John Amos has always reminded me of my brother, always, so much so that I feel like I’m looking at the same person and have since I was little (my brother is way older). My brother is white but I’ve always been pretty much *shrug* about it.

It’s called Mothers and Daughters. A friend was a co-producer and I’m really cheering for her, but sweet god almighty.

I just watched one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen (a new one) and she’s in it. She’s virtually unwatchable, her face is so disturbing. It makes me sad for her.

No no no, you don’t ever get to grow or change. I don’t know where you get these notions.

Thank god I’m a muggle.

I think the answer -- to a lesser extent than the obvious -- is in the question. Many people are obsessed with it because they believe rich, white people got away with murder AGAIN, and not just any murder, but that of their own 6-year-old child. The fact that there was the squicky pageant angle only adds to the anger.

You must have the patience of a saint.

As well you should have been!

Okay: your husband had an affair and it produced a child? And his mother has the mistress and the child live with her?!? Are you still married to him? Doesn’t it mean you and he and YOUR child can’t ever go to her house? I have so many questions.

Wow, not even be fully in your body. I should try that.

Oh man. It sounds like the children were just put out the door and left to fend for themselves, and that the dogs were allowed to die from dehydration??

Yes. That’s why you don’t turn your back on a mountain lion. As long as you’re making eye contact, they won’t attack. There’s an incredible essay in this book, in which the author is stalked by one for hours, and he just keeps facing it. SO GOOD. https://www.amazon.com/Animal-Dialogues-Uncommon-Encounters-Wild/dp/03160…

As opposed to, say, mountain lions, who have nerve endings in their teeth. They bite directly on the vertebrae at the brain stem, disconnecting it. That seems like a reasonable way to kill, a sentence I have never before typed.

I’m sure you’re right. It just seems so MEAN.

I think the way chimps go for the face and the genitals is a form of torture.

I did read it. The experience was like worrying an aching tooth. And I also watched Grizzly Man! As opposed to sharks, grizzlies just hanging out and doing their thing don’t scare me, because they’re mammals and on dry land. Anything underwater scares me ipso facto, if I may. That photo of the baboon gets your point…

We are the same. Esquire put out a book years ago, a collection of essays the magazine had run called What It Feels Like, and one of them was what it feels like to be attacked by a grizzly. I’ll never forget it, ever. I also have a deep and abiding terror of hyenas, but that’s a different thread.

I believe you.

Exactly the same. I can’t believe people get in there. It’s not just filled with huge creatures coming up from the blackness to eat me, it’s a huge fish toilet and it smells like a dumpster behind a particular Chinese restaurant here in town. I know ONE way I’m not going to die.

I say with complete sincerity that I find it delightful you have standards. I have few of my own, but admire those who do.