find out…

I think they are there in support of LZ/John Paul Jones. They were always very open about the fact that they wrote songs ("Barracuda," for example) with Led Zeppelin in mind. And they have a live album on which they are accompanied in part by John Paul Jones. I love it—I would also love it if they would all jam…

Actually, lead in housing is a pretty serious shit sandwich for low-income families. For one, federal laws requiring lead-safe housing ONLY apply to subsidized housing, of which there are far too few units in which to house all the people who would otherwise qualify. For two, only a handful of states require…

It is an unfortunately common occurrence these days, and I normally try to take that into account when I post so that I don't get misread. I have also definitely been way harsh on people who weren't clear and/or failed at sarcasm because I mistook them for one of the bone-headed "Devil's Advocate" types that have…

WORD. Georgia's agri-business has been forced to move out of high-price crops like blueberries and cucumbers, which have to be hand-harvested, to more machine-harvested crops since their law was passed. …